The Pope has left the building! Actually, he hasn't left. He will continue to reside at the palace while his successor is chosen by the 115 cardinals, the majority of whom he appointed.
Can they fix the mess that is the Catholic Church? It looks doubtful, short term at least. With a tenure riddled by priest sex scandals, fewer priests and fewer followers, Benedict XVI does not leave behind a legacy to be admired. His successor has an uphill battle in overcoming these obstacles as well moving the Catholic Church into the 21st century. Simply creating a Twitter account will not make that happen.
Nor will it happen if it continues living in a time that does not exist. If the Catholic Church thinks it will thrive by resting its hopes on Caucasian straight men, it needs to think again. Women, LGBT, and other minorities are now a true force to be reckoned with in this day and age. While the Catholic Church faces problems that many other religious orders do (see Baptists), this is a time to really make Catholicism into a religion of the people.
It's not so far fetched. The basic tenants of the Catholic Church are solid. I'll even go along with transubstantiation which states one is actually eating the skin and blood of Christ when taking communion. But it has to stop acting like time has stood still.
Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But I'm just waiting for one mainstream religion to go down the path of enlightenment and actually follow the teachings of Christ rather than the words of men.
If this miracle were to happen with the Catholic Church, count me in on the first communion. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
The "Washington Post" has one of the most succinct articles written on where the Catholic Church is at during this transition.
The Oscars presented a tribute to the musicals, James Bond and Ben Affleck, the latter being the most honored snubbee in Academy history. This year's Oscars managed to entertain and (for the most part) not bore the audience during the entire four-hour running time.
There were flaws to be sure. Having the musicians play in another room (?) on a night honoring musicals led to sound issues for even the fantastic Adele. And while the Jaws music being used to play off winners with long speeches was inspired, all the Anne Hathaway haters wish it had been used for hers as well as for the "lesser" categories.
Also, in a night honoring musicals, it's amazing to think that only three were represented--Les Miserables, Dreamgirls and Chicago. At the very least, it would have made sense to do a musical montage with such greats as TheWizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge and even MammaMia.
And the James Bond tribute, which was hampered by not having the Bond actors show up due to various issues with the Bond family, would have been more rounded out by having Adele sing "Skyfall" right after Shirley Bassey sang "Goldfinger" just to keep it all in the OO7 realm.
And as per usual, the presenters were best when just presenting the awards without banter. The usually funny Melissa McCartney and Paul Rudd failed to land their witless lines. And I honestly have no clue what the cast of The Avengers were asked to do other than look good, which they did if you turned the TV on mute during their embarrassing award presentation.
But these are minor quibbles. Overall, the show was successful with a winning host (see my review of Mr. MacFarlane in another post) and a winning night.
Best Moments (apart from MacFarlane)
Shirley Bassey--Some singers just sing, but Bassey literally ripped into "Goldfinger" with such ferocity, I could see blood on her lips by the end. A great, over-the-top performance.
Anne Hathaway's final speech--The moment it ended, I breathed a dream of silent relief that we would not be subjected to her baby-voiced perkiness for a long while. I almost feel bad for hopping on the Hathaway-hater bandwagon, but if you can't fake sincerity, you probably shouldn't be working in Hollywood.
The Tribute to the Musicals--While Catherine Zeta Jones had a rough time of it, she looked great during the Chicago tribute. Jennifer Hudson, who I love, but won't sit through Smash for, dug into "I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" with the gusto only she and Jennifer Holliday can. And the Les Miz cast, including Russell Crowe, presented their movie with aplomb, with the beautiful Samantha Barks stealing the stage with her verse.
FLOTUS--First Lady Michelle Obama and Jack Nicholson present an award together. Legendary.
Adele--While her performance was hampered with sound issues, she sounded terrific. And when she won the award for best song, she reminded us why she is one of the most beloved entertainers in the world--she's just happy to be here.
