Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
dailydigest group:

So...we've officially been up for 8
months now. Help us out: What do you
like about the site? Choose as many as
you feel are applicable. (Please?) This
poll will tell us what we're doing
right, and possibly what to focus on in
the future.

   o The news page
   o The reviews
   o The regular features (Trailer Park, Magazine Roundup, Movies We Want to See,
etc.)
   o The special features (awards coverage, Superhero Crib Sheet, Star Wars for
Ijits, LOTR features, etc.)
   o The frequency of updates, acts of God and Yahoo notwithstanding
   o The variety of movies/topics covered
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To vote, please visit the following web page:

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Thanks!

"Dude, is this newsletter thing weekly or monthly or what?" We're
understaffed, okay?

NEW FEATURES: The Superhero Crib Sheet, Star Wars Prequels for Ijits,
The Sequel-Remake Registry of Shame, and Mr. Typo's The True
Breakfast of Champions.
www.dailydigest.net/features

NEW SECTION: Fun & Games, with updates announced on the Newstracker.
www.dailydigest.net/fungames

NEW REVIEWS: Spider-Man (2), The Rookie; on DVD, Hedwig & the Angry
Inch, Bandits; coming this week, the original version of Insomnia.
www.dailydigest.net/reviews

MOVIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED: Eye of the Beholder, eXistenZ, Velvet
Goldmine, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Return to Oz, Star Wars:
Episode I--The Phantom Menace, Lost Highway
www.dailydigest.net/moviesmissed

TRAILER PARK: Tons, including Hulk, Powerpuff Girls, Signs, MIB2, New
Gap ads, Divine Secrets/Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Lady & The Duke,and a
separate page for all the Star Wars trailers/TV spots. To be added
today: the new Minority Report, Chelsea Walls, Full Frontal, and City
by the Sea.
www.dailydigest.net/trailerpark

MAGAZINE ROUNDUP UPDATE: In the next update: EW, Vanity Fair,
InStyle, Marie Claire, and Rolling Stone.
www.dailydigest.net/magazines



**If you are reading this as a group posting and would like to
receive the newsletter as a weekly email, join the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you received this as an email and would like to adjust your
group email settings and/or unsubscribe, visit
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Ah, Sunday: The day I originally wanted to do newsletters anyway.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: Seriously, as soon as Yahoo fixes one bug,
another one pops up. We weren't been able to update for most of the
week because our Yahoo-provided page editor 1) wouldn't create links,
then 2) wouldn't cut and/or paste, and now 3) wouldn't save and
publish pages. As of day, we seem to be in the clear, but now staffer
AngelDust is seeing the "error saving page" problem (#3) on her own
personal site. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

NEW REVIEWS: Panic Room, Death to Smoochy, Clockstoppers
www.dailydigest.net/reviews

NEW TRAILER PREVIEWS: The sidebar is having the last remaining bugs
worked out, but has LOTR: Two Towers, Importance of Being Earnest,
Bad Company, Human Nature, Minority Report, Lilo & Stitch, Undercover
Brother, Sum of All Fears, XXX, K19, Life or Something Like It. To be
written up tonight: the new Signs trailer, Enough.
www.dailydigest.net/trailerpark

MAGAZINE ROUNDUP UPDATE
God and Yahoo willing, the latest issues of EW (Hayden Christensen &
Natalie Portman) and Vanity Fair (Kirsten Dunst).
www.dailydigest.net/magazines



**If you are reading this as a group posting and would like to
receive the newsletter as a weekly email, join the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you received this as an email and would like to adjust your
group email settings and/or unsubscribe, visit
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This morning, I received an email from another group that I belong to
(thanks to shadowscapes):

**Hi all,

Remember that Yahoo was down at the beginning of this week? And for
those who access this list through the net, did you have to re-
identify yourself before you got access again? This is because Yahoo
changed their agreement with its users. They now have the right to
collect and sell all information you gave them. They have the right
to let their advertisers give your computer cookies. And they have
the right to spam you about lots of categories, by email, snail mail
and phone.

At least the spam can be blocked; access yahoo groups through the net
(groups.yahoo.com), identify yourself and click on 'Account Info',
top right on the page. In the screen that follows ("Verify your
Password") there is a link to 'Privacy Policy' at the bottom. Go
there and read what Yahoo is allowed to do with the info it gets from
you. You'll find a link to your marketing preferences (did you know
that you had them) and you'll see that you've given Yahoo permission
to spam you any way they can. However, this at least can be switched
off.

I recommend that you at least take a look at the privacy policy and
your marketing preferences. Further, if you are a member of other
groups, please inform the people there (please check first if someone
else hasn't warned the group already). The users of Yahoo Groups
should know about this.

Thanks for your attention.**

This is all true, by the way--I just went and changed my own. Most
disturbing are the options to call you at home and/or send mail to
your house. Unfortunately, this is how internet businesses are trying
to pick up their economic slack nowadays. (And to think, I just
struggle along with legitimate advertising!) However, you *can* foil
this new spamming project of theirs by changing your preferences. Oh--
and telling everyone else in groups to which you belong. Have fun!

Oscar coverage!
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscars.html

**The Oscar Pool results

**The final two Oscar Playoff columns: Cleo's final predictions and
how they stacked up against the real thing

**The Obligatory Ceremony Recap: We brave the red carpet rundown, the
endless tributes, and Oscar heartbreak. With links to the best
coverage and pictures hand-picked across the Internet

Regular news will return today (Tuesday 3/26). Top stories tonight:
two reporters have seen the Two Towers trailer, and we realized that
we've had a picture from it all along; where Will Smith disappeared
to while Best Actor was announced; Episode II score reviewed online;
the story behind the leaked Star Trek: Nemesis script.



