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the disappearing genius

Why You Don't Care About Eddie Murphy

We needed a little time today to digest our feelings after the miserable box-office showing of Meet Dave, whose free-fall over the weekend resulted in the ugliest opening of Eddie Murphy's career. Not having seen it, we have to assume that $5.1 million gross aside, the film is at least superior to Norbit (not to mention Vampire in Brooklyn, Pluto Nash and a sprinkling of other Murphy misfires over the years). We'd even venture to say it'll be better than Beverly Hills Cop IV, the PG-rated abomination to which Murphy and Brett Ratner are attached for Paramount. Certainly it's better than The Love Guru, whose own beleaguered comic icon Mike Myers nevertheless had flowers and a thank-you note on Murphy's porch by sometime Sunday afternoon.

But the knives are out anyway, with at least one impassioned plea calling for Murphy's retirement and another damning rundown of 50 not-impressive films that had higher-grossing opening weekends than Meet Dave (which even our lowball estimate last Friday waaaay overshot). But the scope of the crash-and-burn — not to mention the relative quietude of the backlash — suggests a less-controversial denouement: Nobody cares about Eddie Murphy.

More »

5:15 PM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By STV
10,476 views, 37 comments

Latest by deusdiabolus: I think I have realized what it is I liked about Holy Man: It's Eddie, but it's not over-the-top more »

jennifer hudson

U.N. Reveals True, Trophy-Whore Colors By Inviting Recent Oscar-Winner Jennifer Hudson To Speak

In what could point towards a slackening of the once-rigorous standards for recruitment into their Celebrity Goodwill Ambassadorship grooming programing, American Idol survivor and recent Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson was invited to address the U.N. yesterday. She wasn't there to tattle to the Committee on Human Rights Violations about Simon Cowell's Geneva Convention-violating treatment of fellow Idol contestants, however, but rather to represent ladies' face-painting giant Avon (she's their new spokesmodel!) on International Women's Day: More »

3:53 PM on Thu Mar 8 2007
By Seth
2,139 views, 4 comments

Latest by Spence: The Delegate from Melonville now has the floor. more »

dreamgirls

DreamWorks Finally Apologizes For 'Dreamgirls'

Now that the Oscar ballot deadline has passed, the DreamWorks publicity team can safely shift its focus from designing Dreamgirls ads aimed at reminding Academy voters of frequently latex-hampered thespian Eddie Murphy's mastery of the awards-baiting man-cry to ones like this full-pager that appeared in today's Variety, publicly apologizing for the confusing dramatic license the film may have taken with the Motown story. There's some background on the reasons for the mea culpa here, including a quote from Berry Gordy's public statement applauding the studio for reminding everyone about the difference between movie semi-magic and reality, demonstrating no bitterness that Jamie Foxx's performance as the character based on him wasn't good enough to get an Oscar nomination. More »

2:14 PM on Wed Feb 21 2007
By Mark
3,198 views, 8 comments

Latest by yellojkt: Where is the apology for Citizen Kane? more »

dreamgirls

'Dreamgirls' Team Embracing Nontraditional Marketing Opportunities During Oscar Crunchtime

The peace of a Torrington, Connecticut multiplex was shattered Monday night, when an audience in the process of being vaguely disappointed by a 7:00 p.m. showing of Dreamgirls was suddenly jarred out of its immersively underwhelming cinematic experience by the unexpected intrusion of an out-of-control SUV barreling through the wall of the theater. The establishment's owner was predictably shocked by the unplanned intermission: More »

1:06 PM on Wed Feb 14 2007
By Mark
278 views, 14 comments

Latest by Miss d: Hullacious> Thank fuck I'm not the only one on the planet that thought "I heart Huckabees was a giant sack more »

oscars

DreamWorks Publicity Strikes Back At The 'Norbit' Problem

Presumably a little frightened by yesterday's LAT story wondering whether the inopportunely timed release of Norbit might make Oscar voters a little skittish about handing over their coveted acting prize to a man who's currently celebrating his craft from underneath a hundred pounds of cellulite-scarred latex, the DreamWorks publicity teams rushed this For Your Consideration ad in the trades today, one which immediately reminds the soul-searching Academy member that beneath those layers of stunt-blubber is a nuanced performer capable of an awards-worthy man-cry. More »

