Kate Winslet Oscar Bait Doubles Overnight as Weinsteins Bump Up 'The Reader'

The last news we'd heard about Kate Winslet's post-WWII drama The Reader was less than reassuring: While the film ultimately got its first choice of leading lady after a pregnant Nicole Kidman backed out, the successive passings of co-producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack left Scott Rudin on his own with the broke-ass Weinsteins to maneuver the Oscar push everyone had in mind. Then, as recently as last month, Defamer operatives whispered that The Reader wouldn't make it to 2008 at all, instead landing somewhere of TWC's choosing in 2009 — if it could afford to release it at all.

Today, however, brings renewed optimism from Harvey, who planted a sigh of relief in Variety that The Reader has legs:

An Open Letter to P.T. Anderson on the Occasion of 'There Will Be Blood''s Miserable DVD Release

Dear Paul Thomas Anderson,

You know we love you. We've seen everything you've done multiple times, once even all in the same day. Our hearts soared when Daniel Day-Lewis credited your "mad, beautiful head" for his Oscar triumph this year; his appreciation spoke for us as well. Sure, we have issues with Magnolia (OK, we hate it), but at least when the DVD came around we were able to make a little more sense of your passion and indulgence. That behind-the-scenes doc by Mark Rance? Fantastic. We'd have preferred the commentaries like those in Boogie Nights and Sydney (a/k/a Hard Eight), but hey. If you're going to charge us for two discs, you'd better make the second one worth our dime.

Which gets us to this new two-disc "collector's edition" of There Will Be Blood, which Paramount Vantage released April 8. Pardon us, but what the fuck is this?

Massacred Film Critics Have a Friend in Scott Rudin

The film-critic deathwatch we launched here way back in January (and continued yesterday) hit The New York Times this morning, when part-time Oscar gadfly and inveterate media observer David Carr surveyed the carnage from the sidelines. It's not a story we haven't been hearing for years, but Carr's essential access to insiders from Scott Rudin to Michael Lacey — the bloodthirsty boss of the New Times chain currently decimating New York's Village Voice — hints that conventional wisdom among film and publishing types won't be reconciled any time soon:

"For those of us who are making work that requires a kind of intellectual conversation, we rely on that talk to do the work of getting people interested," said Mr. Rudin, who produced No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, two Oscar-nominated and critically championed films last year. "All of the talk about No Country, all of the argument about the ending, kept that film in the forefront of the conversation" and helped it win the best picture Oscar. ...

No Country for Old Men was a great film. I'm not trying to say it was anything but spectacular. But I'm going to fucking take the Coen Brothers to task on something. Ready? WHY THE FUCK IS THERE JACK LINK'S BEEF JERKY SO PROMINENTLY PLACED IN SUCH A PIVOTAL SCENE?"

Did Academy Officials Pinkwash Scott Rudin's Declaration Of Superproducerly Love?: Update

My goodness. What a night. We wish we could say we managed to get some sleep, but truth be told, we just wandered back in, having spent the last eight hours or so partying at Prince's new mansion—a stunning, 48-room villa he had constructed out of a rare purple travertine found only in Madagascar, which the Demonschlonged One had air-lifted and dropped at its current address of 3121 Mulholland Dr. Apparently, the glitter had yet to fully settle before a minor Oscars controversy erupted: You'll recall when Scott Rudin, whom viewers might have recognized from the classic Goya portrait "Producer Devouring One of His Assistants," closed his Best Picture acceptance speech with a special mention to "my partner, John Barlow. Without you, honey, this is just hardware." His spouse appeared nowhere on the screen—we pictured much mayhem in the control booth, with Gil Cates barking into a headset at a camera operator, "Not Travolta, you fool! Barlow! Check the legend! CHECK THE—oh never mind,"—but it was a tender moment nonetheless. Good As You now notices that the mention has been stricken from the official Academy transcript:

[C]heck out this official press transcript from the Oscars website and see how they chose to present Rudin's words:

UPDATE: The missing text has appeared!

Uncompromising Superproducer Scott Rudin Would Gladly Sacrifice 1000 Assistants For One 'No Country'

As a shepherd of great literary works from page to screen, assistant-gobbling producer/Kraken Scott Rudin is arguably without equal: He produced both of the dark, uncompromising visions currently vying for Oscar greatness, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. In an LAT profile, Rudin is credited with scooping up rich source material before it even hits bookstore shelves, pairing it with the right director, making casting suggestion, and even tweaking crucial moments in the script. (Recent legend has it that he quietly pulled P.T. Anderson aside between Blood takes to question if "maybe some other beverage besides Ovaltine might work better in that one line," before staring down at a half-finished Wendy's Frostee for the creative epiphany of a lifetime.) Still, no Rudin profile is complete without the requisite paragraph on his notoriously mercurial temper:

I, Rudin

· The trades mourn the recent silencing of their favorite of the Three Tenors. [Variety, THR] [THR]
· Scott Rudin beats out Warner Bros, Universal, Sony, and New Line for the movie rights to the historical novel I, Claudius, with Leo DiCaprio and his The Departed screenwriter William Monahan expected to jump ship from their failed WB bid to join the winning Rudin team. [Variety]
· The Agent Dance, East Coast Edition: NY-based CAA bigshot Bart Walker leaves the evil agenting monolith to form a talent management division at indie film powerhouse Cinetic. We expect reports of the mysterious torching of Walker's apartment to emerge shortly. [THR]
· Apple and Hollywood still can't decide whether to fuck or fight. [Variety]
· Studio execs head into the Toronto Film Festival with "fat wallets and a healthy appetite for product," ready to snap up any movie they think might make a buck during a possible strike by the guilds. [Variety]

ABC Very Gay-Responsible

How The Little Soccer Story That Could Ruined Scott Rudin's Week

Trade Round-Up: Studio Seeks Spielberg's Expertise With "Worlds"