Category: media

An Oscar presentation speech. The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw offers ten nominees for Most Startling Performance by an Academy Award Presenter.

“Captioned showings remain rare, and existing technology that would allow attendees to read along at their seats is rarely used. Now, a small group of Washington residents hopes to change that through a lawsuit filed earlier this month in King County Superior Court. As others have around the nation, the lawsuit’s proponents claim that most King County theaters are violating disability laws by failing to make the movies accessible to people with limited hearing.”

“Comebacks are not just a commercial or sentimental phenomenon – they are the best way for a star to atone in public for his or her perceived sins. Whether you’ve squandered your big chance, become mired in drugs and booze, been caught committing a misdemeanour on a Los Angeles thoroughfare, or simply faded from view (arguably the most unpardonable crime in the industry’s eyes), it is best regarded not as a career setback but the ideal opportunity for a relaunch.”

Nearly an hour of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button only seems like it has Brad Pitt in it. What the audience is really seeing is computer wizardry. So: How long before Hollywood decides that living, breathing movie stars are no longer necessary?

“This Sunday, some of the world’s most famous actors will face the most treacherous moment of their careers–that is, if they happen to win an Oscar. Because then they’ll have to give a speech. In theory, this shouldn’t be hard: You stand up; you say thanks; you sit down. Yet the shoals of stardom are littered with careers that have run aground thanks to catastrophic speeches.”

Mournful Peruvian entry “The Milk of Sorrow” (La Teta Asustada) won the coveted Golden Bear award for best picture at the Berlin film festival on Saturday.

For the past decade, reality TV has dominated in Australia. Not this season, though. “The re-invigoration of drama may be signalling the demise, or at least the decline, of the past decade’s reality-TV trend. Does this trend spell a return to the golden era of Australian TV drama?”

Sirius XM Radio said its XM Satellite has refinanced some of its outstanding debt, but acknowledged the pay-radio provider may file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Tuesday.

“Film after film in the 59th Berlinale, which began on Feb. 5 and concludes on Sunday, has sounded some version of an internationalist message — the world is shrinking, the world is flat, we are the world — as if filmmakers were measuring the worth and seriousness of their work in terms of geographic scope.”

Turning listeners of a free service into voluntary donors is always tricky. But now hosts have to walk an even finer line between urgency and desperation, noting the financial turmoil without scaring listeners’ wallets back into their pockets.