1:29 PM on Fri Feb 9 2007
By Mark
687 views, 2 comments

Latest by Little Mintz Sunshine: Wait...Dreamgirls is about BLACK people? more »

awards

Awards Round-Up: More From The Flackies

· More 2007 Flackies highlights: CBS President Nina Tassler picked up the Television Showmanship Award, Sony's Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal won the Motion Picture Showmanship Award, and Bob Barker, accepting the ICG President's Award, reminded the crowd "to have your pets spayed and neutered," though the microphone was quickly turned off before he could go on to suggest doing the same for publicists. [Variety]
· An e-mailed conversation between Fox Searchlight's two nominated screenwriters, Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and Patrick Marber (Notes on a Scandal). It's billed as "dishy," but we've read it twice now and there isn't a single word about how Abigail Breslin is actually a 48-year-old woman with a growth deficiency. [The Envelope]
· Your completely unsubstantiated Oscars rumor of the day: Diana Ross has been approached to sing one of the three nominated Dreamgirls songs. [Starpulse]
· Honorary Oscar recipient Ennio Morricone thought he'd never win an Oscar, telling the AP, "I have received so many beautiful, incredible prizes, but there was a little hole. Maybe the Oscar fills the hole." Maybe he does, Ennio. Maybe he does. [AP]
· Our favorite Oscar headline of the day: "Botox-aided pianist: Oscar cocumentary nod a 'gas'" No, we are not kidding. [Jewish Journal]

2:00 PM on Thu Feb 8 2007
By Seth
181 views, Comment

oscars

Can Oscar Voters Ignore Eddie Murphy's Troublesome Latex Fetish?

Eddie Murphy, according to today's LAT and various people not completely charmed by the actor's recent emergence from seclusion to humbly accept a handful of trinkets from various press organizations and professional guilds, might have a problem. While he's the frontrunner™ for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his eye-opening, "Hey, he can act!" turn in Dreamgirls, his peers in the Academy might pause as the quivering tips of their fountain pens approach his name on their ballots, have their minds flooded with unpleasant thoughts about the advisability of bestowing the single greatest honor in the history of human endeavor upon a man whose current project demands a Martin Lawrence-level of craft, and, after recovering from a prolonged vomiting fit brought on by thoughts of being asphyxiated by the disturbingly realistic, dimple-riddled ladyfolds of Murphy's Norbit costume, cast their votes for Djimon Hounsou. More »

8:45 AM on Thu Feb 8 2007
By Mark
16,459 views, 9 comments

Latest by Reason: Junkie, don't forget to mix some "Mad Black Woman" in there. Seriously, between Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence, and now more »

oscars

A Musical Oscars Round-Up: Celine Dion To Assault Global Audience With All New Song

· Celine Dion, the French Canadian chanteuse extraordinaire with seemingly insurmountable daddy issues, will be premiering a new song at the Oscars: "I Knew I Loved You," an Ennico Morricone composition with all new lyrics by Alan and Marilyn "Papa Can You Hear Me?" Bergman. [AP]
· Five time Grammy nominee James Blunt will be performing at Elton John's annual Oscar party at the Pacific Design Center. Whether that's an improvement or not over last year's entertainment, triple Grammy winner John Legend, we couldn't tell you, though it doesn't exactly surprise us that Elton's a real adult-contemporary Grammy whore. [ABCNews]
· Melissa Etheridge, nominated for An Inconvenient Truth's "I Need to Wake Up," compares the Oscars to the Grammys: "Being an Oscar nominee is a hundred times more intense. It's old school. They have rules—and they do things by the rules. The Grammys are more laid back." Translation: You're far less likely to stumble across a hastily scrawled sign reading, "DOIN SOME GROUPIES. DO NOT DISTURB" backstage at the Oscars. (But it's not out of the realm of possibility.) [LA Daily News]
· Bill Condon is putting together a Dreamgirls reunion performance, featuring Jennifer Hudson and "my Dreamgirls sisters," as she put it at Monday's luncheon. They'll start rehearsing just as soon as they can convince an increasingly unhinged Beyoncé to emerge from the bathroom in which she's been running a lipstick over her mouth while rocking back and forth and repeating, "You're still prettier, babygirl!" since last Thursday. [Orlando Sentinel]

5:27 PM on Wed Feb 7 2007
By Seth
1,183 views, 2 comments

Latest by MrPeepers: I think the stress of not-being nominated is starting to crack Beyonce's resolve and she's starting to stress eat. more »

paramount

Sumner Says Brad Said Totally Mean Thing About What People Really Think About David!