**If you are reading this as a group posting and would like to
receive the newsletter as a weekly email, join the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you received this as an email and would like to adjust your
group email settings and/or unsubscribe, visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest/join

Sorry about the problems with the newsletters--we just realized that
the March 5 one didn't go out (it just went out now...sigh), and due
to Yahoo Groups moving to a new server there wasn't one last week. So
let's see if we can't get this thing on track--we're only now on
newsletter #2, after all, and still working out the bugs, so thanks
for your patience.

**New pages that have gone up:

Our play-by-play, real-time SAG Awards coverage (with EpII trailer
commentary)
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscarplayoffssag.html

"Trailer Park": What's worth your download time?
http://www.dailydigest.net/trailerpark

"Movies You May Have Missed" now has a page of its own, with quotes from each
review
http://www.dailydigest.net/moviesmissed

Also, the URL of "Movies Nobody Wants to See," while just a lark, was
left off the previous newsletter:
http://www.dailydigest.net/nobodywantstosee


**Magazine Roundup updates:
3/19/02 EW, TV Guide, Vanity Fair ("The Hollywood Issue"), Interview,
Harper's Bazaar
3/9/02 EW, Sight & Sound, InStyle


**New reviews:
In theaters: Ice Age
On DVD: Moulin Rouge
Movies You May Have Missed: Gods & Monsters, Lost Highway, Jack &
Sarah, Auntie Mame, Buffalo '66, The Lion in Winter (a mixed bag, we
know)
http://www.dailydigest.net/moviesmissed

**The Oscars
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscars.html

For all you Oscar Poolers: L.A. critic Kenneth Turan has written an
excellent explanation of how you need to approach your local Oscar
pool: "So the task is not figuring out what a 'good' film or
performance is, but determining what academy members like. It means,
and this is often the hardest thing for beginning prognosticators to
get used to, completely forgetting about one's own likes and
dislikes, one's own ideas of quality. Even if your personal taste is
impeccable, it not only doesn't matter, it will likely get in your
way." Read more--and Turan's predix--at
http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Oscars-X!ArticleDetail-53641,00\
.html

Cleo's next Playoffs column will be, in fact, about how she's changing
her own ersonal picks, as she fully expected to do. Keep an eye out for
that later this week. And don't forget the Oscars themselves on Sunday!



**For more information on joining the Daily Digest Oscar Pool, see
the group home page at groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you are reading this as a group posting and would like to
receive the newsletter as a weekly email, join the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you received this as an email and would like to adjust your
group email settings and/or unsubscribe, visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest/join

Sorry for the delay--we meant to have this go out last night, but
Yahoo Groups was "shut down for maintenance." Sigh.

**New pages that went up last week:

The Cleo Awards
http://www.dailydigest.net/cleoawards.html
The Baftas (British Oscars)
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscarplayoffsbaftas.html
Movies We Want to See (March-April)
http://www.dailydigest.net/upcomingmovies.html
Movies Nobody Wants to See

**New reviews:

In the theater: Gosford Park, The Count of Monte Cristo, Joe Somebody
On video/DVD: Moulin Rouge, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Hearts in
Atlantis

**The Oscars
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscars.html

Guest Playoffs column: "The Case of ILM"
http://www.dailydigest.net/oscarplayoffs022202.html
The Oscar Pool: Will the Hissyfit Heard 'Round the World affect the
Best Actor race?
http://www.dailydigest.net/friday030102.html




**For more information on joining the Daily Digest Oscar Pool, see
the group home page at groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you are reading this as a group posting and would like to
receive the newsletter as a weekly email, join the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest

**If you received this as an email and would like to adjust your
group email settings and/or unsubscribe, visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest/join

Breaking news: Ananova and Empire Online report that Lord of the
Rings has taken Best Film and the audience award for film of the
year; other winners include Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Judi
Dench, Jim Broadbent, and Peter Jackson. Go to our BAFTAs page for
full details.

http://www.dailydigest.net/oscarplayoffsbaftas.html

Since people have asked me to keep them updated, here's the status
report on those Lord of the Rings features: I spent a good bit of
time last night trying to resurrect the "deleted scenes" page, but
realized tonight, after Corona updated its Two Towers page (with the
link to us as the first story, yikes), that I had to get our page
back up ASAP, in case we caught any of the update traffic. Right now
only our original scans are on the preview page; we're also working
on a Two Towers index that would be separate, with links to other
sites' images. So look for those two image indices, FOTR and TT, to
go up in a work-in-progress format (with frequent updates)in the next
week or so.

The new Towers preview URL is
http://www.geocities.com/ladygaladriel78/previewtwotowers.html and
will be posted on the old page.

After a bit of a scare last night--the site went back online early,
and what we think happened was that, instead of sending us a
courtesy "Hey! Here's your site back!" email, Yahoo (accidentally?)
sent us a "Hey! You've used up 75% of your data transfer! AGAIN!"
email. Nonetheless, a little investigation shows that we're free and
clear, unless there's something they're not telling us...

Speaking of transfer, we *have* taken down the LOTR features and will
be moving them to www.geocities.com/ladygaladriel78 (and possibly
somewhere else, because that'll probably get shut down too). We're
working on a text-only index of picture links--less pretty, but
already about four times as many pictures listed, so it all works out
in the end.

Also, just as a recap, THE OSCAR POOL IS UP! WOOHOO! Get more details
on the front page, if you haven't joined up already.

