Whoops! You know those Kim Jong-il “ashes” that Sacha Baron Cohen — in character as the Supreme Leader of Wadiya — spilled all over Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet at the Oscars? Well, it turns out that they were originally meant for George Clooney…and that the provocateur is contrite over the incident.
Last weekend, Baron Cohen made a surprise cameo on Saturday Night Live and used the opportunity to apologize to Seacrest, who was also on the set. “I didn’t realize that ‘The Dictator’ was doing a walk on cameo [on SNL]!” Seacrest said, according to Perez Hilton. “He comes off stage and comes over to me. He breaks character and says, ‘Sorry about the Oscars. It wasn’t personal.’”
Joan Rivers is known primarily for two things: her addiction to plastic surgery and her predilection for calling it like she sees it — on the red carpet and off. She’s in the news most recently for the latter, only in this instance she issued her commentary with even less tact than usual.
Rivers, like the rest of us, did not miss Angelina Jolie’s revealing display of leg on her way into the Academy Awards ceremony this past Sunday. That exposed appendage is now so famous that it has several of its own Twitter accounts. The first of them (with 39,410 followers) opened just a mere few minutes after we all got a glimpse of gam.
UPDATE: The rings say it all—Natalie tied the knot.
Natalie Portman and Benjamin MIllepied are officially married, Us Magazine reported.
The rings that actress Natalie Portman and her fiancé Benjamin Millepied were wearing at the Academy Awards this past Sunday could very well have signaled that they’ve made it official. But Portman’s reps wouldn’t confirm one way or another to the New York Daily News, so the Shmooze doesn’t know what to think.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy publicly congratulated actor Jean Dujardin and director Michel Hazanavicius on winning the Oscars for best actor and best director, respectively. The president proudly stated that these awards, along with three others (including best picture) for “The Artist” “demonstrate the exceptional vitality of our cinema and the success of our policy of supporting the excellence of this great French industry.”
The Jewish community in France is likely doubly excited about Hazanavicius’s win, as he is the son and grandson of French Jews who survived the German occupation of France by hiding in the country’s hillsides, according to The Algemeiner. The director’s family is originally Lithuanian, with his grandparents having settled in France in the 1920s.
At an Academy Awards viewing party sponsored by the Israeli Consulate together with the Israeli Leadership Council at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, the moment when the Iranian film “A Separation” won the Oscar was greeted by a heartfelt moan. “Footnote,” the comic drama directed by Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar about a pair of father-and-son Talmudic scholars, had failed to snag the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in Israel’s 10th Academy Award nomination in the category.
But not everybody took the loss as hard.
“It doesn’t matter as long as he can create that’s all that I care about,” Tipi Cedar, mother of the 44 year old Orthodox filmmaker, told the Forward. “He’s a mensch.”
Oscar night has come and gone, and now the real fun begins. With the glitzy spectacle fresh in our minds, this is the time to dissect, analyze, and discuss. Best and worst dressed? Start with our red-carpet photo slideshow. Which victories were well deserved? Who should’ve won but went home empty handed? Check out our list of historic wins to see how this year’s nominees measure up against the greatest Oscar winners of all time.
Best speech? Worst joke? Sweetest red-carpet couple? Read on to see how this year’s crop of Jewish nominees, presenters and guests — from Steven Spielberg to Natalie Portman to Sacha Baron Cohen — fared at the 84th Annual Academy Awards.
Israeli-born producer Avi Lerner can’t compare the film “Footnote” to the blockbusters that he produces. “It’s a different movie,” he said of the Israeli film, which is nominated for an Academy Award in Best Foreign Language Film category. Lerner, who has produced big-budget action movies like “The Expendables” and low-budget exploitation flicks like “Crocodile 2: Death Swamp,” was among the 50 guests gathered for a pre-Oscar party for “Footnote” at a private home in Beverly Hills Thursday night.
The comic drama, about a pair of father-and-son Talmudic scholars, snagged Israel its 10th Academy Award nomination in the category and, Lerner hopes, the nation’s first win when Oscars are handed out Sunday night.
Sponsored by the Israeli Consulate and L.A.’s upcoming 26th Israel Film Festival, the festivities were hosted by Shanit Schwartz and her husband, Sam, a talent agent whose stable boasts many of film and TV’s top musical composers. Guests entering the Schwartz’s art-filled villa emerged onto a hilltop with sunset views toward the distant Channel Islands and, just across the way, the $30 million driveway (yes, driveway) that leads to the home of Sam and Shanit’s neighbor, Microsoft mogul Paul Allen.
Nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards, announced this morning, were good for the Jews.
Shoo-ins Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) got Best Actress and Actor nods, respectively. James Franco, whose mother is Jewish, also scored a Best Actor nod for his role in “127 Hours.”
“Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky earned a Best Director nomination, along with “True Grit” helmers Joel and Ethan Coen. “The Fighter” director David O. Russell, son of a Jewish father and Italian-American mother, also got a Best Director nomination.
Jews also ruled the screenwriting categories. Debra Granik scored a nod in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for the brutal “Winter’s Bone,” while Hollywood vet Aaron Sorkin earned his for Facebook docudrama “The Social Network,” as did fellow A-lister Scott Silver for scrappy Boston epic “The Fighter.” In the same category, the Coen Brothers won the Academy’s attention for their highly acclaimed adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel “True Grit.” British improv-drama icon Mike Leigh was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category for “Another Year,” his sobering look at happiness — and the lack thereof — among the British chattering classes. And British-born, Long Island-raised David Seidler got his first Oscar nomination — in the Original Screenplay slot — for “The King’s Speech”.
Jews don’t run Hollywood, but it turns out an Israeli controls the Golden Globes — much to the dissatisfaction of some inside the entertainment industry.
Judith Solomon, a writer for Israeli magazine Women’s World, has earned a long list of Hollywood enemies as the person responsible for seating at the pre-Oscars award ceremony.
A new profile reports that Solomon caused a “mini world war” last year when she decreed that agents and managers couldn’t sit in “the pit,” the high-visibility area closest to the Golden Globes stage.
Israel received a star-powered bump last night when Hollywood’s finest came out in support at a glittery, star-studded gala. The event, “From Vision to Reality,” took place at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, and was hosted by the Citizens’ Empowerment Center in Israel. Notable guests included Jon Voight, Israeli-American producer Avi Arad and Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad. Notable no shows included Toby McGuire (probably busy spidey-ing around town), Natalie Portman (visiting Sukkah City?) and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tickets cost $1000 each and the money was donated to educational projects assisting Israel’s youth. Voight presented Arad with a lifetime achievement award and, according to YNet, said that anyone who goes against Israel “is playing a dangerous game.” I guess he would know.
The Grammy’s, the Nobel, the Oscar’s, the McArthur…The Genesis Prize? Soon a new award may be added to the list of the world’s most prestigious (and profitable) accolades.
Natan Sharansky, the current Jewish Agency chairman, has supposedly proposed something called “The Genesis Prize,” a $1 Million award for Jewish contributions to humanity in areas including science, art, medicine and other areas, according to an article posted yesterday on Ynet.
Since everything in Israel ultimately boils down to politics, it was only a matter of time before “Ajami,” the Israeli movie nominated for an Oscar, would be thrust into the fray. And what a better time to do so than hours before the film’s creators walk down the red carpet, waiting for the envelope to be opened.
It was the film’s co-director, Scandar Copti, who ignited the debate. Speaking to reporters after attending a symposium with other directors of movies nominated in the foreign-language film category, Copti made a point of distancing himself from the state of Israel.
“I’m not here representing Israel,” he said. “I’m an Israeli citizen, but I cannot represent a state that doesn’t represent me,” Copti, an Arab Israel from Jaffa said.
The actors of the Oscar-nominated Israeli film, “Ajami” are trying to soak up as much glamour as they can in America’s movie capital. It’s not only their first time in Hollywood; it’s their first time in America.
“Ajami” cast members are not professional actors. Most are Arab residents of Ajami — a violence-stricken neighborhood of Jaffa, where the film is set — and all are ordinary Israelis who thought it could be interesting to join this unusual movie project. They were handpicked by the film’s writers and directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani.
Now, seven years after the idea of “Ajami” began to take shape, these amateur actors are starting to feel the glare of stardom. In Israel, they’ve already become local celebrities and their visit to Hollywood made this even clearer — with cameras and reporters capturing their every move.
It’s a tricky balancing act for the actors, who left their day jobs in Jaffa, and made the trip to Los Angeles. Talking to reporters they struggled between natural enthusiasm and a need to maintain their cool, and not to let the glory get to their heads.
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