Vulture

Matthew Weiner Gives Hints About Tomorrow's Mad Men Season Finale

Lindsay Robertson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:52:29 -0500

This will be us tomorrow night at 10.

In a TV Guide interview, posted last night, creator Matthew Weiner mostly talks about his decision not to skip over JFK's assassination on his show (it would be "cowardly" and "a lie"), but the kind of rabid fan who's planning to host or attend a finale party tomorrow night will focus on the last bit, where in refusing to say much about the finale, he maybe says a lot (or maybe not):

"And so, the show heads toward its third-season finale with a new question: Is this finally the end of the Draper marriage? Weiner, notoriously tight-lipped, would say only that the finale episode is representative of the season's theme.

"I said at the beginning that it was about change, and things did change in the '60s," Weiner says. "But from the beginning of the series, I wanted there to be stakes to the fact that [Don] behaved the way he [did]. That's what you're seeing enacted right now: the irony of the fact that he came clean to Betty and his worst fear was that she wouldn't love him anymore. And there you are."

And here we are: something's going to change!

Exclusive: Mad Men Creator Discusses the Kennedy Assassination [TV Guide]

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Filed Under: mad men, matthew weiner

Ewan McGregor and Craig Ferguson Have a 15-minute Giggle Fit

Lindsay Robertson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:25 -0500

Ewan McGregor was on Craig Ferguson last night to promote The Men Who Stare at Goats, and the two must know each other pretty well, because it was less an interview and more just two guys making each other laugh. Ewan gets into Craig's Purell stash, claims that his nudity in films is a feminist act, and then the conversation goes off the rails and onto just the subject of goats. Good times.

Part 1: Ewan's "feminist" nudity:

Part 2: Goats:

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Filed Under: craig ferguson, ewan mccgregor

Gwyneth Paltrow Will Play Nicole Kidman's Wife in The Danish Girl

Lindsay Robertson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:44:47 -0500

Gwyneth Paltrow has replaced Charlize Theron in The Danish Girl, based on the true story of the first surgical transsexual, to be played by Nicole Kidman. [Variety]

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Filed Under: casting, charlize theron, gwyneth paltrow, nicole kidman

The Wanda Sykes Show Takes on SNL Tonight

Lindsay Robertson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:19:35 -0500

Thank god for 2-at-a-time DVR taping: the long-awaited premiere of The Wanda Sykes Show happens tonight at 11. Hopefully, Taylor Swift won't steal Syke's thunder -- we're especially excited about the "Bill Maher-type of panel discussion," but with drinking.
Wanda Sykes has a Show (Or so They Tell Her) [NYT]

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Filed Under: snl, talk shows, the wanda sykes show, wanda sykes

Rihanna: The Full Diane Sawyer Interview

Lindsay Robertson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:30:07 -0500

After a week of teases on GMA, ABC finally aired Diane Sawyer's full interview with Rihanna on 20/20 last night, and it actually lives up to the hype in terms of candor. Rihanna didn't deflect any of Sawyer's questions, even the tough ones, and comes across as someone who is doing this not as a publicity stunt but truly to help other victims of domestic violence. The fact that she refuses to totally rule out ever getting back together with Chris Brown might be seen as a dangerous message, but better that she was honest instead of preachy. The whole interview in four parts, after the jump.

Part 1: "I fell in love with my best friend."

Part 2: "It was almost as if he had nothing to lose."

Part 3: Rihanna thought Chris might kill himself:

Part 4: "You never know what the future holds.":

Read more posts by Lindsay Robertson

Filed Under: 20/20, chris brown, diane sawyer, rihanna

Week in Review: Eff Love

Mark Graham — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:25:13 -0500

All of you who were hoping that Vulture hero Hugh Jackman would reprise his role as the dashing host of the Oscars were dealt a minor blow on Tuesday when it was announced that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are going to tag-team the duties (after Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey all turned AMPAS down). This got the self-described "lucky" Alec off the hook with his daughter Ireland, for it turns out that he was wrongly credited as being the person who gave her that Lil Wayne birthday cake last week. And if you're wondering what Hugh Jackman thinks of this arrangement, well, it turns out he's totally cool with it.

So, what else happened this week?

Joel McHale showed us his tits, Mariah Carey almost showed hers to Jay Leno, and Miley Cyrus, well, she showed us her ignorance of hip-hop. Julian Casablancas wished it were Christmas, while Natalie Portman wished you hadn't sent her those letters. Ben Silverman landed his dream job, while alien Visitors landed on Earth. Cheaters cheated while Southland landed. John Hodgman wrote gems, while Jessica Simpson accused the writers of Melrose Place of writing crap. James Franco got soapy and Jake Gyllenhaal got sandy.