Other features you can expect to see in the next few weeks: The Cleo
Awards, which we had almost ready to go when the SITE GOT SHUT DOWN;
the Lexicon, a guide to all the wacky staffer bons mots; and if
you're conversant with Spider-Man or Star Wars, let us know, because
we need some features consultants. ;)

Over and out,
Cleolinda

Welcome to the Daily Digest Yahoo Group. Right now we're having data
transfer issues with our site--basically, we're getting too many hits-
-but barring some act of God or Yahoo, the group will always be up,
so you can check in here to see what's going on (and where we may
have moved to).

**Please feel free to join the group.** You can still read posts
without it, but membership means as much (or as little) email
notification as you want for updates on news, site status, hot topics
(LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.), and site updates.

DO NOT POST TO THE GROUP. This is just a newsletter/update kind of
thing--our message boards are at
http://pub97.ezboard.com/bthedailydigest for discussion. And please
*do* post there.

Features we have going right now: an ever-growing stack of Bookmarks (see
lefthand sidebar), full of Websites We Love.

And don't forget the Daily Digest Oscar Pool, at
http://moviegames.yahoo.com/oscars. We're group #1402, password bluesky8.

Cleolinda can be reached at cleolinda@... for questions
or comments (especially if you're having trouble joining the group or the Oscar
pool, that happens sometimes).

Guess what? Yahoo took care of the Oscar Pool structure for us!
Woohoo!

So, of course, I immediately signed up and made a "private" group--
i.e., one in which anyone can join through us. Basically, we're
forming a league so that we can compete against each other for fun;
there's no prize as such, although the winner of the pool--the player
who guesses the highest percentage of winners--gets all the free
copies of the Daily Digest that they can stand. ;)

Sez Yahoo: "In order to join the group, just go to
http://moviegames.yahoo.com/oscars, create a pick set and choose to
Join a Private Group. Then, when prompted, enter the following
information...

Group ID#: 1402
Password: bluesky8"

It's called Daily Digest Oscar Pool, if that helps you any. You can
vote and/or change that vote as often as you like until the show
starts Sunday, March 24. Bring it on!

Cleolinda

7:38 Digest time, people. Most nominations: LOTR, 13. Read the whole
shebang over at http://www3.oscars.org/74academyawards/index.html

Several shockers--read 'em and weep:

BEST PICTURE
Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In the Bedroom
Lord of the Rings
Moulin Rouge

BEST DIRECTOR
Ron Howard, Beautiful Mind
Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down
Robert Altman, Gosford Park
Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings
David Lynch, Mulholland Drive

(Shocker of the century: NO BAZ LUHRMANN??)

BEST ACTOR
Russell Crowe, Beautiful Mind
Sean Penn, I Am Sam
Will Smith, Ali
Denzel Washington, Training Day
Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom

BEST ACTRESS
Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
Judi Dench, Iris
Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge
Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom
Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones's Diary

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jim Broadbent, Iris
Ethan Hawke, Training Day
Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
Ian McKellen, Lord of the Rings
Jon Voight, Ali

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Connelly, Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom
Kate Winslet, Iris

BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL)
Amelie
Gosford Park
Memento
Monster's Ball
Royal Tenenbaums

BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL)
Beautiful Mind
Ghost World
In the Bedroom
Lord of the Rings
Shrek


Cleolinda's predictions (see previous post), out of 40 (8 categories
x 5 nominees): Okay, I had a hard time adding these up, so if my math
is wrong correct me, but I seem to have guessed 33/40--for a total of
82.5% correct. And that ain't bad, considering some of the shockers
we had this morning.

But I'm scaaaaaaaaaaaaaared!!!

Even Sasha Stone, editor of oscarwatch.com, is having trouble--she
even prefaces her predictions with a list of "rules" not unlike the
column I wrote a while back (and may post at this Group for your
siteless reading pleasure), "Oscar Logic"--which is to say, we all
like to sit down and try to get inside the Academy's collective head,
but damn if we can do it. What I would LIKE to do is set down five
clean, unwavering guesses for each nomination category and beam
tomorrow morning as I'm completely and utterly correct. That,
however, will not happen--this year of all years. So you must forgive
me if I hedge a bit; just remember that these are not MY personal
choices, but my guess at what OTHERS' choices will be. Predictions
listed in order of certainty:

BEST PICTURE
1. Beautiful Mind
2. Moulin Rouge
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Black Hawk Down
5. Gosford Park

Mulholland Drive and Memento were both very worthy films that
dominated early on in the awards season, and Oscar Watch seems to
think that Miramax will bully a slot open for In the Bedroom. I don't
know why--this is gut instinct here--but I have an odd feeling that
both movies are just too...independent?...for the Academy to want to
enshrine it along with its Classic Epics. (Big Oscar Logic rule:
Sweeping, Classic Epic always has the edge over Character Drama with
Quiet Integrity. Sigh.) That, and Mulholland Drive's just too freaky
for the CBS Generation. Moving on...

BEST DIRECTOR
1. Ron Howard, Beautiful Mind
2. Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings
3. Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge
4. Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down
5. Robert Altman, Gosford Park

Todd Field (In the Bedroom) and Christopher Nolan (Memento) are
strong first-time shots; however, see rationale above, especially
when the Academy is presented with such heavyweight "bridesmaids"
they could string along for another year. Also, the Academy thinks
David Lynch is crazy (I'm just sayin').

BEST ACTOR
1. Russell Crowe, Beautiful Mind
2. Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom
3. Denzel Washington, Training Day
4. Gene Hackman, Royal Tenenbaums (wasn't he winning Supporting Actor
for a while? Grrrrrrrr)
5. Billy Bob Thornton for One of the Hundreds of Movies He Made This
Year (bonus point if it's for Monster's Ball)

Pretty sure it won't happen:
Sean Penn, I Am Sam: I read absolutely putrid reviews for this movie,
although his performance was supposedly good. Here's the thing,
though--Penn's also a bit...hmmm...shall we say, "outspoken"? He and
Robert Altman both have this "incredibly cranky iconoclast" thing
going that may work against them on a personal level.
Will Smith, Ali: Probably deserves it, but Ali's poor showing
critically and commercially will probably drag his chances down.

