ScottFeinberg.com

By Josh Abraham

This year’s winner of the Hollywood Fashion Awards – Best Dressed at Gala Ceremony: actress Michelle Williams.

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The vast majority of this year’s awards hopefuls have already played at least once on the festival circuit (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, and/or New York) and/or gone into general release. Most of those that have not are set for October or November releases. But a select few others are being held until December, the last month in which they are eligible to qualify for Oscar consideration this year, and only being selectively screened for the press before then, if at all.

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Last week, I had the opportunity to chat by phone for about 35 minutes with the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, 30, who will be attending the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night as a best actor (musical or comedy) nominee for his performance opposite Anne Hathaway in Edward Zwick’s edgy romantic-dramedy “Love and Other Drugs” (20th Century Fox, 11/24, R, trailer). In the film, which is largely based on Jamie Reidy’s autobiography, Gyllenhaal inhabits a classic leading man role that Cary Grant would have played if the censors had allowed films like this to be played in his day (and if Viagra had already been invented). His Jamie is a charismatic pharmaceutical salesman who wants perhaps the only woman in the world who doesn’t want him — because, he eventually discovers, she is suffering from early-onset Parkinson’s Disease and dreads the thought of becoming a burden.

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Tomorrow, the Directors Guild of America will announce its five nominees for the 2010 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film. I believe that they will be (in alphabetical order)…

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On Monday evening, I had the opportunity to chat briefly with James Schamus — the 51-year-old CEO of Focus Features and an Oscar-nominated producer (“Brokeback Mountain”), screenwriter (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), and songwriter (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) — backstage at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, where the actress Anne Hathaway had just presented him with a career tribute award and he had been greeted by members of the independent filmmaking community with a lengthy and well-deserved standing ovation.

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• Deadline Hollywood: Pete Hammond speaks with Rich Ross, the chairman of Disney, who conveys to him just how serious his studio is about its “Toy Story 3” Oscar campaign: “We’re going for the best picture win. We wanted to have the best movie and the reviews have clearly said that and it’s the number one box office hit of the year so I’m not sure why we would not go for it all?” Only two animated films have ever been nominated for the best picture Oscar — “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and “Up” (2009) — and neither won.
• Thompson on Hollywood: Sophia Savage reports that the Visual Effects Society will honor “Inception” director Christopher Nolan with its inaugural Visionary Award for his ability to utilize “the art and science of visual effects to foster imagination and ignite future discoveries by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.” Nolan — who has also directed “Memento” (2000), “Insomnia” (2002), “Batman Begins” (2005), “The Prestige” (2006), and “The Dark Knight” (2008) — will be presented with the award during the VES Awards ceremony on February 28.
• CBS Evening News: Katie Couric, the first woman to solo-anchor one of the networks’ evening newscasts, chats with Gwen Davis, 78, and Vera Sime, 80, two of the British women whose struggle for equal pay-for-equal work back in the sixties inspired the new film “Made in Dagenham.” The ladies came to New York in order to attend last weekend’s premiere of the film, at which they walked the read carpet. (On Wednesday, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked debate over and a vote for the Paycheck Fairness Act, “a bill that would make it easier for women to sue employers who pay them less based on their sex.”)
• All These Wonderful Things: AJ Schnack previews the Academy’s announcement of this year’s short-list of 15 documentary features (from which five will eventually be nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar). Schnack writes, “Word on the street is that [it] could come as early as today and as late as Monday.  And no one is sure whether the Academy will give the shortlisted filmmaker a heads-up phone call, as was the practice for years, or whether the list will be sprung without warning, as happened in 2009.” He notes that the widespread perception is that several films, including “Restrepo,” have “stumbled a bit” since the season began, while a few newer releases, including “Inside Job” and “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” are now believed to be at the front of the pack.
• Gold Derby: Tom O’Neil challenges fellow Oscar blogger Dave Karger to a “smackdown” after airing out his “beefs” with Karger’s list of predictions that were published in the most recent Entertainment Weekly. “My chief quarrel,” O’Neil writes, “is your ‘Long Shots’ list underneath. No ‘Winter’s Bone’? Blasphemy! It’s the indie darling of the year and one of the early DVD screeners sent to voters. [And] where is ‘The Way Back’?  Nearly everything Peter Weir helms gets nominated for best picture (‘Master and Commander,’ ‘Dead Poets Society,’ ‘Witness’) or almost nominated (‘The Truman Show’ nabbed him a bid for best director).”
• indieWIRE: Peter Knegt offers up his list of the top 10 original songs that were worthy of, but ultimately snubbed for, an Oscar nomination over the past decade. His selections include Bruce Springsteen’s title song from “The Wrestler” (2008), Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor’s duet “Come What May” from “Moulin Rouge!” (2001), and Gustavo Santaolalla, Bernie Taupin, and Emmylou Harris’s “A Love That Never Grows Old” from “Brokeback Mountain” (2005).
• People: An unattributed piece announces that Ryan Reynolds (a best actor hopeful for “Buried“) has been crowned People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for 2010, the 25th year in which the magazine has bestowed the honor. The 34-year-old jokes that the new title probably won’t change much at home with his wife Scarlett Johansson, GQ’s recently selected “Babe of the Year”: “Now it’s going to be, ‘Sexiest Man, take out the garbage.’”
• UPI: An unattributed piece announces that Film Independent has confirmed comedian Joel McHale as the host for its 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will be held at the beach in Santa Monica — and air exclusively on IFC — on February 26. Jeremy Renner (a best supporting actor hopeful for “The Town”) and Eva Mendes will announce the nominees on November 30.