Babs--Barbra Streisand took to the stage in a rare live performance to sing "The Way We Were" during the "In Memoriam" segment and reminded everyone that she is a star of the highest order, even when in recent years she has been languishing in movie duds like Meet the Fockers and The Guilt Trip.
Daniel Day-Lewis--Going in, everyone knew he would be charming and self-effacing during his acceptance speech, but who knew he was going to start doing comedy with perfect timing? Landing jokes about playing presenter Meryl Streep's Iron Lady, his urging Steven Spielberg not to make Lincoln a musical, and even poking fun at his method acting, Lewis presented a master class in giving a clever and for-the-ages acceptance speech.
Jennifer Lawrence--While I wait with bated breath for the backlash to begin (today's "Huffington Post" shows a picture of her possibly smoking weed--and so it begins), the actress charmed as usual. After falling up the stairs, she received a standing ovation to which she replied, "You all gave me a standing ovation because I fell and that is embarrassing, but thank you." And her behind the scenes press room interview was even funnier. The girl has an Oscar, two current movie franchises, and has directors clamoring to work with her. She has not yet begun to peak.
Argo--Ben Affleck's moving acceptance speech brought rainbow tears to my eyes. The best part was how he thanked his wife, Jennifer Garner-- "I want to thank my wife ... for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It is work, but it's the best kind of work. And there's no one I'd rather work with." Perfect ending to a solid night of entertainment and one of the best Oscar ceremonies in years (and yes, I'm pretending the last musical number with MacFarlane and Kristen Chenoweth did not happen).
Charming, funny and easy on the eyes, the Family Guy creator was probably the best host the Oscars could have hoped for in an awards season that took itself too seriously in which politics, both torture and Harvey Weinstein related, took center stage. And the mass criticism against his performance by everyone from police women in California to Hanoi Jane herself proved that maybe Hollywood has come to a point where it needs to check itself. It's entertainment, folks--not curing cancer.
MacFarlane's monologue was funny and biting, with Django Unchained being called the perfect Rihanna and Chris Brown date movie being one of his funniest jabs. His punchline about Jennifer Lawrence being glad that Meryl Streep wasn't nominated in her category, poking fun at the ridiculous controversy she stirred at the Golden Globes, was punctuated by a funny camera scan to the actress who laughed and put her head in her hands.
While I winced at William Shatner (at this point, who doesn't when Mr. Priceline comes on the screen), it led to some throwaway funny bits like "I Saw Your Boobs," in which MacFarlane sings a Mr. Skin song about actresses baring their bosoms in various roles. Of course, everyone, even the normally sound-minded "Huffington Post," decried the song as sexist. It was funny. Sure, he mentioned a couple of women in rape roles, but those same women picked up Oscars. So is it worse to pick up a statue for playing a rape victim or sing a song about it? It's acting. This just in--Jodie Foster and Hillary Swank were not actually raped, but their actual boobs were on display. We are such a sensitive bunch.
Still, it led to the very funny "I Saw Your Junk" featured below about actors who have dropped trou on film, so I'm happy the criticism led to something positive.
And his Flight parody with sock puppets led to the best sight gag of the night--socks in a dryer to simulate the folks in the plane being tumbled around. The Sally Field-Flying Nun bit was funny because the actress was so game and seemed to be one of many in the audience, including the usually stoic Tommy Lee Jones, who enjoyed MacFarlane's shtick.
The cherry on top of this well-executed monologue were the musical numbers. Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron need to book a dance movie stat. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe were charming as always. But the real surprise, since I know little of MacFarlane's work, was that the man can sing and toe step with the best of them.
Overall, this was one of the longest but most enjoyable monologues in Oscar history. It also did a fantastic job of introducing a ceremony that focused on the movie musical (more of that during my actual review of the show itself).
MacFarlane also kept up his presence throughout the show, even announcing upcoming presenters before throwing it to commercial. Seeing an attractive guy tell the audience who's coming up on the show, versus some voice over the loud speakers as the camera pans the crowd as the Oscars usually does, was nicely inspired.