BEST ACTRESS
1. Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom (hell, if she doesn't win, after what
she's won so far, I'd start looking for the other Three Horses of the
Apocalypse)
2. Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
3. Nicole Kidman, if she survives that Jennifer-Connelly-paperwork
debacle from the SAG noms (and why not? most of the nom ballots had
already been mailed in by that point). And it'll be for Moulin Rouge,
if it's for anything.
4. Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones's Diary
5. Judi Dench, Iris.

Names That Keep Coming Up: Naomi Watts for Mulholland Drive (probably
deserving, but Oscar logic tells me that most of the time, the voters
pass over newcomers for big names, and Watts' turn wasn't widely seen
enough to overcome that rule). Also, I still cherish hopes that Tilda
Swinton will get nominated for The Deep End.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
2. Jim Broadbent, Iris
3. Steve Buscemi, Ghost World
4. Ian McKellen, Lord of the Rings
5. Hayden Christensen, Life as a House

I'm really unsure of Christensen, who seems like a fine young actor,
but I can't repress this urge to cry out, "Are you kidding me?" I
think the overall mediocrity of Life as a House, as well as his
perceived youth/inexperience, would drag him down on that one.
However, I can't think of anyone else, sadly--the same drag-down
principle applies to anyone from Ali (Jon Voight was recently Globe-
nom'd, for example), though I do agree that we might see a Billy Bob
nomination for Bandits slip in here. This one's a tough one.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Jennifer Connelly, Beautiful Mind (who, until that SAG snafu,
seemed to have emerged as frontrunner--see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailydigest/message/15 if you missed
that one)
2. Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom
3. Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
4. Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
5. Kate Winslet, Iris

Not to Be Counted Out: Cate Blanchett (Shipping News or Bandits) is a
comforting fallback for indecisive voters. Oscar Watch suggests
Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam) or Anjelica Huston (Royal Tenenbaums), but
both their films seem to be lagging behind the others in terms of
that ephemeral Oscar buzz.

BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL)
1. Christopher Nolan, Memento
2. Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park
3. Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, Royal Tenenbaums
4. Joel and Ethan Coen, The Man Who Wasn't There
5. Milo Addica and  Will Rokos, Monster's Ball

BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL)
1. Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh, Lord of the Rings
2. Akiva Goldsman, A Beautiful Mind
3. Robert Festinger and Todd Field, In the Bedroom
4. Ken Nolan, Black Hawk Down
5. Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, Ghost World

That's as far as I'm venturing, folks. It's wide open, as far as we a
the Digest are concerned. Come back here tomorrow morning for the
real deal--and I'm embarrass myself by calculating what numerical
percentage I got correct. See you then...

Hey--I'm a little scared to make mine, personally, but if anyone
would like to take a shot at it, send 'em on in. You can predict as
many as you like, but the main categories we'd try for would be

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Screenplay (Original)
Best Screenplay (Adapted)

If you're interested, let's try putting them up on the message board--
http://pub97.ezboard.com/fthedailydigestfrm4 . Good luck with that,
too...

We don't get the site back until the 18th!

Okay, so 15 years and four emails later, we finally get this message
from Yahoo:

**You are allotted 20 GB of data transfer per month. When you sign
into Yahoo! GeoCities at http://geocities.yahoo.com/ you will see
that you have gone beyond the 20 GB of allotted data transfer (This
Month: 22.2 GB). Your data transfer allottment will reset on the
anniversary of your billing cycle (the 18th of the month).**

Additional note: We got 2.2 gb extra because we PAID for it, btw, and
through the nose at that. For those of you keeping score, the site
was shut down, in an ironic twist, on...Monday, January 21. Sigh.

We're going to go cry somewhere now. If you have any information on
an affordable site provider that can offer MORE than 20 gig a month,
please email Cleolinda at cleolinda@....

Okay, so staffer AngelDust and I were sitting up watching the Olympic
opening ceremony and saw a Panic Room trailer, which, after some
discussion, led to the following list of Movies Nobody Wants to See
(We apologize for the wild variation in levels of funny, but nobody
bats 1000 all the time):

Panic Garage
Moulin Luge
The Count of Monte Crisco
A Beautiful Knee
In the Bathroom
The Man Who Was, In Fact, There
Craisin County
Affair of the Toering
Litter
Snow Hogs
Brotherhood of the Parakeet
Rollerball

Submit your own on the message boards!
http://pub97.ezboard.com/fthedailydigestfrm1

For those of you keeping up with the awards season still, the British
Empire magazine/Empire Online had its own little awards shindig, as
voted on by their readers (which is interesting, because I'm not
British, but I voted online as well. Oops). You can get pictures,
quotes, acceptance speech texts, the original nominations, and other
goodies at their site
(http://www.empireonline.co.uk/features/awards2002 ). The winners
were:

Best Debut: Orlando Bloom, Lord of the Rings

Best British Actress: Kate Winslet, Enigma

Best British Actor: Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge

Best British Film: Bridget Jones's Diary. (Accepting, director Sharon
Maguire [the real Shazzer!] opened her speech with, "I'd just like to
thank Ewan McGregor for being here. I've always fancied him.")

Independent Spirit Award: Alejandro Amenábar (The Others;
coincidentally the director of Open Your Eyes, the film that Vanilla
Sky was based on)

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge

Best Actor: Elijah Wood, Lord of the Rings

Best Director: Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge (accepted by Ewan McGregor,
much to the delight, we are sure, of Sharon Maguire)

Best Film: Lord of the Rings, accepted by Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd,
and Ian McKellen ("Well you all know who Orlando is, I'm Ian McKellen
and this is Billy Boyd. Oh, and I fancy Ewan McGregor as well!")

