Let me start off today by saying that the PEN15 Club has always made a policy of not discussing Britney Spears. She bores us, we’ve never been consumers of any of her “art,” and we’d rather just pretend that she never existed. In that spirit, I won’t be mentioning last night’s MTV fiasco, which I didn’t watch live but caught later after numerous text messages insisted it was unmissable. The whole spectacle was too depressing to comment on, but I will say that I was reminded of two moments in classic film history: 1) Gwen Welles’ narcotized striptease (which she’s sure is her big break) toward the end of Nashville and 2) King Kong, doped and chained on the stage of a Broadway theater.
Anyway, on to the news of the day. It’s long been theorized that Best Supporting Actress Oscar winners are doomed to dismal careers after they win the gold statue (have you seen Mercedes Ruehl lately?). I would argue that the Academy has disproved this urban legend lately by awarding a healthy mixture of bona fide stars (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Cate Blanchett) and addictively hireable character actresses (Judi Dench, Marcia Gay Harden). Heck, even Marisa Tomei and Mira Sorvino have highly anticipated prestige pics from top directors opening this fall.
Jennifer Hudson, this year’s winner, was always going to be a tough post-Oscar sell. Juicy roles for zaftig African American women are not particularly easy to come by. But who would have predicted that she would follow up the win by playing Sarah Jessica Parker’s assistant in the doomed Sex and the City movie? Good God, how busy could Wanda Sykes be?
Somewhere, Geena Davis and Brenda Fricker are swimming in schadenfreude.
Hudson moves to ‘Sex and the City’ movie [Hollywood Reporter]