If I had one criticism, it's that MacFarlane didn't always have perfect comic timing in his joke delivery. But he was working with very funny material, got the jokes out in a disarming way and had me completely won over in the first five minutes. Unlike Ricky Gervais in his infamous Golden Globe hosting stints, MacFarlane's delivery focused on charm versus smarm.
It's too bad that hosting the Oscars is such a thankless job, because MacFarlane got the ratings and viewer support. In most of the polls, a vast majority of viewers would like to see him back next year. And for good reason--he was actually entertaining. While he was no Fey and Poehler or Neil Patrick Harris, who won accolades for hosting less stressful awards events, he was certainly better than any Oscar host since Johnny Carson (I'm sorry Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Hugh Jackman, Jon Stewart, Anne Hathaway and James Franco).
So to all of his critics, who need to quit being so sensitive, "You all are boobs, you all are boobs, I saw the Oscar show and you all are boobs."
The Scandal team plays matchmakers for a cute gay governor. Along with recurring actor Scott Foley, tonight's episode with Ugly Betty and The L Word alumni Eric Mabius and hottie TV regular Sam Page should prove for some additional eye candy along with the usual wacky soap opera asylum that is Scandal.
A rural Mississippi newspaper recently posted a front page story on the wedding of a lesbian couple, one of whom has been battling brain cancer. Rather than folks sending hopes and prayers for the ailing woman and congrats for the happy couple, the newspaper received a flurry of hate calls, letters, Facebook posts, etc. because they printed a story about LESBIANS.
Lock your doors. Hide the children's eyes. Burn all signs of this heinous event. There are lesbians getting married in Mississippi. Get thee to an exorcist post haste.
Thanks to a USM student named Ashton Pittman, the story went viral. And thankfully, the newspaper did take the high road and printed some of the negative letters along with the newspaper owner's own take on the "controversial" story (see below). The tide then turned and owner Jim Cegielski says he now receives 99 percent supportive phone calls and letters.
The takeaway is the good guys won. Sure bigots will always be bigots and they are entitled to freedom of speech to spout off whatever hatred they want. What's important is that more and more, people are being called out for being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic when they say hateful things regarding race, sexual preference or gender. And for this newspaper and this lesbian couple, the outpouring of support is a major step forward for Mississippi.
And when the LGBT community can start making progress in Mississippi, we can say we are definitely making progress.
Owner's response to the backlash:
We were well aware that the majority of people in Jones County are not in favor of gay marriage. However, any decent newspaper with a backbone can not base decisions on whether to cover a story based on whether the story will make people angry.
The job of a community newspaper is not pretending something didn't take place or ignoring it because it will upset people. No, our job is to inform readers what is going on in our town and let them make their own judgments. That is exactly what we did with the wedding story. Our reporter heard about the wedding, attended it, interviewed some of the participants and wrote a news story. If there had been protestors at the wedding, we would have covered that the exact same way … but there weren't any. We never said it was a good thing or a bad thing, we simply did our job by telling people what took place.
I took the bulk of the irate phone calls from people who called the paper to complain. Most of the complaints seem to revolve around the headline, "Historic Wedding," and the fact that we chose to put the story on the front page. My answer to the "Historic Wedding" headline is pretty simple. You don't have like something for it to be historic.
The holocaust, bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Black Sox scandal are all historic. I'm in no way comparing the downtown wedding of two females to any of those events (even though some of you made it quite clear that you think gay marriage is much worse).
We have stories about child molesters, murders and all kinds of vicious, barbaric acts of evil committed by heinous criminals on our front page and yet we never receive a call from anyone saying 'I don't need my children reading this.' Never. Ever. However, a story about two women exchanging marriage vows and we get swamped with people worried about their children.
Best Picture Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Amour Lincoln Django Unchained Life of Pi Argo Beasts of theSouthern Wild
Analysis: Due to the overwhelming support the film has received since Ben Affleck's snub heard around the world, Argo is the one to beat. Since the ridiculous controversy surrounding Zero Dark Thirty has knocked that film out of contention, Lincoln looks to be the only film standing in its way. My choice would be Silver Linings Playbook, but I'm a sucker for romance over military dramas, no matter the disparity of quality.