Just in case you haven't yet had your fill of stories about the backbiting between Paramount emperor Brad Grey and the sneaky studio usurpers crouching not-so-quietly inside the DreamWorks Trojan Horse he bought a year ago, the LA Weekly's Nikki Finke reports that skeletal Viacom executive presence Sumner Redstone may have signed Grey's death certificate by letting slip at a cozy power-player dinner party a rather impolitic comment about why Dreamgirls found itself without a Best Picture nomination. Clasping your hand to your mouth while trying to suppress an outraged "Oh. No. He. Did. Int!" is completely optional as you read on: More »

5:25 PM on Tue Jan 30 2007
By Mark
149 views, 7 comments

Latest by Tiger_Tanaka: Just play Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris", paint some lamb's blood over your front door, and your pets/children will more »

short ends

Short Ends: And I'm Telling You Something Frightening About How Much Free Time I Have


· Quite frankly, we're surprised that the YouTubes haven't been completely jammed up with videos of people lip-syncing to Dreamgirls songs.
· Please contact Kevin Costner immediately and direct him to If I Blog It, They Will Come.
· Today in Who Is And Who Isn't A Celebrity Scientologist: Posh Spice: Isn't. J.Lo: Isn't, but her father is. Tom Cruise: Still is.
· Why Hitchcock wouldn't talk to the kid who made the fish movie.
· And, just because: Priapic iguana has his penis cut off. But good news: He has two of them! [via BoingBoing]

6:16 PM on Mon Jan 29 2007
By Mark
50 views, Comment

awards

Little Best Picture Vs. Snubgirls

While we're generally content to let our wrong-coasted siblings over at Gawker have all the adventures in contextual advertising, we ran across this Little Miss Sunshine For Your Consideration ad in rotation around today's story about What Went Wrong with Paramount/DreamWorks' Oscar campaign for Dreamgirls. (Refreshing the page a few times might also yield a peek at the Dreamgirls FYC spot fighting for too-little-too-late pageviews.) If you watch Fox Searchlight's animated attempt to rub in "Little Best Picture's" nomination triumph closely enough, you may be able to see a single, fleeting frame in which the Sunshine's drug-addled grandpa symbolically shoves Beyoncé out of the film's iconic VW bus. More »

1:54 PM on Mon Jan 29 2007
By Mark
172 views, Comment

trade roundup

Trade Round-Up: Harvey Weinstein Glutting Himself At Sundance Acquisition Buffet

· Yesterday's Oscar nominations lead studios to adjust the release strategies for their recognized films, with Warner Bros. expanding The Departed from about 100 to almost 1500 screens and adding more showings of Iwo Jima this Friday; meanwhile, a despondent Paramount will fight the urge to yank Dreamgirls from theaters over its Best Picture snub. [Variety]
· A re-energized Harvey Weinstein continues his Sundance "feeding frenzy," "gobbling up a smorgasbord of films," bragging, "At this point, I'm buying shit just to piss off Sony Pictures Classics. Fuck, I'm good." [THR]
· American Idol continues to crush the hopes and dreams of rival network execs, pulling in 32.6 million more viewers even when hampered by the State of the Union address. [Variety]
· Dreamgirls' failure to be included in the Best Picture race deprives Oscar handicappers of the reliable predictive strategy of picking the most-nominated film to win the big prize, throwing the entire race into utter, wide-open chaos. [THR]
· Former MPAA head Jack Valenti defends the organization's pilloried ratings system, noting that surveys reveal that it serves its intended purpose of helping parents shield their children from exposed breasts while simultaneously allowing them maximum exposure to graphic violence. Also, a white elephant is mentioned, whom Valenti credits with originally dictating the ratings guidelines to him. [Variety]

1:00 PM on Wed Jan 24 2007
By Mark
168 views, 1 comment

Latest by nojo: The system, he pointed out, "wasn't designed for studios or executives or directors or journalists or critics"... Having watched This Film more »

short ends

Short Ends: Salma, Dakota, Anna Nicole, And Jamie

· Pictured: At this morning's Oscar nominations announcement, Salma Hayek is thrilled to learn that Academy president Sid Ganis was just kidding when he told her that part of her duty as co-presenter was to give him a topless hot-oil massage at the conclusion of the press conference.
· While everyone's in an uproar over the Dakota Fanning rape movie at Sundance, no one's said anything about the one where Fanning rapes Rainn Wilson, a truly disturbing double-standard.
· Anna Nicole Smith is exactly as literate as you'd suspected.
· Jamie Foxx is exactly as classy as you'd suspected.
· It might be time for DreamWorks to cut down on that Dreamgirls For Your Consideration budget.
· Quickly, before he takes the podium: Here's your State of the Union drinking game. More »