Inspiration Award: Michael Mann (Ali, The Insider, Heat, The Last of
the Mohicans, Manhunter...we can keep going, if you like)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Christopher Lee (who added in a backstage
interview, "I've never worked with a more encouraging, helpful and
agreeable actor [than Ian McKellen], he was absolutely wonderful.
Even if he does fancy Ewan McGregor.")

Go check out the site for more:
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/features/awards2002/

We have been emailing Yahoo (3 times now), and only last night did
they finally deign to respond...by apologizing for the delay and
saying that the problem "may have already been resolved," so check on
that, and reply to the email if it had not been resolved. As the
problem HAD NOT BEEN RESOLVED, we are currently waiting on a reply to
OUR reply. Sigh.

In other news, we've pretty much decided to put the "net" back into
dailydigest.net and hook up a series of Geocities sites--each with a
different topic, as needed. (Example: quarantine the LOTR features
off into one site--they are what got us shut down, after all--Harry
Potter into another, and in the future, Star Wars or Spider-Man or
whatever else gets an inordinate amount of coverage will have its own
little corner as well.) Each one will have less data transfer than
the main site (we ain't shellin' out any more money), but hopefully
they won't need as much (well, we're resigned to the fact that LOTR
will probably exceed its transfer. Again. We're working on a mirror
site for the mirror site...)

We are also, sadly, working on minimizing the number and the size of
the pictures we post/have posted/will post on the site, as that's
what drives our transfer up. Which I personally hate, because I
always wanted a site with pretty, pretty pictures.

Finally, of course, this will take a little time, as I pretty much--
that's right, *I*, not *we*; if it's on the site, it was put there by
my own two hands--am going to have to recreate the pages that Yahoo
is currently holding hostage. They took a good deal of time to create
in the first place, but I'm pretty sure I can do it faster this time.
So thank you for your patience, and watch the Group for updates on
what's been posted anew.

**We've written Yahoo's Customer Service twice, with no response yet.
(If you know of a Customer Service email, tell us, because all we can
find are the feedback forms in the Help section.) So the site is
still down for "data transfer," and we don't know why. And we are
extremely, extremely ticked.

**Clerical error resulted in Jennifer Connelly allegedly taking
Kidman's slot**

http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/movies/2002/2002-01-30-sag.htm

Did you, too, wonder why Jennifer Connelly was nominated for Best
Lead Actress after becoming the front-runner to win Best
*Supporting*? Well, it turns out, as USAToday reports, that Universal
*meant* to submit her for Supporting...only, "because of a clerical
error," she was submitted for lead. As a result, it's been
speculated, the slot that would have gone to Kidman went to Connelly.
Not only is this a setback for Kidman, but also for Connelly, since
Oscar voters may now be confused as to whether she's a lead or a
supporting, splitting her vote (Oscar nom ballots are due in this
Friday).

(So who took Connelly's vacated slot? Of the nominees now--go to the
link above to look at them--notice that the only nominee we haven't
seen before this season is...little Dakota Fanning from I Am Sam.)

Last night on E!, however, talking-heads were heard to say that "it
was Kidman's fault" for campaigning for her role in The Others, not
Moulin Rouge, the latter being the real Oscar bait. Guess they wish
they hadn't said that now...

**TOP STORIES**

LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring: Extremely annoying DVD double dip to
come out in August and November. Fairly reliable source:
http://www.chud.com/chudvd/news/jan29lotr.php3

Episode II script review: Cleolinda thinks it sounds like a plant,
but there you go. http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?
id=11364

BAFTA and SAG awards out: See the two posts immediately preceding
this one (go to Home or Messages at the Group).


**WEBSITE RUNDOWN**

(It seems like the most Yahoo Group post-friendly format. Which do
you like better--news organized by title or by website? In fairness,
we don't have enough space in a post to be as detailed as we could on
the site; also, we couldn't fit all the sites in, either. Let us know
which you preferred, though)

AIN'T IT COOL NEWS
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=11364
Set reports for Spy Kids 2, Bond 20; aforementioned EpII script
review; multi-film reports from Australia and Rotterdam; "25 Sundance
reviews!"; "Verhoeven discusses revisiting Robocop!"; Madman
adaptation not cast after all (yet).

CHUD http://www.chud.com/news.php3
Michael Mann to do Spartan epic "Gates of Fire"; Conan sequel script
news item; Daredevil casting

CHUD DVD http://www.chud.com/news.php3
LOTR DVD news (see Top Stories), Rock Star review, "5 Biggies to
Buy," Digital Drainpipe column

CINESCAPE http://www.cinescape.com/0/Movies_2.asp
Beverly Hills Cop 4 (God, why?); Highwaymen; Hamilton not in
T3; "Matt Helm" adaptation; Stephen King to leave horror writing???

DARK HORIZONS http://www.darkhorizons.com/news.htm
A look at February films; news resumes tomorrow.

EMPIRE ONLINE http://www.empireonline.co.uk/news/
SAG, BAFTA, and Empire awards; Will Smith admits Wild Wild West
sucked; Michael Mann on "Gates of Fire"; Schwarzenegger on T3; Austin
Powers title fracas

IGN FILMFORCE http://filmforce.ign.com/
Conan sequel script news item; Goldmember name change fracas;
spotlight on Monty Python's Terry Jones; Vin Diesel/XXX pics;
Dragonfly pics; Sean Connery in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?;
another villain cast for Bond 20; script review of Kevin Spacey's
Life of David Gale

IGN DVD http://dvd.ign.com/index.html
The Sopranos; 12 O'Clock High; Peter Jackson talks DVD

13TH STREET http://www.13thstreet.com/site/index.jsp
John Q clips; Kung Pow interview

UPCOMINGMOVIES.COM http://www.upcomingmovies.com/
Massive backlog of updates from week down; check them out.

