At Home in Hespeler

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

The 2011 Oscar nominations are out and the consensus is starting to build that The Artist will win best picture. In case you are unfamiliar, The Artist is a black and white silent film. Yes, 82 years after the invention of the talkies, a silent movie that almost nobody has seen is considered a favourite for the best movie Oscar.

Here’s a quiz for your dinner party guests this weekend: has anybody seen The Artist? Bet the answer is unanimously no. So, seen any movies recently? Well yes, Sherlock Holmes says someone, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo says another. If you invite me, someone at the table will have seen both. But The Artist? It hasn’t even played is town near me, never mind me managing to talk the wife into going to see a black and white silent movie. But that’s the way it’ll be with a lot of couples: one partner wants to go, the other says no thanks, but there is that movie with Tom Hanks and the child. It may not be reviewing well, and it may not be nominated for any Oscars, but by God, there’s speaking, and the producers splurged on color film.

It’s a fair enough point really, and one that illustrates what’s either, depending on your point of view, right or wrong with the Oscar

At $12-million in box office, The Artist took in about 20% of the that Blockbuster hit, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. Yet The Artist took in the second most Oscar nominations behind Hugo, the Martin Scorsese movie with a $56-million box-office.

Which leads to the question: if nobody sees a movie, can it be considered great? It’s an age old question and every music critic ever to write about music has their own great, relatively unknown band that proves, at least to them, that commercial success does not mean quality art. Movie critics are the same, and The Artist is the new cinéma-art de jour. By nominating The Artist for 10 awards, the members of the academy have announced where they come down on the commercial success vs. art argument: their opinion, not yours, counts.

Fluffernutter Academy Awards, Hugo, Martin Scorsese, Midnight in Paris, Sherlock Holmes, The Artist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Woody Allen

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Reports that Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z booked a floor at New York’s, Lenox Hill Hospital so Beyonce could have a cesarian delivery last weekend, are greatly exaggerated, says the hospital.

Apparently the singer and her rapper husband booked the entire fourth floor and their security prevented other parents of the hospital seeing their newborn, and sometimes sick, children. The hospital, however, doth protest:

The suggestion that the couple paid $1.3 million to rent an entire an entire maternity floor is sim ply not true. The family is housed in an executive suite at the hospital and is being billed the standard rate for those accommodations.

The family does have it’s own security detail on site. However, the hospital has been and continues to be in control of managing all security at the facility.

Is it just me, or did the hospital just get itself named in any lawsuits from disgruntled parents?

The new addition to the Z family is called Blue Ivy Carter, after the title of two of the stars albums.

Remember when Britney Spears was an underage singer from the bible belt and swore that she would remain a virgin until marriage? Next thing you know, she’s stepping out with Paris Hilton in a short dress and no underwear.

Now it’s 17 year old Justin Bieber’s turn to swear that adulthood won’t change the child. He tells V magazine:

I’m not going to try to conform to what people want me to be or go out there and start partying, have people see me with alcohol… I’m never goings to make myself so the parents and kids don’t respect me…

Look out Paris, looks like you have a new drinking buddy.

News in the rock world that Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with lymphoma.

The guitarist was working on a new album with his former band mates – including Ozzy Osbourne – and a reunion tour of the original Black Sabbath was planned for 2012.

The band has moved it’s recording and rehearsing from LA to England, and Iommi has been both writing and recording since his diagnosis. HIs illness has, in fact, given the band “a kick up the rump- it’s great to hear him churning out those riffs again.”

The band plans to honour their summer European dates, but no word on any further concerts at this stage.

Here’s wishing Tony Iommi well.

Review in brief – Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Silence of the Lambs, but dark and edgy.

The Golden Globes were held last Sunday, and all the stars dressed up, drank up and prepared to listen to Ricky Gervais mock them, which he really didn’t.

Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes breaks down the movies into categories, but some prognostication of the Oscars can be made based on the Golden Globes. The Golden Globe winners to watch for at the Oscars are: George Clooney, best actor for The Descendants (beating hsi pal, and other oscar favourite, Brad Pitt in Moneyball; Meryl Streep as best actress in The Iron Lady; The Artist for best movie.

The Golden Globe for most honest reaction goes to Elton John’s husband David Furnish. Of news that Elton lost to Madonna for best song, Furnish turned on his twitter app and wrote:

Madonna. Best song???? F**k off!!!…
Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in it’s narcissism. And her critisism ofGaga shows how desperate she really is. (sic)

He later clarified things telling the New York Post:

I think it was a fluke. When this happens you have to question the integrity of the awards. Did Madonna get the Golden Globe because she attended the awards and agreed to be a presenter?

Can you sing Madonna’s song? Can you hum it? It’s a song nobody has heard from a film few have seen. The award should have gone to Mary J. Blige or Elton.

Nice back-peddling David.

For the record, if I had a vote, I’d pick Madonna’s song. And yes, it pains me deeply to write that.

Fluffernutter Beyonce, Black Sabbath, Blue Ivy Carter, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, David Furnish, Elton John, George Clooney, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Golden Globes, Jay Z, Justin Beiber, Madonna, Mary J Blige, Meryl Streep, moneyball, Ozzy Osbourne, Paris Hilton, Ricky Gervais, The Artist, The Descendants, The Iron Lady, Tony Iommi