Photo: “Toy Story 3.” Credit: Disney.

• AMPAS: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shares over 20 clips taken from its second annual Governor’s Ball, which took place on Saturday night. Among them are acceptance speeches from Irving G. Thalberg Award recipient Francis Ford Coppola (as well as toasts to him from director Kathryn Bigelow; director Roman Coppola, Francis’ son; actor Robert De Niro; and director George Lucas) and two of this year’s three honorary Oscar recipients, silent film historian Kevin Brownlow (toasted by actor James Karen; producer Lindsay Doran; and actor Kevin Spacey) and veteran actor Eli Wallach (toasted by actor Josh Brolin; actress Anne Jackson, Wallach’s wife; singer Tony Bennett; De Niro, again; and actor/director Clint Eastwood). Jean-Luc Godard, the night’s other honoree, elected not to attend the event (but was still toasted by cinematographer Haskell Wexler; film editor Mark Goldblatt; producer Mark Johnson; documentary filmmaker Lynn Littman; composer Charles Fox; writer/director Phil Alden Robinson; and actor Vincent Cassel).
• Thompson on Hollywood: Anne Thompson recounts the scene at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre on Sunday afternoon when moviegoers attending a retrospective of the four films on which director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have collaborated — including, most recently, this year’s “Shutter Island,” which Paramount hopes will land a best picture nomination like the other three — were treated to a Q&A with the two A-listers. (Both were beamed in via satellite from overseas cities, Scorsese from London where he is shooting a film and DiCaprio from Tel Aviv where he is celebrating his 36th birthday with his Israeli girlfriend and her family.) Scorsese said that his favorite film with DiCaprio was “The Aviator” (2004)
• Awards Tracker: Tom O’Neil thinks that Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) has “got a choke hold on Oscar’s supporting-actress bout,” noting that “we haven’t seen this much ’tude expressed in a loud, working-class twang since Marisa Tomei pulled off an upset win” for “My Cousin Vinny” (1992). O’Neil supports this fascinating comparison by listing even more parallels: “Both roles are over-the-top, demanding shrews who can’t 1.) stop whining, 2.) take ‘no’ for an answer, or 3.) keep their faces out of everybody else’s. They’re defiant dees-and-dems gals from blue-collar environs who wobble in high heels, wear their hair too big and their skimpy clothes too tight. Yeah, Tomei’s role is comedic, but, really — let’s be honest — so is Leo’s.”
• People: Reagan Alexander speaks with “Black Swan” stars Natalie Portman, a best actress contender, and Mila Kunis, a best supporting actress contender, about the intense training they undertook in order to convincingly portray professional ballet dancers. “I started a year ahead of time,” Portman tells him, “and by the end I was doing eight hours a day.” Kunis, meanwhile, says she “lost 20 pounds” as a result of her regimen, at the end of which she “looked like Gollum from ‘Lord of the Rings’… everything was just protruding.” Kunis also shot down reports that she and Portman sought “liquid courage” before filming their lesbian sex scene: “There was no tequila! Not sure where that rumor came from, but it’s false. I don’t think we could have done that scene if we were intoxicated.”
• Vanity Fair: Krista Smith profiles 12-year-old actress Elle Fanning, the precocious younger sister of Dakota Fanning, whose career “takes a giant step forward this month” with the release of Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” a film in which she plays the daughter of a famous Hollywood figure with whom she winds up hanging out at the Chateau Marmont hotel. Fanning essentially serves as a surrogate for Coppola herself, who often tagged along with her father, the director Francis Ford Coppola, when she was a kid.
• The Hollywood Reporter: Jay A. Fernandez posts the new red-band trailer for “Love and Other Drugs,” the sexy new romantic-dramedy that finds “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) lovers Jake Gyllenhaal, a best actor contender, and Anne Hathaway, a best actress contender, back in the sack together again. The trailer, which is “for restricted audiences only” (and requires a prospective viewer to insert his or her birthdate in order to try to ensure that those are the only people who see it), is, as Fernandez puts it, “full of naughty words with hard ‘k’ sounds and visual jokes about just plain being hard.”

Photo: Eli Wallach, Francis Ford Coppola, and Kevin Brownlow at the 2nd annual Governors Awards. Credit: AMPAS.

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of spending about 45-minutes on the telephone with Michelle Williams, who is not only one of America’s finest actresses — and, at 30, will probably remain one of them for decades to come — but who is also a deeply intelligent woman; a devoted single mother; and a real survivor. (She’s also not bad on the eyes!)