**British Academy Awards to be held this year before the Oscars.**

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/news/news.asp?story=3676

Someone noted that these are "the second most important English-
speaking awards." I wasn't aware of that, if it's true--in fact, the
BAFTAs have never really been on my radar--but this year, they will
occur before the Oscars, and as such, are worth a look.

(Note the strong showing for Amelie, as well as acting nominations
for actors from Harry Potter, LOTR, and Shrek, below...and only FOUR
nominees for Best Director, when we've had a plethora of Auteurs with
Vision this year. To be more specific, howls of protest over the
Peter Jackson snub went up on message boards across the internet
yesterday. It wasn't a good day over at Ain't It Cool, let's just put
it that way.)

Best Film
Amelie
A Beautiful Mind
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Shrek

Best British Film
Bridget Jones's Diary
Gosford Park
Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone
Iris
Me Without You


The David Lean Award for Best Achievment in Direction
Jean-Pierre Jeunet for Amelie
Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind
Robert Altman for Gosford Park
Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge


Best Actress
Judi Dench - Iris
Nicole Kidman - The Others
Sissy Spacek - In The Bedroom
Audrey Tautou - Amelie
Renee Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary

Best Actor
Jim Broadbent - Iris
Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind
Ian McKellen - The Lord of The Rings
Kevin Spacey - The Shipping News
Tom Wilkinson - In The Bedroom

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Connelly - A Beautiful Mind
Judi Dench - The Shipping News
Helen Mirren - Gosford Park
Maggie Smith - Gosford Park
Kate Winslet - Iris

Best Supporting Actor
Hugh Bonneville - Iris
Jim Broadbent - Moulin Rouge
Robbie Coltrane - Harry Potter
Colin Firth - Bridget Jones's Diary
Eddie Murphy - Shrek

Screenplay (Original)
Amelie
Gosford Park
Moulin Rouge
The Others
The Royal Tenenbaums

Screenplay (Adapted)
A Beautiful Mind
Bridget Jones's Diary
Iris
The Lord of The Rings
Shrek

The Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Music
Amelie
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Mulholland Drive
Shrek

Film Not In The English Language
Amelie
Amores Perros
Behind The Sun
Monsoon Wedding
The Piano Teacher

Cinematographny
Amelie
Black Hawk Down
The Lord of The Rings
The Man Who Wasn't There
Moulin Rouge

Production Design
Amelie
Gosford Park
Harry Potter
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge

Costume Design
Gosford Park
Harry Potter
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Planet of The Apes

Editing
Amelie
Black Hawk Down
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Mulholland Drive

Sound
Black Hawk Down
Harry Potter
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Shrek

Achievement in Special Visual Effects
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Harry Potter
The Lord of The Rings
Moulin Rouge
Shrek

The Carl Foreman Award
Steve Coogan/Henry Normal - The Parole Officer
Julian Fellowes - Gosford Park
Joel Hopkins/Nicola Usbourne -Jump Tomorrow
Ruth Kenley-Letts - Strictly Sinatra
Jack Lothian - Late Night Shopping
Richard Parry - South West 9

**Surprising SAG noms**

Full coverage at http://www.oscarwatch.com/, which notes that,
shockingly, NICOLE KIDMAN WAS SHUT OUT of the SAGs. Shockers of
*inclusion*: actors from weaker movies who have previously not been
nominated this year (Kevin Kline, Sean Penn, little Dakota Fanning);
Jennifer Connelly moving up to Lead Actress instead of Supporting,
where she seemed to have carved out a feasible niche; the Ian
McKellen nomination so many of us had expected finally coming to pass.

However, Empire Online's page is easier on the eyes, and their list
is as follows:

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/news/news.asp?3683

For Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role
Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind
Kevin Kline - Life As A House
Sean Penn - I Am Sam
Denzel Washington - Training Day
Tom Wilkinson - In The Bedroom

For Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading Role
Halle Berry - Monster's Ball
Jennifer Connelly - A Beautiful Mind
Judi Dench - Iris
Sissy Spacek - In The Bedroom
Renée Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary

For Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Supporting Role
Jim Broadbent - Iris
Hayden Christensen - Life As A House
Ethan Hawke - Training Day
Ben Kingsley - Sexy Beast
Ian McKellen - The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring

For Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett - Bandits
Judi Dench - The Shipping News
Cameron Diaz - Vanilla Sky
Dakota Fanning - I Am Sam
Helen Mirren - Gosford Park

For Outstanding Performance By The Cast Of A Theatrical Motion Picture
A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In The Bedroom
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin Rouge

Okay, I've been a punk, not posting any full-length news reports the
last couple of days, but I'm having a hard time adjusting to
this "group" format and whether a plain-jane post or a full-features
Word document works better. Also, I can't tell if anyone's really
reading it (but thanks to our new members!).

Mostly I've been looking into advertisers/sponsors. If you can
recommend good affiliate programs or advertisers, let me know
(cleolinda@...). A friend of my mother's, for example,
let me know that not only does the online DVD rental service Netflix
have a good program, but he loves the service as just a customer. So
we're looking into that as well. Plus, we're getting some
DVD/poster "stores" together for the site's return, with a surprise
pre-order deal you may not know about...

It looks like transfer rollover is next Friday (!!) though, and I'm
sitting over here itching like I'm laid up with a broken leg. Any
input you guys have on what we can do to fix this situation in the
meantime (or make the existing site better while we've got time to
work on it) is appreciated.