Dane Cook took on the haters while Katy Perry triumphed over communism. Law & Order ripped something else from the headlines, Oprah prepared to rip herself from CBS. Roland Emmerich is afraid of fatwas, but not of sequels. 30 Rock got bi-LARIOUS and the Germans loved it. The Precious backlash began in earnest, with Armond White leading the charge. While Jemaine Clement plotted to dump Bret McKenzie, Fox Searchlight did the same thing to his new film. Rihanna implored us all to "Eff love," while we said the same thing about Inside the Actors Studio. Some of the symbols used during the third season of Mad Men were a bit heavy-handed, but Roger Sterling never failed to crack us up.

Broadway’s Spider-Man Lives! Also, Peter Parker Cast

Lane Brown — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:20:30 -0500

Good news! Despite the various budget-related calamities that forced the production into hiatus and the release of actors from their contracts, the creative team behind Broadway's Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark just announced that the show will, in fact, open someday. In a press release, they say U2 tour organizer Michael Cohl will step in as the Bono-scored musical's lead producer, replacing the hapless David Garfinkle, who was allegedly responsible for most of Dark's money woes (he'll still serve in a lesser capacity, says the release). No opening date has been set, but Michael Riedel (who broke all of the above news earlier today) says it'll be next July. In further news, the lead role has officially been cast — as rumored, Peter Parker will be played by previously unfamous actor-singer Reeve Carney (pictured).

Here's Carney doing "Bohemian Rhapsody" at a gig in 2007:

Not bad! Vulture's deepest condolences, Josh Bednarsky.

Reeve Carney Is Broadway's Spider-Man; New Producers Promise 2010 Opening [Playbill]

Mariah Carey Speaks Out on Her Precious Mustache

Madeleine Kuhns — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:30:29 -0500

For Mariah Carey, the road to transforming herself into Ms.Weiss, an ally of the struggling protagonist in Precious, was hard — and hairy. Very hairy. To judge by her recent comments to the press, the diva’s notable performance as the weary, Rayon-clad, makeup-free social worker is dominated in her mind by the presence of one rather intense fake mustache, in addition to the other elements of the look that director Lee Daniels insisted on (he had Carey’s breasts bound and bags added to underneath her eyes, for instance). “I could see her hands shaking” as he makeup went on, Daniels told the L.A. Times. Hear Carey’s laments in the following quotes.

“They totally changed me. I didn't want to look in the mirror. It was beyond dressing down because Lee Daniels loved to torture me. He really wanted me to not just look plain, he wanted me to look homely. That was his goal. He wanted a mustache and an under-the-eye thing and the bad hair. Now I see why he wanted it because people didn't recognize me and he didn't want me to take people out of the movie because they were seeing Mariah Carey.” [Parade]

“But it was cool because a lot of people say they don’t recognize me in the film. They don’t know it’s me and, to me, that was a great gift that [Lee] gave me to be able to really go that far away from who I am.” [RS]

“I am glad people are telling me they don't recognize me ... But when it comes to my scenes, I get like, 'Oh, I don't know if I can look.'” [LAT]

“This is so ugly, man, I don't know what to do.” [People]

“Somebody who does makeup for me said this is a Mariah Carey nightmare. 'You have everything that you hate going on right now.'” [ABC]

“It wasn't just de-glamorized ... They added some hideousness on top of that too. I drank some ugly juice.” [Us]

“They added some [expletive] to my face. I'm not even a hairy person ... Lee wanted an extreme look. He wanted ultra-real. I represent the audience pretty much. Mary or Precious might not see her as a welcome friend. But she really does have good intentions.” [USAT]

Collapse Director Chris Smith on His New Doc and the Impending Fall of Civilization

Bilge Ebiri — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:20:44 -0500

None of the we’re-totally-screwed documentaries we’ve seen over the past few years could've prepare us for the terrors unleashed on our minds in Chris Smith’s riveting new documentary Collapse (out today). Basically a monologue by writer and thinker Michael Ruppert about the state of the planet and the problem of peak oil (the theory that once our oil resources reach their peak and begin to dwindle, industrial society will crumble along with it), Collapse at first seems miles away from previous films by Smith, which include such hits as American Movie and The Yes Men. And yet, despite its grim, intense atmosphere, Collapse subtly, almost imperceptibly, begins to show some of Ruppert’s very human vulnerabilities. Slowly, we become aware that the man is not a prophet, but just another human trying to come to terms with the decay he sees all around him. And, of course, that's when it becomes even more frightening. Director Smith sat down with Vulture this week to talk about the scary experience of discovering Michael Ruppert and the even scarier experience of making a movie about him.