6:03 PM on Tue Jan 23 2007
By Mark
158 views, 4 comments

Latest by jew-jew: I loves me some Rainn Wilson. Dakota, I will have my revenge. more »

oscars

'Dreamgirls,' White Skin, And Acts Of God: An Oscar Nominations Round-Up

· The Gold Derby blog's Tom O'Neil didn't take the Dreamgirls shut-out too well, but after some deep soul-searching and spiritual communion with his higher, musical-loving power, decided the only logical explanation was that Academy members simply couldn't identify with the African American, showtune-belting experience. Or, as he puts it, "Because they can't break out of their white skins, that's why." [GoldDerby]
· For counterpoint's sake, here's New York critic David Edelstein's thoughts on the matter: "I thought Dreamgirls was thoroughly mediocre (with one song, "We Are Family," among the most eardrum-lacerating things I've ever heard), but the dis is stunning." [New York]
· Imagine hearing this on your United flight into LAX: "The women in row 23 just got nominated for an Academy Award!" Then imagine the wild applause dying down once the captain comes back on the P.A. to announce, "Sorry, folks. False alarm...unless you're a big fan of documentaries about Jesus going to summer camp or something." [Yahoo/AP]
· With this year's Best Picture nominees grossing even less than last year's crop, Ellen DeGeneres is going to have to dance until her tuxedo is soaked through if she expects audiences to show up and stay. [PopWatch] More »

3:29 PM on Tue Jan 23 2007
By Seth
131 views, 5 comments

Latest by Nomi Malone: hee. fabulous picture. "i don't do back-up!" more »

oscars

The Oscar Nominations: And We're Telling You 'Dreamgirls' Is Not Going To Win Best Picture

Hollywood's Christmas Morning is finally here, the time when eager Oscar hopefuls rise at an obscenely early hour, rush downstairs in their footie pajamas, and hope to find the previous year's good career behavior validated with lovingly wrapped awards nominations left under the Academy's gilded tree; those deemed good enough for recognition spend the day fielding phone calls from the media, who ask difficult questions about how it feels to be on the receiving end of the golden shower of adoration offered by one's peers (invariably, it feels good! And it's an honor just to be nominated!), while the snubbed quickly retreat back up the stairs to their bedrooms, where they self-medicate their soul-crushing disappointment by swallowing handfuls of prescription painkillers, sobbing through their publicist's assurances that they're still so very, very pretty, and that in this day of the YouTubes, no one watches the Oscars anyway. More »

6:36 AM on Tue Jan 23 2007
By Mark
849 views, 37 comments

Latest by IKnowThings: Keillor didn't write it by himself, Ken Lezebnik (or something like that) adapted the story for a screenplay. But your more »

golden globes

Golden Globes TableHopperWatch: Brad Grey Loves Your Movie The Most

Obviously looking to stir up some trouble, an anonymous tipster dropped us this note about the conspicuous table-hopping activities of Paramount emperor Brad Grey, whose various fiefdoms came away with awards for Dreamgirls and Babel: More »

12:57 PM on Tue Jan 16 2007
By Mark
246 views, 1 comment

awards

President Ford's Death: The Awards Season Impact

The NY Times' David "The Carpetbagger" Carr explores the heart-stopping, bowel-loosening effect that yesterday's national day of mourning (and postal service interruption) to recognize former President Gerald Ford's passing had on studio publicists anxious to get their screeners into awards voters' hands on the first work day of the new year, who spent a jittery, mail-free Tuesday contemplating the cruel "purgatory" in which their precious DVDs languished because of the utterly inconvenient death of a former President: More »

10:19 AM on Wed Jan 3 2007
By Mark
92 views, 6 comments

Latest by Procrastinator, Esq.: Jerry Ford was just taking a page from the Andrew Sarris playbook on elderly, senile people fucking up awards votes. more »

awards

Awards Round-Up: Oklahoma! Where They Like The One About The Plane

· The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle name United 93 last year's best film, Martin Scorsese best director, and Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker best actress and actor. They stray from the pack with the addition of two unusual categories, "Obviously Worst Film," and "Not So Obviously Worst Film," which go to Basic Instinct 2 and Bobby, respectively. [Oklahomafilm]
· Utah Film Critics Association also award United 93 their best film prize, but opt to give Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón the best director nod for Children of Men. Best actor goes to Sacha Baron Cohen—the only category not to feature a runner-up, proving Cohen had unanimously astounded Utah's tastemaking elite with his Jew- and Gypsy-leery character's picaresque adventures. [Variety]
· The African-American Film Critics Association lavishes their love upon Dreamgirls, naming it best picture, Bill Condon best director, and giving best supporting acting awards to Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. Forest Whitaker wins best actor, and in the "one of these things is not like the other" slot is Helen Mirren for her work in The Queen. [The Envelope]

1:38 PM on Tue Jan 2 2007
By Seth
52 views, Comment

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