John Travolta can't read
No explanation needed. Except notice the massive, unattractive wig he's sporting. And I THINK he says "Adele Dazeem" although it's hard to tell considering he also said it in this weird faux-Middle Eastern accent.
Comparing Nutcrackers Across the Pond
Battle of the Nutcrackers: U.S. vs. England This December season I had my usual annual ritual of putting aside money for two extremely crucial things -- a Christmas bonus for my building super and money on Nutcracker tickets. NYCB's Nutcracker is my annual Christmas binge -- every year I check out some new dancers, and see my old favorites. This year I saw four different SPF/Cavalier pairings. Truth be told, only one was the kind of transcendent, joyful complete performance that made me leave the theater on a high. The others all had some major flaws. But still, for the joy it brings me year after year, Balanchine's Nutcracker is unrivaled. Balanchine's classic version However this year I also decided to sample a Nutcracker cinema relay from across the pond -- Sir Peter Wright's Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet. The Wright Nutcracker this year starred Gary Avis as Drosselmeyer, Anne Rose O'Sullivan and Marcellino Sambé as Clara a...
Yeah, John Travolta seemed to be stoned on smug, and couldn’t even manage to introduce someone properly, and called Idina Menzel “Adele Nazeem”. That was probably the name of a clam he knew in a past life.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a fan of the Academy Awards. Like many of us, I just like to gawp and snipe at overprivileged rich people, so it was just occasionally entertaining noise to catch my attention in between papers. Here are the things that made me bother to look up.
Ellen Degeneres was generally amiable and pleasant, but the stunt where she ordered out for pizza and delivered it to obscenely wealthy, pretty people in clothes that may have cost more than some people make in a year? That was…disturbing and klunky. It wasn’t Macfarlane-awful, but just vaguely icky.
Gravity won best director. No, that was a terrible movie!! The star was Orbital Mechanics, but Orbital Mechanics was falling-down drunk every day on the set, and Orbie kept sticking his face in front of the camera, even in scenes where he shouldn’t have been, and Cuarón just let him get away with it.
The award for the most embarrassingly stupid acceptance speech goes to Matthew McConaughey, who, in accepting an award for the role of a guy dying of AIDS, rambled on slickly and at length in praise of a god. I was already peeved — I was hoping Bruce Dern would win — so it did not console me that someone deserving had won it anyway.
Cate Blanchett thanked Woody Allen.
Lupita Nyong’o gave the best speech of the evening. She won for a harrowing role, and it was well-deserved.
12 Years a Slave won best picture. For once, I could agree with the Academy’s choice in this category — that was a powerful movie.
Holy crap, the show ended on time?
Wow thanks for your comments! And poor Leo ... robbed again.
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