How did you decide on the visual approach for Collapse?
This was very different from the other documentaries I had done, where the style was dictated by what was happening; I was filming events as they unfolded. The goal was to try to get people inside his head. We wanted to put the audience in his world — and only in that world — for the duration of the film. Our first obstacle was to find a place where the interview could feel like it was being done in one sitting. My cinematographer Max Malkin didn’t want to film in a studio; he wanted to film on location somewhere. So we thought maybe we could do a bombed out café somewhere and make it look like something out of The Road. But then we thought about the basement of this abandoned meatpacking plant. We wanted it to feel like a place where secret information could be conveyed. I wanted the style of the film to feel like an interrogation. Because it’s an interrogation for Michael and also for the audience.

It’s almost like an enhanced interrogation. It’s pretty brutal on the audience.
Everyone on the crew walked away from the experience feeling like they’d just been punched in the gut. But that’s kind of what we were trying to do — this was very much about this man and his mind and trying to allow the audience to experience what it’s like to live in his world for even the shortest period of time.

How convinced are you, now, about the accuracy of the things he says?
My opinion on these issues changes on a daily basis. This film made me think about these issues and to try to educate myself. And I discovered that there’s a huge number of scientists and scholars that fall on both sides of every issue that Michael talks about. The conclusion I’ve since come to is that no one really knows anything. Some think we’re headed for another crash, some people think that the market will continue to recover. There was a huge meeting on peak oil in Denver recently and so many articles came out of that. Different Ph.D.'s and industry experts say that we’re at this point in history where oil may have passed its peak. But then there was an article in the New York Times a month ago or so that was very convincing, and it said that we might actually have endless resources. I know a lot more about it than I did going into it, but I haven’t formed any conclusions.

Some will say that Michael is the classic model of the conspiracy theorist: He can process any piece of information and fit it into his worldview.
I wanted to have a dialogue with him where we could literally jump around form subject to subject. He knows so much about so many different topics that it was really hard just to question him in order to have an educated debate with him. He definitely can look at any piece of information and give you an argument about why it supports his theory. He is very intelligent and makes fairly convincing arguments. At first the film starts out, and it looks like it’s about you and what’s going to happen to you. And then it gradually starts to become about him. That mirrors the experience we had while making the film.

And you even reveal some inconsistencies later on. At one point, you ask him whether human ingenuity can save us, and he scoffs and says that it’s no use in the face of physical laws. But later on he says that the human mind will save us.
Those things were all intentional, to give this a kind of narrative arc: We wanted the character to evolve and to grow. But in order for all this to happen, you first had to understand his theory, which is why the first half of the film is all about his ideas and the second half is about the man and everything else that goes on with him. We wanted to show that he’s a complicated individual.

You seem to collect these very eccentric types and hold them up to the light. You made a film called American Job and a film called American Movie. And while there are pessimists and doomsayers in all countries, Michael Ruppert, too, seems like a distinctly American character.
You’re right. Maybe that’s what I’m attracted to. Michael definitely falls into the world of Mark [Borchardt, the filmmaker subject of American Movie] in terms of his energies and his unique view of the world. And he’s larger-than-life in a very American way.

And so much of the world has already experienced some form of collapse that some of his concerns sometimes seem like very American concerns.
That’s true, too, to some extent. We’re all about excess. When we were making our film in India, you know, the power would go out and they’d say, “No power for four hours,” and people just deal with it. Here people would completely freak out.

Did you feel a pressure to be more optimistic toward the end? A lot of documentaries about grim subjects, like An Inconvenient Truth, end with rah-rah calls to action these days.
Well, I hope we didn’t go that far. [Laughs] But Michael did take it there on his own accord. There were points in the interview where he did talk about how we can overcome these problems. I think part of the point that he and many of the peak oil people are trying to make is that whether this problem hits us now or in 30 or 50 years, it takes time to change the energy infrastructure of the entire planet. And if you wait till it’s too late, it could and it will have dire consequences. He does believe that mankind can change if it focuses its energy on it. His fear is that if you look at humankind, our tendency is to procrastinate and leave things till the last minute — which is something I do on a daily basis. That’s when it seems the scariest to me. What they’re talking about in terms of energy is that this isn’t something you want to react to; it’s something you want to prepare for.

