Gawker: defamer, baftas

Sharon Stone Slaps 'Slumdog' Star In Red-Carpet Mating Ritual

STV — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:36:53 EST

It looked innocent enough, but now we hear that the loving, open-handed greeting Sharon Stone bestowed Sunday night on BAFTA-nominated Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel had "cougar attack" written all over it.

Stone's assignment seemed simple enough: Present the evening's Best Picture award, naturally destined for Slumdog. But with neither a date nor a pioneering scientific theory to occupy her pre-show interview with the BBC, she instinctively courted a starstruck Patel's assistance. What happened next is open to interpretation, though British gossips report that the chaste Q&A belies the racier courtship that followed:

Stone, 50, reportedly dated 24-year-old Chase Dreyfus last year before their relationship cooled. And Stone proved she is keen on another young man - after the Basic Instinct star flirted with newcomer Patel, 18, on the red carpet at the prestigious film event.

He says, "Sharon's great, she's been flirting with me all night. She was chasing me around earlier, slapping me. Sharon Stone! Can you believe it?"

Dev. Buddy. Seriously. You're kidding, right?

Sharon Stone slaps Dev Patel [BBC]

Stone Sets Sights On 'Slumdog' Star Patel
[WENN]

BAFTA Winner Mickey Rourke One Gulp Closer To Oscar Glory

STV — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:57:19 EST

Mickey Rourke put some Oscar-race distance between himself and Sean Penn last night, winning the British Academy Awards' Best Actor prize before ceremonially washing it down backstage with a bottle of Champagne.

Maybe it was just the spirit of the moment, or maybe it was just a symbolic statement that there would be no milk served during the awards-season home stretch. Either way, with the powerful international consortium of the British, the foreign press, and the French breast-baring establishment all supporting him, Rourke's front-runner status is all but affirmed. Go ahead and re-book WrestleMania, Mickey — nothing can stop you now.

[Photo: AP]

Now It's Just Getting Ridiculous: 'Slumdog' Sweeps BAFTA Awards

STV — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:50:35 EST

As the last awards stopover for two weeks before the Oscars, the Orange British Academy Film Awards could have made things fun by rejecting Slumdog Millionaire just for the hell of it. Oh well.

Instead, Fox Searchlight's critical/commercial darling hoarded seven more trophies, including that for Best Picture and honors for director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and composer A.R. Rahman. All continue to be favored for Oscar night, as does Kate Winslet, who won Best Actress for The Reader. Mickey Rourke broke further away from Sean Penn, winning for The Wrestler and continuing his Sort-Of-Humble Comeback Tour '08-'09 by thanking director Darren Aronofsky for casting him despite "fucking up my career for 15 years."

The evening continued (mostly) predictably elsewhere as well: Benjamin Button went 3-for-11, winning only for production design, make-up and visual effects. Heath Ledger, Penelope Cruz and WALL-E each topped their respective categories, while In Bruges's unlikely awards-season resurgence continued with a Best Original Screenplay prize for Martin McDonagh. He'll again face off against Milk's Dustin Lance Black — without the European home-field advantage — at the Oscars. Enjoy that rare competitive category; the rest, as they say, is written.

Unstoppable 'Slumdog' wins at BAFTA Awards [LAT]

British Academy Award Nominations Couldn't Care Less About The British

STV — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:15:46 EST

As we navigate the jaded doldrums of mid-awards season, let's pause a moment to give the BAFTAs some credit for spiking its 2008 awards nominations with some counterintuitive, even self-loathing surprise.

Sure, Slumdog Millionaire coasted to 11 nods, sharing the lead with fellow Best Picture and Director nominee Benjamin Button, and sure, The Reader is shockingly well-represented with nominations for Picture, Actress and Director. (Kate Winslet is also nominated for Revolutionary Road.) But the trade-off is that Oscar probable The Dark Knight and director Christopher Nolan are out, as are — mindblowingly — Happy-Go-Lucky director Mike Leigh and Globe-winning actress Sally Hawkins.

It's too late in the Oscar voting cycle for the BAFTA snubs to yield any substantial influence over US Academy voters. Not that they necessarily would anyway, but TDK's banishment represents a reassuring-enough bitchslap for those members not comfortably persuaded by Nolan or his "achievement." And that's not the only upheaval of the Kool-Aid bowl: Winslet's two-fer cost Anne Hathaway a Best Actress berth (or Angelina Jolie's Changeling nom cost Hawkins — however you want to explain it). Tilda Swinton's Burn After Reading turn booted Doubt frontrunner Viola Davis from the Supporting Actress category. The Supporting Actor category calmed things down as Heath Ledger etc etc etc. The hardware finds a home Feb. 8.

'Slumdog,' 'Button' Each Score 11 BAFTA Nods [IW]

Baftas Crazy In Love With 'Atonement'

Mark — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:24:18 EST

· Like Mr. Tumnus having his way with Keira Knightly in a darkened family library, the BAFTAs make sweet, desperate love to Atonement, lavishing 14 nominations on the film; runners-up No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood (nine nods each), like adolescents wandering in on the lovers in mid-thrust, stare with a mix of jealousy and immature incomprehension at the act of carnality unfolding in front of them. (We now end this incredibly labored run of Atonement analogies.) [Variety]
· Breakout Juno star Ellen Page entrusts her red-hot career to first-time director Drew Barrymore, with Page taking a role as a roller-derby-playing "alterna-teen" (no need to stretch too far coming off a hit) in Whip It!
[Variety]

· The American Society of Cinematographers will honor Annette Bening for never making her DPs sully their craft by insisting that all lenses trained upon her be slathered in the youth-conferring lubricants demanded by her more vain peers. [THR]
· Rent will close on June 1st after ten wildly popular, overrated years on Broadway. [THR]
· Forest Whitaker enters the "playing coaches in uplifting sports dramas" phase of his Oscar-winning career, as he's in negotiations to join the cast of Patriots as the man who led a high school basketball team to the Louisiana state championship following Hurricane Katrina. [Variety]

Actress Plucked From Obscurity, Granted Bond Girl Immortality

Mark — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:20:54 EST

· Unknown actress Gemma Arterton has been anointed as the newest Bond girl, with her agent confirming her "nice-sized role" in Bond 22, though it's still unclear whether her part will fall into the "superspy sexual conquest" or "extremely attractive, but sexually unavailable, Mi6 functionary" categories of 007-supporting females [THR]
· Members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are (preliminarily, at least) head-over-heels in blighty* love for Atonement, listing the Joe Wright adaptation 17 times in their awards longlist (a mere 15 options per category!) for the BAFTAS, an announcement that mostly serves to let the public know which movies have been pre-snubbed for their eventual nominations. [*We only put that in for the benefit of our readers who are driven insane by Varspeak.] [Variety]

· The studios and the DGA are taking their time "slow dancing" a "protracted tango" on their way to the upcoming commencement of contract talks, a courtship ritual the jilted WGA hopes doesn't quickly lead to quick, sloppy "fucking in the coatcheck room" negotiations that could set a bad precedent for writers. [THR]
· Lovable Access Hollywood mannequin Billy Bush will host this year's Flackies, the 45th annual conferring of the always-hotly-anticipated Publicist Awards. [Variety]