--Cleolinda

God bless reader Kathleen, who just sent us an extremely well-
documented quotation from a Cinefantastique article. Here's her email
in part:

**"What we did contemplate," Jackson recalled, "and it was really for
the fans, was to have the hobbits walking through the Old Forest and
to see a feathered cap come darting through the trees, to hear the
sound of Tom Bombadil's voice and son and then have the hobbits turn
and run away as fast as they could!(he laughed) We thought (that)
would acknowledge Tom Bombadil in an affectionate-joke kind of way. We
didn't have time to do it."  (from the Dec/Jan 2002 Volume 33 No. 6
issue of Cinefantastique in the article titled LOTR:FOTR Peter
Jackson Being True to Tolkien: The New Zealand Director Honors a
Literary Classic)

If you want the magazine (it has about a 10 page article on the Lord
of the Rings and some 1 page things on it too) you can call 1-800-798-
6515, it's volume 33 no. 6.**

So--finally--are you Bombadil agitators happy?

--Cleolinda

Well, see what we can do here...we've put our daily news report,
the "Newstracker," up in a Word document in the files section. Let us
know if that's a good enough temporary fix. All links within it
should be functional; the only thing you're missing is having the
pretty pictures actually *on* the page.

Also, we've uploaded (for those who didn't get to see the first time)
the LOTR pictures we numbered for character identification, also a
collage of the pictures reader Jers sent us that we realized were the
missing piece of one of our Arwen questions.

P.S. We're trying to post only "original" files, i.e., photoshopped,
so that we don't get in trouble with Yahoo again. But we'll supply
links to anything else we find (as in the Newstracker document).

Don't forget to check out the Bookmarks section at right for our
favorite news sites.

Second P.S.--If you'd prefer not to receive these selected posts as emails,
please make sure you go to "Edit My Membership" and change your email options. I
know how a group can flood you with email before you've realized what happened,
and we don't want you to get sick of us. Thanks. :)

Cinescape has just put up 4 pics (2 new/exclusive; 2, better versions
of pics we've seen). They are as follows (might want to open a new
browser window; the address of the article is
http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?
aff_id=0&this_cat=Movies&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=270338&obj_id=324
01# , if the Cinescape server doesn't go down):

http://www.cinescape.com/multimedia/Master_Site/Movies/Master_SiteMovi
es279238.jpg
Caption: "Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers",with what looks like the Rohirrim surrounding him in the
background (see our EW scan of last week)

http://www.cinescape.com/multimedia/Master_Site/Movies/Master_SiteMovi
es279237.jpg
Caption: "Rohan refugees make their way to Helm's Deep in Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers"

http://www.cinescape.com/multimedia/Master_Site/Movies/Master_SiteMovi
es279236.jpg
Caption: "Rohan soldiers gather at the great fortress Helm's Deep"
(SO WHY IS EOWYN THERE?)
(This is the first photograph we numbered; go to the Group files
section to see that diagram)

http://www.cinescape.com/multimedia/Master_Site/Movies/Master_SiteMovi
es279239.jpg
Frodo being captured by Faramir's men (note the "Of Herbs and Stewed
Rabbit" pot in his hand)

Oscar Playoffs: The Golden Globes

(Sidebar: Who won the Golden Globes prediction pool? Well, strangely
enough—and you're gonna have to take our word for it, since the
site's shut down—the Lovely Emily, Mr. Typo, and Cleolinda all came
out with 6 correct predictions, and AngelDust with 5, unless you give
Cleo half an extra point for being unable to decide whether LOTR or
Moulin Rouge would take Best Score. We, however, do not. [Moulin
Rouge won Score.] )

It was a rough week for Lord of the Rings fans, folks—I'm gonna give
into my personal partisanship for that movie and discuss this
because, let's face it, based on the reader mail I'm getting, most of
our new readers are Tolkienites anyway. And, man, does it suck to be
us this week—not only was LOTR bumped down from #1 at the box office
by Black Hawk Down, which is just fine and dandy, but it was shafted
all the way down to #3 by Snow Dogs. Snow Dogs. Do you hear me,
people? **Snow F—ing Dogs.** F—ING SNOW F—ING DOGS!!!

(I can see what happened, actually. It was a long holiday weekend—my
sister, in fact, got both Friday and Monday off from school for
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—and there was next to nothing age-
appropriate for bored kids to see at the theater. BUT F—ING SNOW F—
ING DOGS!!!)

So then A Beautiful Mind takes all the Globe glory, with Crowe and
Connelly taking actor statuettes, which is cool (because, as you may
not realize, Russell Crowe is the man for whom I, Cleolinda, actually
coined the phrase "salty goodness," and Jennifer Connelly is, as the
former star of Labyrinth, just too cool for school)—but I'm sorry,
Akiva Goldsman's script winning? For a "sensitive portrayal of mental
illness" that yet completely ignores the facts that 1) John Nash had
some serious bisexual and/or homosexual issues in his life (Russell
Crowe talks—proudly!—about how this element got boiled down to
one "subtle" throwaway scene in which he "looks a little too long at
a male student"), and that 2) John and Alicia Nash divorced and
remarried after a separation of **nearly forty years.** Yet A
Beautiful Mind would have us believe that this is the story of One
Marriage's Triumph Over the Odds. And the issue of sexuality was
swept under the rug because they were afraid people "would link
schizophrenia to homosexuality." So you're saying we, the moviegoing
public, are idiots, is that it? (Okay—touché.) Or that, rather than
craft a complex look at how the two are NOT linked, you took the easy
way out and wrote a heartwarming story about a marriage that wasn't
all that invincible to begin with. Okay.