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day Lewis Lincoln
Denzel Washington Flight
Hugh Jackman Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix The Master
Analysis: So many superlatives have been heaped on Lewis, he is THE only contender in this race. The others should just be happy to have been invited to the party to enjoy Lewis's speech, which if the many he has given throughout the long awards season are any indication, promises to be humble, charming, and worthy of the man he played.
Best Actress
Jennifer Lawrence Silver Linings Playbook
Jessica Chastain Zero Dark Thirty
Emmanuelle Riva Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts The Impossible
Analysis: I'm giving the edge to JLaw, although I don't know how much wishful thinking is playing into it. Other that Wallis, who was in diapers only a few years ago, the other actresses are definite possibilities. The Impossible was seen by too few, but Watts has earned a lot of respect in Hollywood. Chastain, who was a contender early on, seems to be one of the victims of the torture controversy surrounding her film. Riva is Lawrence's most formidable competition--she's old and this may be the Academy's last chance to honor her, while Lawrence will have many more chances to go to the podium. Still, a JLaw acceptance speech would undoubtedly be one of the most memorably loony speeches in Oscar history and she deserves it.
Best Supporting Actor
Tommy Lee Jones Lincoln
Alan Arkin Argo
Phillip Seymour Hoffman The Master
Robert DeNiro Silver Linings Playbook
Christoph Waltz Django Unchained
Analysis: It's tempting to go with Jones who would seem to be a lock for Lincoln. However, I'm making an outside-the-box choice and going with DeNiro. He's respected, but has been toiling in mostly dreck for the past two decades, starring in such "award" winners as The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Meet the Fockers. This would be a golden affirmation of his talents and Hollywood loves a comeback kid. Waltz is an outside possibility, but his film is too polarizing. Hoffman and Arkin are terrific, but not even the highlights of their own films.
Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway Les Miserables
Sally Field Lincoln
Jacki Weaver Silver Linings Playbook
Amy Adams The Master
Helen Hunt The Sessions
Analysis: This is a two-woman race between two of the perkiest contenders for decidedly unperky roles--Gidget herself, Sally Field, and Gidget wannabe, Anne Hathaway. While I have hated all of Hathaway's speeches throughout this awards season, would she really be any less annoying than Field, who gave the infamous, "You like me. You really, really like me" speech? It's Hathaway's to lose, but Field has a slim outside chance to swoop in like the Flying Nun and take the "dream" away.
Best Director
Michael Haneke Amour
Ang Lee Life of Pi
David O. Russell Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin Beasts of the Southern Wild
Analysis: With Affleck out, Spielberg will most likely emerge the president of this category. His only competition is Lee, who received an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain even though that film was robbed of best picture by the mind numbingly awful Crash. Life of Pi is an international hit, grossing nearly an astounding $600 million worldwide and much of the film's success has been credited to Lee's vision.
With an unpredictable host in Seth McFarlane, a nod to movie musicals, and live performances by Jennifer Hudson, Barbra Streisand and Adele, this promises to be one of the most entertaining telecasts in recent history. I'll be watching the champagne flow and the Golden boys go with pizza, beer, and rainbow tears cheering as Hollywood celebrates its own on the most glamorous night of the year.
It was the spoiler everyone in America knew ahead of time. Downton Abbey's leading man, Dan Stevens, left the show for greener pastures, leading to his character being killed off in a car accident in the show's third season finale. I respect anybody for moving on, but this is a top-rated show at the heighth of its popularity, making his exit seem a little premature. Still, whatever grousing fans of the show may have, I wish Mr. Stevens luck in future endeavors.
One of the few men who look as good in clothes as out of them, here are a few of the finest glamour shots showcasing his classic British cheekbones and gorgeous eyes.
Of course, he doesn't look bad without his shirt either.
