Awards Round-Up: Warner Bros. Doesn't Care Which DiCaprio You Vote For
· Oscar rules might not be able to literally pit Leo vs. Leo like at the Globes, but that doesn't mean he can't face off against himself in the trades: Warner Bros. has been using a picture of the actor in their The Departed FYC ads extremely similar to the one they're using in their Blood Diamond Best Actor campaign. Will the confusion benefit everyone, or will Academy members, brainwashed by repetitive Leo conditioning, award DiCaprio every available Oscar, including Animated Short, Sound Design, and Best Picture? [The Carpetbagger]
· But how did it play in Leeds and Humberside? U.K.'s regional film journalists name Pan's Labyrinth their film of the year, with Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker picking up the top acting awards, and Abigail Breslin being named "newcomer of the year." [Variety]
· Everyone involved in the Oscars telecast showed up for the annual production meeting powwow, including 16-year gag-writing vet Bruce Vilanch, who bragged that he can bang out an entire show's worth of one-liners in a night, simply by transcribing the top two drawers of his novelty T-shirt collection. [AP]
· The Black Reel Awards awarded Spike Lee, their Scorsese, best director for Inside Man after 12 fruitless nominations, but Dreamgirls was the night's big winner. [Black Reel Awards]
· The LAT editorial page calls for the abolishment of the Foreign Language Oscar, a 50-year-old category "out of step with the multinational nature of filmmaking today," but stops short of also demanding a Best Transgendered Actoress category for performers who transgress old-fashioned notions about the rigid nature of naturally assigned sex-parts. [LAT]