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Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2020 22:07:17 GMT
Brad Pitt just won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Many felt that recognition was long overdue; that Pitt, while obviously a movie star (in the best sense of the term), is also underrated as an actor.
The answer is a resounding yes, according to Ad Astra's writer and director James Gray:
He is an unbelievably subtle actor in a way that I didn't even anticipate. And he's extremely intelligent, very shrewd, understands human behavior very well. In some sense, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Pitt is kind of an underrated actor ...
The expression is he can "fill it up," which means you give him some tidbits and he does the work. He thinks about it, you roll the camera, all of a sudden you can see the inner workings, the turmoil ...
Yet you might think of Pitt as "just" a movie star: a person hired for his looks, presence, and charm.
Even though he's also won a Best Picture Oscar as a producer for 12 Years a Slave. And his production company, Plan B Entertainment, has produced films like Selma, Moneyball, The Big Short, Moonlight, and The King, a movie I've already watched three times. (Who doesn't love Henry V?)
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2020 7:09:30 GMT
Joker star Joaquin Phoenix's speech at the Oscars Sunday night provided an emotional moment, ending with a tribute to his late brother River Phoenix. However, not everyone was happy. Dairy farmers were angered by a part of the speech where Phoenix criticized their industry for taking newborn calves from their mothers and breeding cows.
Wisconsin dairy farmer Tina Hinchley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newborns are taken from their mothers about 20 minutes after birth for their safety.
"If that mom had manure on her, we would risk that calf, our best genetics on the farm, getting contaminated with salmonella, E. coli or listeria, along with tetanus and all the other stuff that hangs out on the farm as well," Hinckley explained.
The calf is fed with colostrum from its mother, then bottle-fed with milk-replacement formula.
"Milk replacer is the best baby formula you can get," Hinchley explained. "It's powdered milk with all the vitamins and nutrients that a calf needs."
Hinchley admitted that a calf's mother will "moo for that calf a little bit," but said the mother does not charge at farmers.
"It's almost like 'Woo hoo, the babysitter is here. Now I can go eat,'" she explained. "And that is what she needs to do."
Carrie Mess of Lake Mills, Wisconsin published an open letter to Phoenix on her blog Dairy Carrie, and invited him to see the "natural world" outside Hollywood.
"Joaquin, you don't need to drink milk," Mess wrote. "You don't need to use or consume animal products. I respect your beliefs. But understand that there is no one more connected to the natural world than the farmers who are out here in the places you've never heard of, caring for the land and the animals. We've been sustainable and green since long before it was cool."
"I think that we've become very disconnected from the natural world and many of us, what we're guilty of is an egocentric world view — the belief that we're the center of the universe," the actor said as he accepted his Best Actor Oscar for Joker. "We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. And then we take her milk that's intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal."
"I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think that we have to sacrifice something to give something up," Phoenix continued. "But human beings, at our best, are so inventive and creative and ingenious, and I think that when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment."
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2020 21:59:33 GMT
The co-hosts of The View weighed in on the Oscars on Monday morning, along with guest Tyra Banks. The panel discussed the lack of a host, and how it effected the pacing of the show. All of the women seemed to agree that the show would be better off with a host to tie everything together.
The View had a light panel on Monday morning, but they made up fro it with their robust discussions. Joy Behar led them into the topic of the Oscars 2020, noting that it was "the second year in a row" without a host.
"People came out of nowhere, they just appeared!" Behar joked. "Eminem appeared and wandered onto the stage, Chrissy Metz — all of the sudden you see her there. And Renee Zellweger's acceptance speech was longer than The Irishman! I mean, it went on and on."
Behar poked fun at a few other stars before admitting that she had gotten her hopes up that there would be a host. She said that when Steve Martin and Chris Rock took the stage together, her first thought was that the Academy had "changed their mind" and hired hosts after all.
"I missed having a host as well," Sunny Hostin agreed. "I like the transition of having a host, I like the opening monologue, you know? I think it flows better."
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Post by Admin on Feb 14, 2020 1:10:04 GMT
When Natalie Portman wore a dress championing female film directors to the Oscars, she was praised by many - but also faced a backlash. "You are the problem," actress Rose McGowan said. "Yes, you, Natalie. Lip service is the problem. Fake support of other women is the problem." McGowan argued that Portman doesn't "walk the walk" because she doesn't have a great track record of working with female directors herself. Portman has now responded, saying the reason is that there are "gatekeepers at every level" who prevent such films getting made.
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Post by Admin on Feb 21, 2020 21:38:22 GMT
Joaquin Phoenix didn't wait long to walk the walk after mentioning the plight of mother cows and their babies in his Best Actor speech at the Academy Awards ... and a mama and her calf are living happily together because of it. The "Joker" star visited a slaughterhouse run by Manning Beef in Pico Rivera, CA the day after the Oscars to have a sit-down talk with Anthony Di Maria, president and CEO of the company ... and it led to something remarkable. Though the 2 butted heads over the nature of the industry, Phoenix and Di Maria found some common ground ... and the actor helped LA Animal Save liberate a mother cow and her newborn calf, a daughter. Joaquin's seen carrying the baby cow away from the holding area where she was born and onto a trailer with her mom. The bovine family will now be able to live and grow together at a Farm Sanctuary location in northern L.A. County ... and they now have names.
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