These were the winners in the major categories at the Academy Awards held last night.(The Academy’s clumsy system means that the awards for 2008 films are held in 2009, leading to constant future confusion about which year the awards were “for.” But let’s not be bitter.)Best actress: Kate Winslet for The ReaderBest actor: Sean Penn for Milk
It’s the fifth time an Allen film has earned a performer a supporting-acting honor.
…Or author Helen Fielding does, at any rate. She was born on this day in 1959.She must weigh 15 stone by now. Jones, that is, not Fielding.
“You just knew it would never be the same again. It didn’t mean he couldn’t have a life in public service, but it wouldn’t be a charmed life. It was going to be different.”The Boston Globe is running an excellent multi-part series on Ted Kennedy, apparently prompted by Kennedy’s poor health.
Happy 150th birthday to Oregon, my home state.You were born on 14 February 1859 — in the same year as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Billy the Kid.
We don’t care who was born first. Happy 200th birthday, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. You studs.
“Having just turned 10, a Sussex spaniel called Stump became the oldest best in show winner at the Westminster Kennel Club, ending his retirement last week and taking the big prize Tuesday night.”ABC News has the story.Isn’t that kind of like a 70-year-old winning the Miss America pageant?
Jennifer Aniston turns 40 today.And Brandy “Moesha” Norwood turns 30.And Sarah Palin turns, even if it’s not a round number, 45.
She’s the Israeli supermodel who’s been dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio since 2006.The issue is due out in a few days, but SI already has posted its online edition, including slightly comical video of Refaeli rolling in the surf.Last year’s cover model was Marisa Miller.
What to wear when you’re nine months pregnant and still performing at the Grammys? Rapper M.I.A. has two ideas.
Flight 1549 as experienced by the captain and the flight crew.
A sharp-eyed Who2 reader writes:
“As Aquarians, they should both be stubborn, visionary, tolerant, free-spirited, rebellious, genial but remote and detached — hmmm, so far, so good.”It’s true: Scientist Charles Darwin and President Abraham Lincoln were born on the exact same day: 12 February 1809.
There’s a joke in the publishing world. A writer asks his editor for ideas about a commercially promising topic for a book. “Lincoln’s doctor’s dog,” the editor unhesitatingly responds.What to read for Abe Lincoln’s 200th birthday? Fred Kaplan breaks down the bios (and cracks on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “hyperbolic” Team of Rivals).
“I find the process of making movies absolutely boring. It’s so fragmented. You wait and wait and wait and then, look, as Jack Lemmon says, ‘It’s magic time.’ In the theater, once the curtain goes up, the actor is in charge.” The actor James Whitmore has died at age 87 of lung cancer. He was diagnosed just before Thanksgiving.
Newsday has the transcript and audio of US Airways flight 1549, that short hop from LaGuardia to the Hudson River.It starts with Capt. Chesley Sullenberger saying “This is, uh, Cactus 1539, hit birds. We’ve lost thrust in both engines, returning back towards LaGuardia.” (“Cactus” is the air traffic call sign for US Airways.)
So says The LA Times, weighing in on the Christian Bale fracas.
Insert “living dead” joke here: Horror director George Romero turns 70 today.Last year was the 40th zombieversary of his cinematic cult classic.
Add one more thing to the list of things Steve Martin does well.
Yup: it was 50 years ago today that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in an icy plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.(Don MacLean called it “the day the music died” in his 1971 hit “American Pie.”)