Maggie Siff on Or, and Being Don Draper’s Soul Mate

Lori Fradkin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:30:08 -0500

Maggie Siff caught our eye during the first season of Mad Men as Rachel Menken, the savvy department-store head who has an affair with Don but turns down his invitation to run away with him. Save for a brief appearance in season two, she's recently spent more time with the bikers of FX's Sons of Anarchy than the admen of Sterling Cooper. In the world premiere of Or, at Women’s Project, Siff stars as Aphra Behn, the seventeenth-century figure thought to be the first female professional writer. She spoke with Vulture about the play, her two popular television roles, and why it’s good to take a break from L.A.

Did you know much about Aphra Behn before the play?
I knew very little. I mean, I knew her name, I had a vague sense of her being somebody important in female literary tradition, which is a little bit embarrassing. I was an English major in college! I mean, there’s a quote of Virginia Woolf’s: “Every female writer owes a debt of gratitude to her,” it’s a much more clever phrase than that.

How did your role come about?
As soon as I read it, I kind of thought it was a good part for me. My experience of reading the play was really interesting because I was like, Oh, no, this is going to be one of those verse farce plays, written by a contemporary playwright. And then it broke into prose, and I was immediately kind of riveted. I think it’s really a delightful play. It’s very cleverly imagined.

Aphra seems to share the independent spirit of your character on Mad Men. Is that something you look for in a part?
I mean, I love those roles. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think we find things and things find us that are sort of meant to. And I tend to find myself in those parts.

When we interviewed Jon Hamm last year, he said he thought your character and his are soul mates in a way. Do you feel like that’s the case?
I do, kind of, yeah. I think Matt Weiner is an incredibly smart storyteller, and everybody knows from the beginning that this is a guy who’s going to go through a lot of women. But I think that the way that our story ended up getting set up within the series is that you feel her absence. She’s gone, and then you’re like, Well, where did she go? And I think there are a lot of things in that show that come and go, and you feel their echoes. And so in a way I feel like that’s probably true between them.

You’ve since joined the FX dark comedy Sons of Anarchy. Do you feel like your character, Tara, fits into this independent-woman mold?
Well, she’s also a very strong character. You know, it was funny because when I auditioned for that part, Kurt Sutter, the creator, initially wasn’t sure that you could buy that I — me, the actress, Maggie — would have come out of that world. But he decided that it would actually be more interesting to make the character somebody who had come from the world but really stepped very far away to get an education. And so the character is incredibly smart — she knows better than to be there, but she’s there. And it brings up a huge amount of conflict. There’s sort of the battle of the primal self with the self who knows better.

Your background is in the theater, but in the past few years, you’ve really been a lot more visible on TV. What’s that transition been like for you?
It’s been really interesting. I feel like in some ways I’ve had a whole new learning curve, although it’s essentially the same art form. And yet there’s a way in which I miss New York and I miss the theater all the time. There’s some way in which when you’re living here and you’re doing theater, you’re just like sweating blood all the time. And sometimes that’s really oppressive and you’re exhausted and you’re broke and you’re questioning yourself all the time, and then you’re not doing that and things are more comfortable and they’re easier. I mean, my experience of being out in L.A., the quality of my life has gone up, and I have more time. But sometimes I feel like what's asked of me is just like a little sliver of what I can do.

The show was just postponed a few days because one of the actors got injured. What exactly happened?
Well, I’m not sure that I can give a medical description of exactly what happened. I know something happened to one of his vocal cords, and it was, as far as I understand it, hemorrhaging. The doctor put him on immediate vocal rest, so he didn’t utter a word for three days. You know, he had a strange feeling in his throat before the show started. He and the doctor think it might have actually started several weeks before from something more fluke-ish. It was during one of the performances that his voice was slowly giving out. He finished the show, and it was clear to all of us that something was wrong.

How’s he doing now?
He’s great. He went back to the doctor and she looked again and she gave him the okay to start performing again and said that he wouldn't cause damage to his voice by doing so, but he obviously needs to sort of be careful.

Community: Are You Sure You Don’t Want a Piece of That?