Pardon my crankiness, folks (keep reading and you'll see what
happened), because the point here, my friends, is that Christopher
Nolan's script for Memento was **robbed.**

Also, while I'm on the soapbox here, I cannot be entirely sure that A
Beautiful Mind actually won Best Drama, because when the show came
back from commercial break, it was almost immediately interrupted by
a local commercial for Faulkner Christian University (FAULKNER F———
CHRISTIAN F——— UNIVERSITY!!), and when my NBC affiliate was kind
enough to return to the show, Ron Howard was onstage talking with a
golden statuette in his hand. So we can only draw our conclusions on
that one.

(My sister AngelDust would, at this point, like to ask what was up
with the bias the show had with the closeups. Why did they show Kate
Winslet, bless her heart, like 500 times when there was a WHOLE TABLE
of Lord of the Rings men to feast our eyes upon? If you get paranoid
enough, you might start to wonder if Jeffrey Wells hasn't already put
his dastardly "full-bore campaign" against LOTR into action already…
(http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=movienews/confidential —scroll
down to bottom of page)

But we've gotta move on. The clothes were great, with only a couple
of abject misfires (Sela Ward and Sarah Jessica Parker, we're looking
at you). Personal favorites: Jennifer Connelly's Sharon Stonesque
black jersey number with the white flower in the decolletage; new
mother Cate Blanchett's amazing Chinese pantsuit; Halle Berry's
crystal-studded, chocolate-colored gown. Special mention: Kevin
Spacey for his memorial T-shirt, asking the assembly to raise their
glasses to the recently deceased Ted Demme; and Rachel Griffiths, a
Damn Fine Actress we were surprised—and pleased—to see win…and
saddened to see take the stage in what appeared to be a stripper's
castoff feather boa.

Speaking of Griffiths, we weren't the only ones
(http://movies.yahoo.com/news/va/20020121/101160197400.html) who
noticed the astonishing glut of red gowns—and Australians. Take a
gander at this list:

Russell Crowe (New Zealand-born, Australian-bred), Best Actor in a
Drama
Rachel Griffiths, Best Supporting Actress (TV)
Judy Davis, Best Actress (TV movie)
Cate Blanchett, nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, who
lost to…
Nicole Kidman, Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical
Baz Luhrmann, Best Comedy/Musical (he accepted, as the director and
producer)
Hugh Jackman, nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical
Mel Gibson (New York-born but Australian-bred), presenting the Best
Drama award

In fact, the only Antipodeans who didn't take home anything were with…
Lord of the Rings. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

Sigh…so what does this mean, in terms of the overall Oscar race?
Well, #1, it means that A Beautiful Mind has lurched ahead—as
compared to the earliest critics' lists, which focused on less
mainstream fare like Mulholland Drive, Memento, and Gosford Park.
However, Moulin Rouge, which topped many of the earliest lists, also
got an enormous boost from the twin Best Comedy/Musical category win,
as well as its other wins. (Speaking of Gosford Park—Altman's
surprise win for Best Director says that, whoever wins the Oscar, the
chances are growing by the day that it'll be one of those rare splits
where the Director and the Picture don't match.) Lord of the Rings,
whose heat seemed to peak at the AFIs a couple of weeks back, is
starting to look like a legitimate, yet close-but-no-cigar candidate.
Sissy Spacek is now almost guaranteed by the laws of time and space
to win Best Actress, and there will probably be a riot if she
doesn't. Connelly, while not as assured, is starting to look like a
legitimate front-runner for Supporting. Crowe seems poised to take
the Best Actor two years in a row, although I wouldn't count…um…some
other actor out. But we'll have to see who actually gets nominated in
February, because the wackiness of the drama/comedy Globe categories
is kinda messing us up (that, and Gene Hackman keeps getting shuffled
around from Best to Best Supporting and back again every time he's
nominated, it seems). But the real loser last night was Black Hawk
Down, even though it simultaneously had a huge opening weekend—not
only did it win nothing, but it was not even nominated. (Which made
our pre-show prediction that "Ridley Scott will look gamely dour,"
both mistaken and yet strangely apt.) But see, that's the thing about
the Golden Globes—even if they are largely considered to be "the
finals" in the playoffs that are the Oscar race, sometimes there's
nothing like a huge loss to create an overcompensatory push for a
newly-anointed underdog. So I wouldn't count anyone out yet.

**Links**
Hilarious Fametracker take on Aussie wins
http://www.fametracker.com/galaxy_of_fame/2002_01_21.asp

EW coverage
http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,9930,39669~11~~59thannualgoldenglobe,0
0.html

Yahoo coverage (tons of pictures)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Entertainment/Golden_Globe_Awards/

OscarWatch.com—take a look at the "For Your Consideration" gallery
for an idea of how the losing films' studios will try to bounce back
http://www.oscarwatch.com

Important message: We have exceeded our monthly data transfer--
something we never thought would happen, but there you go. We can pay
for more, but we're broke, and we're already on our second purchase
of an extra 500mb. We can't afford to pony up anymore this month.

But we'd like to thank all the new readers--we don't want to lose you
guys. We're trying to find advertisers and affiliate programs to help
make this thing support itself--so you may want to bookmark this
group (or join it, if you can) to keep updated on what the story is.
Please, if nothing else, just bookmark and/or remember to check back
on www.dailydigest.net come February 1, when our new data transfer
allowance comes in.

**We will actually post the news here in the meantime if we have to,
with links to the pictures and sites.** We'll also be working on some
new features while we're down to put up when we come back.

Also, **please do not post in this forum.** The Digest message
boards, which ARE for posting & discussion, are at
http://pub97.ezboard.com/bthedailydigest. Thanks so much, and hold on
tight with us for about a week while we figure out what to do.