Williams became a star at the tender age of 17 on the hit TV show “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003) — I remember when it happened because I’m about the same age as her and often tuned in. She proved that she had the acting chops to match her looks in a number of early films, but especially “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), for which she received a best supporting actress Oscar nod. She attracted the interest of the tabloids when she first began dating her “Brokeback” co-star Heath Ledger, with whom she would eventually have a daughter, Matilda — and again in early 2008, when Ledger died suddenly. After a period of mourning and seclusion, Williams reemerged in a series of roles that brought her widespread acclaim — from the bare-bones indie “Wendy and Lucy” (2008) to the eccentric ensemble piece “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) to the Martin Scorsese-mystery “Shutter Island” (2010) — and, before long, she’ll be seen portraying another movie star who died far too young, Marilyn Monroe, in a biopic entitled “My Week with Marilyn.” Things have never looked better for her in terms of her career, but she’s not ruling out the possibility that she might wake up one day, decide that she’s had enough of it all, and call it quits. There’s more to life than being a movie star, she has learned.

Over the course of our conversation — a full transcript of which follows — Williams and I discussed virtually all of the above. We focused particularly, however, on the pinnacle achievement of her career up to this point: her remarkable performance in Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” (The Weinstein Company, 12/31, NC-17, trailer), a gritty, honest, adult drama about the complexities of a relationship. (To me, at least, it’s somewhat reminiscent of a play and film that preceded it by half a century, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”) To play the part of a woman who falls in — and, six years later, out of — love with the same man (Ryan Gosling), a lot was asked of Williams — extensive emotional and physical nakedness, a quick weight gain, and even some tap-dancing — and, as anyone who has seen the film can attest, she certainly rose to the occasion.

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• New York Press: Armond White, always the contrarian, trashes “The Social Network” — the most critically-acclaimed film of the year — for “sanctioning Harvard’s ‘masters of the universe’ mystique,” “[celebrating] moral confusion, social decline and empire building,” and “excusing Hollywood ruthlessness,” among other assorted ridiculous reasons. (Can somebody give this guy some Zoloft?)
• The Hollywood Reporter: Paul Bond reports that publicists for Disney, the studio that will be releasing “Secretariat,” have adopted the same promotional strategy employed by “The Blind Side” last year that led to huge box-office returns and Oscar nods for best picture and best actress: “going after what industry insiders like to call the ‘faith-based audience.’”
• The Playlist: Kevin Jagernauth obtains details about the soundtrack for the upcoming film “Country Strong,” which he refers to as “‘Crazy Heart’ 2.o,” and will feature songs performed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, and Leighton Meester. CDs will arrive in stores on October 26th, almost two months before the film goes into limited release.
• New York Times: Dave Kehr pays tribute to the director Arthur Penn, who passed on Tuesday (a day after his 88th birthday), and who “transformed the American film industry” through his film “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), as well as other classics including “The Miracle Worker” (1962), “The Chase” (1966), and “Little Big Man” (1970).
• The Odds: Steve Pond learns that Harrison Ford has been selected as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 2011 recipient of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which will be presented to the actor at a black-tie gala on November 19 — one week after the film “Morning Glory,” in which Ford stars, opens in theaters. Douglas quipped, “It’s always a pleasure to honor these young actors who do so well.”
• Gold Derby: Tom O’Neil shares the full list of Academy screenings scheduled for September and October, noting that “audience reaction is closely monitored by studio reps and award consultants, who count attendees and the number of walkouts, monitor applause (sudden loud clapping when the name of a director or costume designer appears on screen as the credits roll may mean a nomination is ahead), and eavesdrop on chatter in the lobby afterward.”
• Thompson on Hollywood: Anne Thompson confirms that the Academy’s submission deadline for all foreign language and short films (live action and animated) is 5pm PST this coming Friday, October 1. Each country is invited to enter one foreign language film for consderation, and over 55 have been submitted, thus far.
• Thompson on Hollywood: Sohpia Savage offers her take on the 30 most influential indie films from the past 30 years, as selected by 27 members of the board of directors of the Independent Film & Television Alliance on the occasion of the group’s 30th anniversary. The list includes “My Left Foot” (1989), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Juno” (2007), and even “Twilight” (2008), but inexplicably excludes “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006).
• USA Today: Anthony Breznican describes the plans of Lucasfilm to convert all six “Star Wars” films into 3-D (under the oversight of John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic) and then begin re-releasing them in theaters in 2012 (in the order in which they take place, as opposed to the order in which they were released).
• The Hollywood Reporter: Carl DiOrio explains the debate within the film industry over whether/how to respond to audiences’ demand for “on-demand” without killing off retailers. One idea: “Those paying $25-$50 to watch a movie on their cable or satellite PPV service would qualify for a coupon redeemable at disc retailers for a free DVD of the same title.”
• Vulture: Ross Kenneth Urken writes that Chris Noth, aka “Mr. Big” in the “Sex and the City” TV show and films, showed up at the premiere of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s “Jack Goes Boating” and responded to a question about “Sex and the City” from New York magazine by saying: “It’s over. The franchise is dead. The press killed it. Your magazine fucking killed it.” To which I say, “Some labels are best left in the closet!”

Photo: Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford in “Morning Glory.” Credit: Paramount.