Mark Graham — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:15:12 -0500

Until last week's episode of Community, we had sort of been on the fence about the newest addition to the Peacock's Thursday-night lineup. However, something magical happened during the Halloween episode and, for the first time since the show's debut, the characters finally seemed to leap off the written page and began resembling something closer to believable portrayals of actual human beings (as opposed to phony archetypes of quirk). Sure, it didn't hurt that Britta was dressed up as an impossibly adorable squirrel, but what we reacted to most was Jeff letting his guard down and deciding to embody something other than a sarcastic asshole for a change. Sadly, last night's episode was a bit of a letdown from the highs of the week before, but hey, at least we got to see what snarkmeister supreme Joel McHale looks like without his shirt on!

Perhaps inspired by Vulture's recent rock-star chest-off, the producers of Community decided that it was high time to get their improbably ripped star's abs onto the airwaves. Since it would hardly make sense for Jeff to pop his top in Spanish class, we came to learn that his recent financial woes resulted in him having to leave the creature comforts in his comfy condo — like his bidet, which he tells Britta is strictly "for resale value ... and Saturdays" — behind. Turns out, the bank has changed the locks in his place and he's been living in his car.

After his current state of homelessness is outed by Shirley ("I'm not good at being coy"), the gang tries to decide where Jeff should live. After being turned down by Troy ("My dad's kinda racist"), Jeff lands himself a spot in the lower bunk of Abed's dorm room. Initially repulsed by having to shower in a common area, Jeff quickly adapts to the simple pleasures of dorm life: waking up late, watching cartoons all day, eating cereal out of plastic bowls. Sadly, there was no scene where Jeff and Abed trade bong rips during an epic session of Mario Kart, but maybe that will end up on the season-one DVD.

We'd like to say that a lot more happened during the episode, but sadly, it didn't. Annie's increasing obsession with Troy resulted in a spectacularly unfunny trip to the hospital (but hey, at least Patton Oswalt got some work out of it!), Shirley continued to not have much to do other than bug her eyes out, and Pierce temporarily joined Britta's ex-boyfriend Vaughn's band as a keyboardist. The latter resulted in a mildly humorous song that ripped into Britta for dumping the tiny-nippled lead singer of the band ("I'm gettin' rid of Britta / She's a G D B"), which instantly made us recall Chevy Chase's ode to Lacey Underall in Caddyshack ("I was born to rub you, but you were born to rub me first").

Anyway, by episode's end, Jeff moved out of Abed's dorm room, the sexual tension between Britta and Jeff remained intact, and Troy remained oblivious to the fact that Annie is crushing on him. Oh, but before we go, we've got a bonus clip for you. Watch ~~Trudy Campbell~~ Annie roll the dice!

More Recaps:
Entertainment Weekly was a little harsher with their assessment of this show, calling it "the equivalent of a bologna sandwich that had been left outside in the scorching sun for two-and-a-half weeks and then still deemed suitable to consume."
TV Squad was delighted to learn more about Abed, who they call "one of the most intriguing characters on TV right now."
Televisionary continues to give the show props, labeling it as one of the five best comedies on television at the moment.

Mad Men: The Complete One-liners of Roger Sterling

Lane Brown — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:45:58 -0500

With his philandering hampered by a recent marriage and his role at work made uncertain by his company's new British ownership, Mad Men's Roger Sterling has been sidelined from the narrative for most of the show's third season. To make up for it, though, Matthew Weiner has written John Slattery a hilarious new part as Sterling Cooper's court jester, giving him all of this year's funniest dialogue. Enjoy our video tribute to Roger's best one-liners of season three.

Related: What a Strange Trip It’s Been [NYM]

30 Rock Auditions for Middle-of-the-road Sitcom

Nick Catucci — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:46 -0500

Episode one’s study in meta might as well have been study hall; episode three, sadly, doubled back to muse on red-state humor. Last night’s episode — number four — promised more such high jinks (“Audition Day” — outsiders, in other words, trying to get in). But we believe it may come to be seen as the moment when the show went from snarky commentary to the very embodiment of its obsession: digestible, middle-of-the-road sitcom humor. Which would be fine with us, except that what this seems to mean is fewer and less absurd jokes — opportunistic, non-sequitur laughs discounted in favor of chuckles meant to reinforce character traits. Still, if it wasn’t It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it was funnier than most television. (By the way, did anyone else find The League hilarious last night?) The best part has to be when Jenna and Tracy take to his Hummer to recruit walking stereotypes for the audition. Watch below — it’s bi-LARIOUS!

Oscar Futures: Precious Arrives — With a Backlash?

