A&E

After an interview with Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and Founder and Curator of The Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University, the Daily Beast's Jacob Bernstein has come up with a list of 10 ways to win an Academy Award. They include:
+ Speak with a funny accent;
+ Play a famous person;
+ Get fat/ go ugly (by, for example, donning a plastic nose);
+ Play the piano;
+ Die ("either beautifully or horribly".)
Oh, and with the notable exception of Jimmy Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, singing and dancing won't win you a gong.
More here.

No need for Australian free-to-air viewers to wait until nighttime this year; Channel 9 has announced it will screen the Academy Awards live on Monday, March 8, from 11am. According to a Nine media release, the coverage will start with the Today Show’s Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson hosting a red-carpet special, crossing to Richard Wilkins at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles at 11am. The award ceremony proper, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, will start at 11.30am.
Update: I spoke to Richard Wilkins today and, ironically, he says, as a viewer, he'd much prefer to wait until the nighttime broadcast, like a footy fan who turns away when the scores are on the news. However, he says, the internet and other news sources has created a demand for a live broadcast. And, of course, he'll be in LA, so there'll be no escaping it. (Still, it's hard to feel sorry for him.)

The old George/ Lyceum Theatre in George Street is reopening on March 11 under the name Tribal Theatre. Films already programmed range from Casablanca to Pulp Fiction. Details here.

An email from John Cleese reveals that the former Monty Python member is working on a musical version of his hit film A Fish Called Wanda. Cleese writes to his fans:

"It appears that my daughter, Camilla, is doing her best to outpace her dear old dad at every turn. We've just completed the book for the musical of A Fish Called Wanda and I'm pleased that Camilla hasn't completely stolen all of my dignity in writing so brilliantly. She's left me a few scraps to hang onto to keep me warm at night. Soon, we'll start to work on the songs for the show with Bill Bailey, who, among his many achievements, is an honourary member of the Society of Crematorium Organists. This musical is destined to be a hit amongst funeral directors."

According to a tweet from the Queensland Theatre Company, its artistic director, Michael Gow, will not renew his contract and will leave in August after programming the 2011 season. While Gow has led the company to some great artistic heights, his departure creates an opportunity for the QTC to renew itself. I think he's been wise to step aside while he's on top, although some will undoubtedly say that he stayed a little too long. No doubt there'll be a lineup of the usual suspects when the job is advertised, but true theatre lovers will hope the QTC board mounts a thorough search and brings in an AD who can lead the company to great success on the local, state, national - and international - stage.

The Odeon chain has refused to screen the new Johnny Depp-Anne Hathaway film, Alice in Wonderland, at its cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Italy, because the studio wants to reduce the film's cinema-only window from 17 weeks to 12 weeks. The Disney Studio wants to release the film on DVD in May, and the cinema chain says this would set a precedent. Disney says that in some cases, the window is too long and there is increased piracy between the time films stop screening at cinemas and are available on DVD. This showdown between a cinema chain and a distributor is not the first, nor will it be the last -- and it has ramifications beyond Europe and beyond the film industry. In this rapidly moving world, many consumers want to dictate how, when and where they see a TV program or movie, or listen to music or some other broadcast. Quite simply, the people who produce a work want to make as much money as they can, and increasingly they will take the product directly to the market that will allow them to do that.

Just for fun, here's a YouTube clip editing together Alfred Hitchcock's cameos in his own films. Can you spot him?

Brisbane journalist Des Partridge has retired after 53 years in newspapers, mostly at The Courier-Mail, where he has been the film reviewer for four decades. Spencer Howson spoke to Des on his 612ABC breakfast show, and you can hear the audio here.

My weekly spot on 612ABC's Breakfast with Spencer Howson show starts for 2010 on Friday, January 22, at 6.50amAEST when I'll give my spin on issues affecting Brisbane, the media, the arts and whatever else comes to mind. Spencer's program is the highest-rating AM breakfast show in Brisbane and was the No.1 show in its timeslot five times out of eight radio surveys last year (three times on its own and twice tied with Nova 106.9, which won the other three surveys). You can listen online at 612live.com.

A few years ago Joe Jackson, one of my all-time favourite musicians, made the decision to move from New York City to Berlin. He cited, among other reasons, the fact that he could no longer smoke at his favourite places in NY. (Here's an article he wrote for the New York Times about the smoking issue. I found two relevant videos on YouTube. In the first, below, comedian Sara Schaefer rallies New Yorkers to urge Jackson to return:

Is Brisbane's Arts Theatre haunted? The Sunday Mail has a fun video here featuring the theatre's president Alex Lanham, who says he can feel the presence of the company's founder, Jean Trundle, back stage. Meanwhile, in the world of the living, the Arts Theatre's latest production, a revival of John Birmingham's He Died with a Felafel in his Hand, is doing a roaring trade. Last night's performance was a sell-out, but tickets are available for performances for performances on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Details here. Later this year, the Arts will host the premiere of Birmingham's The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco.

This is very exciting. Australian media is now reporting the arts like it reports sport -- i.e. telling us that the Aussie lost before telling us who actually won. Here's how thecouriermail.com.au reported the result of the Costa poetry prize (and yes, they did leave off the "d" on award in the headline):

January 14 will see the Australian premiere of Bran Nue Dae, the movie. The Brisbane opening of the stage musical on which it is based remains one of my favourite nights in the theatre, and if the film - starring Rocky McKenzie, Jessica Mauboy, Ernie Dingo and Geoffrey Rush -- goes any way towards recapturing that magic, it will be brilliant. Here's the trailer.

Congratulations to Patrick "Captain Picard" Stewart for receiving a knighthood in the New Year's honours -- presumably for his outstanding work on American Dad.

TMZ.com, the website that broke the news of Michael Jackson's death, is reporting the death of Clueless and Sin City actress Brittany Murphy of cardiac arrest at the age of 32. Murphy starred in a string of teen-oriented TV series and films and her voice featured on King of the Hill, Futurama and the movie Happy Feet. According to imdb.com, she has several projects pending.
Update: The report has now been confirmed, with speculation that her death involved drugs. Not a surprise in Hollywood, but a tragedy nevertheless.