Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sunday Blessings - Alex O'Loughlin

With the premiere of Three Rivers tonight on CBS, today's edition of Sunday Blessings is devoted to its star, Alex O'Loughlin. To be honest I'm most likely not going to watch the program, since I have my usual Sunday night routine of Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters and Mad Men. Plus, I have general fatigue over hospital dramas - I quit watching Grey's Anatomy midway through last season. I am tempted to watch Three Rivers, as it's set in Pittsburgh, a place dear to my heart since I attended college there, though I doubt it's actually filmed in the city. The hotness factor of O'Loughlin is also tempting me to watch the show. It's the eyes that draw me in. You do have to give props to CBS for recognizing they have a potential star in the actor, even after cancelling his first series, the vampire drama Moonlight. The network execs must be kicking themselves, having aired it right before the current love of all things vampire broke. O'Laughlin gained a huge cult following from Moonlight, and CBS was smart enough to keep him on their network, giving him a guest spot last season on the god-awful Criminal Minds, followed by a staring role on Three Rivers. Hopefully it works out better for actor.





Saturday, October 3, 2009

October Oscar Prediction

Since last month's predictions, The Last Station finally found a distributor, Inglourious Basterds did big at the box office, A Single Man drew high praise for Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, Bright Star opened to less than the rapturous applause it needed, people began talking about Up in the Air and Precious confirmed itself as the one to watch, thanks to a win at Toronto. With those occurences, here's how I think the Oscar nominations may be heading:

Picture:
Amelia
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglouious Basterds
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
Nine
Precious
Up
Up in the Air


Director:
Lee Daniels -
Precious
Clint Eastwood -
Invictus
Peter Jackson -
The Lovely Bones
Rob Marshall -
Nine
Jason Reitman -
Up in the Air

Actor:
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Daniel Day-Lewis -
Nine
Colin Firth -
A Single Man
Morgan Freeman -
Invictus
Christopher Plummer -
The Last Station

Actress:
Helen Mirren -
The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep -
Julie & Julia
Hilary Swank -
Amelia

Supporting Actor:
Matt Damon -
Invictus
Richard Kind - A Serious Man
Alfred Molina - An Education
Stanley Tucci -
The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz -
Inglourious Basterds

Supporting Actress:
Marion Cotillard - Nine
Judi Dench -
Nine
Vera Farmiga -
Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious
Julianne Moore -
A Single Man

Adapted Screenplay:
An Education
Invictus
The Lovely Bone
Precious
Up in the Air


Original Screenplay:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
The Tree of Life
Up

Cinematography:
Amelia
Bright Star
The Lovely Bones
Nine
The Tree of Life


Editing:
The Hurt Locker
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
Nine
Precious


Art Direction:
Amelia
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Tree of Life


Costume Design:
Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria


Make Up:
District 9
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Star Trek


Original Score:
Amelia
Brothers
Public Enemies
The Tree of Life
Up


Sound Mixing:
Avatar
A Christmas Carol
Nine
Star Trek
Up


Sound Editing:
Avatar
A Christmas Carol
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen


Visual Effects:
2012
Avatar
Star Trek


Animated Feature:
Coraline
Ponyo
Up

Thursday, October 1, 2009

TV Casting News - Cheyenne, LeBlanc, and Franco?

In the last few days, a trio of casting announcements were made concerning three attractive actors. The best of the batch is stage/screen hottie Cheyenne Jackson joining 30 Rock, either as a regular or semi-regular cast member. The news was reported on E! Online but hasn't yet been confirmed by NBC. He would make a great addition to the series, and hopefully indicates a duet between him Jane Krakowski.

Meanwhile, over on Showtime former Friends star Matt LeBlanc is set to play himself in a comedy series entitled Episodes. (story at Gold Derby) The show will be about "the misadventures of an English couple whose urbane Britcom is dumbed down for American audiences with the casting of LeBlanc." It's an interesting idea for a comedy, and LeBlanc can be a gifted comedic actor as evidenced by the latter seasons of Friends. His talents were definitly wasted on the Joey spin-off, as were Drea De Matteo's and Jennifer Coolidge's. With Episodes being on Showtime, let's hope there's some Matt LeBlanc nudity.

In the weirdest casting news, screen actor James Franco is set to appear on the daytime soap General Hospital, in a multiple episode storyline beginning in November. (Story at BuzzSugar) Umm? What? It's such a weird acting decision on Franco's part, particularly coming off the career highs he had last year with Milk and Pineapple Express. Apparently he came up with the idea himself and approached the producers of the show. Weird. That's all I can say.