Lane Brown — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:20 -0500

Every week between now and February 2, when the nominations are announced, movies and stars will help themselves — or, sometimes, hurt themselves — in the Oscar race. Vulture's Oscar Futures will listen to insider gossip, comb the blogs, and out-and-out guess when necessary to track who's up, who's down, and who's currently leading the race for a coveted nomination.

Best Picture	UP: Precious. You've been hearing about it since January and it's finally here! Mostly great reviews affirm its strong hand this season. But ...	DOWN: Precious. ... are these first sounds of the long-anticipated backlash? New York's David Edelstein didn't love it and Armond White's over-the-top pan got more attention than the raves (and some even agree with him, a little).
Best Picture	CURRENT PREDIX: Bright Star, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Invictus, Nine, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Up, Up in the Air

Best Director	UP: Jason Reitman Up in the Air. The Oscar-prognosticating Gurus of Gold returned this week and have his Air in the lead for Best Pic.	DOWN: Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones. Is he suited for the material? asks the Times: "[Alice Sebold's] book is soothing and rather solemn — two words that rarely have been applied to Peter Jackson."
Best Director	CURRENT PREDIX: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker; Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire; Clint Eastwood, Invictus; Rob Marshall, Nine; Jason Reitman, Up in the Air.
Best Actor	UP: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart. Fox Searchlight screened Heart (being described as a country-music Wrestler) for LA-based bloggers this week who all seem to think he could be a front runner.	DOWN: George Clooney, Up in the Air. Movieline notes that his role is essentially the same as Bridges' — and Bridges has never won.
Best Actor	CURRENT PREDIX: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart; George Clooney, Up in the Air; Colin Firth, A Single Man; Morgan Freeman, Invictus.
Best Actress	UP: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious. Critics who loved the movie are just as effusive about her performance: "Heartbreaking!" "The glue that holds it together!" "An astounding debut!" She's a lock for a nomination, at least.	DOWN: Marion Cotillard, Nine. Will she really compete in lead? She's great, say those who've seen it, but her role doesn't sound as big or flashy as Penélope Cruz's.
Best Actress	CURRENT PREDIX: Abbie Cornish, Bright Star; Helen Mirren, The Last Station; Carey Mulligan, An Education; Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire; Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia.
Best Supporting Actor	UP: Kodi Smit-Mcphee, The Road. There's not much movement in the category this week, but his movie's new and improved trailer, plus some appreciation from the Times, certainly doesn't hurt him.	DOWN: Lenny Kravitz, Precious. Practically the only actor in the film without any awards buzz or notable shout-outs from critics.
Best Supporting Actor	CURRENT PREDIX: Matt Damon, Invictus; Alfred Molina, An Education; Christopher Plummer, The Last Station; Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones; Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds.
Best Supporting Actress	UP: Mo'Nique, Precious. Critics are predictably impressed: "She burns a hole in the screen!" "If Oscar has a sure thing this year, Mo'Nique is it." Plus she's actually promoting the film now.	DOWN: Judi Dench, Nine. Not much buzz from this week's test screenings. If anyone from Nine beats Mo'Nique, it'll probably be Cruz.
Best Supporting Actress	CURRENT PREDIX: Penélope Cruz, Nine; Judi Dench, Nine; Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air; Mo'nique, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire; Julianne Moore, A Single Man.

Related: View the Party Lines slideshow from the Precious premiere.

Jemaine Clement on Why Flight of the Conchords Might End, and What Might Be Next

Mina Hochberg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:47 -0500

Earlier this week, Jemaine Clement broke the news that his folk-comedy duo, Flight of the Conchords, “very likely might not” return as a series. He and his elfin collaborator, Bret McKenzie, will make their final decision within the next month. What’s at stake? Family commitments, as it turns out. “Bret and I are both fathers,” Clement told us during an interview to promote his (troubled) new film Gentlemen Broncos. “We know if we take on another season, that means we’re not gonna see our family for a year.” Even if he dragged his wife and 1-year-old son, Sophocles (Soph, for short), from New Zealand to New York, where the show is shot, he says he’d still be working every single day.

If Clement does retire, hopefully we’ll see more of him on the big screen. (He is, after all, the best part of the flailing Jared Hess film.) “Films actually don't take a lot of time, but TV shows are so fast-paced. Even though they're both acting, they're almost totally different jobs,” he says. “People think actors wanna move to film because it’s high profile, and I don’t think that’s the reason. I think it’s simply that they have more free time.”