A Double Dose of Soderbergh: Best Director, 2000

Only thrice has one person taken two slots for Best Director. Clarence Brown did it at the 3rd Academy Awards, Michael Curtiz did it at the 11th Academy Awards, and Steven Soderbergh did it at the 73rd Academy Awards.

One of the big stories of the season was Soderbergh's double whammy of Erin Brockovich, proving to be more than "just" a Julia Roberts vehicle, and Traffic, the all-star drug trade epic proving to be just as entertaining as it was Important. But despite being the critics' pick, it was believed he would split his own vote and go home empty-handed. Besides, there were two other more likely would-be winners. One was Ridley Scott, who helmed the movie that, after all, many believed would win, Gladiator. The other was Ang Lee, Taiwanese director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, who was winning the battle against foreign language bias: the Golden Globes, the British Academy, and even the Directors Guild of America named him the Best of the Year. He had the momentum, the industry vote. Rounding out the five was Billy Elliot's Stephen Daldry, this year's representative of Audience-Friendly British Entertainment.

In the end was the beginning. That is to say, the critics awards got it right:

Had I a ballot, here's how I would rank them:

Almost Kate's: Best Supporting Actress, 2000

Roger Ebert said that "everybody from the Vegas oddsmakers to the espresso jockey at Starbucks can tell you that Gladiator, Russell Crowe, Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Kate Hudson are at the head of the pack." While he went against that "common wisdom" in some of his final predictions, he held to the impression that "the overwhelming favorite is Kate Hudson." It is a common refrain you read when researching this year: Hudson is the heart of Almost Famous, she glows, she's charming, she's Goldie Hawn's daughter, and wouldn't it be neat if they both won in the same category 31 years apart? 

She was one of four names that kept showing up everywhere: her Almost Famous co-star, who won prizes for both that film and her turn in Wonder Boys; Judi Dench, thought to be the benificiary of Miramax's Chocolat campaign, making it the third of five consecutive Weinstein-backed nominations for the Dame; and Julie Walters, whose chain-smoking ballet mistress in Billy Elliot was an audience favorite. All were nominated alongside Hudson. None were thought to stand a chance, even though, while she was also nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and for Best Lead Actress at the British Academy Awards, the only major "precursor" she won was the Golden Globes. 

But hey, influence and bellwethers change over the years - remember, it used to be "common wisdom" to go with the New York Critics' pick...though that did turn out to be true this year. Alongside the aforementioned quartet was Pollock's Marcia Gay Harden, a name and performance little bandied about after her NYFCC win at the beginning of December. Her "fifth slot" was up for grabs among a number of contenders: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Zhang Ziyi (BAFTA nominee, Indie Spirits winner, LAFCA runner-up), Traffic's Catherine Zeta-Jones (Golden Globe nominee), Quills' Kate Winslet (SAG nominee), maybe even longer shots like Small Time Crooks' Elaine May (winner at the National Society of Film Critics, I'm guessing because they had little opportunity to award her over the years) or Chuck & Buck's Lupe Ontiveros (National Board of Review winner!, Indie Spirits nominee). But the fifth spot was Harden's, with many assuming the nomination was the award for putting in great work in a little-seen film. What a twist - what a thrill:

Had I a ballot, this is how I'd rank them:

No Scares This Halloween: October 2000

October is always one of the happiest times of the year. Even in Florida, one felt the change of seasons, maybe not in weather, but in decor! Pumpkins and witches, bats and ghosts, cobwebs and skulls at every house, on every classroom door, at every supermarket; horror marathons, all month long, on the TV; spooky specials, whether they be another "Treehouse of Horror" from The Simpsons or Cartoon Network's annual rerun of The Halloween Tree (though I think this was eventually taken over as a tradition by ABC Family, later Freeform). Ah, Halloween: that special time of year!

My family adores Halloween, none more so than my father, who loved helping us execute costumes and makeup from scratch. In high school, I spent not a penny when transforming into Raoul Duke - Dad loaned me sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, and a visor, then soldered a cigarette holder with cigarette at his garage workbench. Legendary is the time we came back from trick-or-treating with Mom to find Dad as a redneck zombie: face painted completely white, red smearing at his lips and neck, a noose around his neck his hiking flannels and hat completing the effect. Oh, yes, this was a big deal holiday for us.

The problem is, I cannot remember which costume I wore this Halloween. I have perfect recall of the Halloweens of Kindergarten through third grade and the ones of high school, but 4th-8th I can only remember four costumes, and I have no idea when I did each one. I don't think I even have pictures. The best I can figure is, I know for a fact I saw The Emperor's New Groove with my friend Tony in December, and I'm pretty sure the two of us went trick-or-treating together twice in this period, and I was The Phantom of the Opera one time and Charlie Chaplin the other, so I must have been one of those. Unless, of course, this was a year when Halloween fell during rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz, in which I played the Scarecrow, and the reason I can't remember the costume is that I was already in costume, while singing and dancing, though October would have been too early for a dress rehearsal. 

Anyway, the movies of October were not so spooky.

I Love TONY Night

I am so thrilled that the three leads who play the title role in Billy Elliot: The Musical just won Leading Actor in a Musical. Amazing. How do you top this?

Stephen Daldry has already won Best Director. I am in full support for its winning The Big One. DO IT!