BEST ART DIRECTION
The Nominees Are:
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- King Kong
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Pride & Prejudice
Erin’s Pick: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Marisa’s Pick:
Mandy’s Pick: Memoirs of a Geisha
Cheri’s Pick: Memoirs of a Geisha
Anushka’s Pick: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Winner Last Year Was: The Aviator
I’d like to go for Memoirs of a Geisha, but since this is the only category Harry Potter is nominated in, I’ll go for that.
Speaking of Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire comes out on DVD March 7th. I also have some news regarding the Order of the Phoenix movie, which is currently shooting. First off, Imelda Staunton has been cast as Professor Umbridge (apparently Ms. Hackathorn, my high school English teacher, was not available). She was the lead in Vera Drake, but most people would best know her as the nurse in Shakespeare in Love. Second, there seems to be something weird going on with the casting of Gary Oldman, who played Sirius Black in Prisoner of Azkaban (and then never showed up in Goblet of Fire, even though the character has a pretty large part in the book). He’s not been officially cast, and his agent says Warner Brothers still hasn’t talked to him about it yet. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers says they have. All I’ll say is that they kinda need to have Sirius Black in this movie, because…well…let’s just say he’s too much of a catalyst, and the storyline really can’t progress without him.
Before I get to Olympics, I’d like to share a little pet peeve of mine: the tendency of the media to refer to teenagers (especially teenage female figure skaters, gymnasts, and TV characters) as “precocious.” I hate that word. Teenagers are NOT precocious. An 8-year-old who says something so intelligent for her (rarely his) age that it’s funny is precocious. Calling a teenager “precocious” is condescending, and they’ve done this for every American female figure skater under 17 since Michelle Kwan first burst onto the scene in 1994. Since then, they’ve done it to Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski (though I personally think Tara Lipinski is an arrogant brat, but that’s another story), Sasha Cohen (briefly), and Sarah Hughes. I thought they finally stopped doing it this year, but then I was watching something about Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, and there was that word again: “precocious.” Can’t they just say that they’re intelligent, or is that not “cute” enough?
Okay, time for Olympics report:
Freestyle Aerials: Jaret Peterson, the lone American to make it to the finals in men’s or women’s, did his “hurricane” move, but the judges didn’t seem to like it. I missed what it was that they didn’t like about it. I saw him do the jump, then I looked away for a minute, and when I looked back up he was in seventh place and someone from China won. I almost can’t watch those jumps anymore, though, cuz every time I do I end up thinking about Emily Cook’s feet, and how that would hurt like hell.
Snowboarding: That Giant Slalom actually looks kind of interesting. I’ll have to watch a little more of it in Vancouver. There is one thing I don’t understand. The commentators kept saying that the “red” course was harder than the “blue” course because the amount of snow led to ruts being created in the red course, but they never offered an explanation as to why there were no ruts in the blue course.
Figure Skating: YAAAAAAAAY! Okay, that’s out of my system. I had been rooting for Shizuka Arakawa, but deep down I figured she probably wouldn’t win (kind of how I felt about Carly Patterson at the Athens Olympics before she won), but then she turned in a really beautiful performance, and won Japan’s first medal of these Games, the first figure skating gold medal for Japan, and the second overall (the other was Midori Ito’s silver medal in 1992, the year Kristi Yamaguchi won gold). Granted, it’s kinda sad because I think, all other performances being equal, a top-form Michelle Kwan could definitely have won the gold, but on the bright side, this is the first time since the ’92 Olympics (Kristi Yamaguchi) that I could re-watch the Figure Skating without feeling nauseous (You know, for it being my favorite Winter Olympics sport, it doesn’t often leave me satisfied, does it?). I also really liked the music Shizuka Arakawa used for her free skate: a medly from “Turandot,” which contains the only opera aria I actually like, “Nessun Dorma” (though I only like Pavarotti’s version). One thing I didn’t like was that NBC STILL wouldn’t shut up about Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya. I can just imagine some NBC executive saying “What?! The gold medalist in our most-hyped event is someone we DIDN’T profile endlessly?! Quick, guys, start talking about how much it’s gotta suck that Sasha Cohen lost.” Well, NBC, you should’ve listened to Scott Hamilton, who warned not to underestimate the Japanese. You even had an article about it on your website. I briefly turned on CBC to see if the Canadians were being a bit more balanced in their coverage. However, they were broadcasting a medal ceremony from last week (guys, you’re a little late). I actually half-expected them to still be stuck on Canada losing their Men’s Hockey game yesterday.
But let us leave that all behind us, and say congratulations to Shizuka Arakawa. There’ll be some fun stuff at the exhibitions tomorrow night (I actually get to watch them for once-Yay!).
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