By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Oscar Nastiness Pot Calls Kettle Black
Crazy Nikki Finke does the holiday routine of elderly, mean aunties everywhere, spreading gossip while pretending to just be the reporter telling the story of the bad behavior of others.
First, she recounts the Blu-rays given out at the Leo DiCaprio party for Tobey Maguire. Not a secret. Wrote about it the next morning.
Thing is, Maguire’s performance is tremendous… something I have been saying for over a year. And the biggest problem with him getting traction is that Lionsgate has prioritized Precious. Nikki, as always, has to throw mud, so she attacks Kelly Bush as “desperate.” Hardly. She’s doing her job. And she has been no more aggressive than many of the other personal publicists out there who believe in their clients.
Next, Nikki brings up more old conversation – covered weeks ago here – about whether the gross on The Hurt Locker will somehow disqualify it from winning Best Picture. Hardly badmouthing. A discussion point, overstated.
Next, C. Nikki goes on about Avatar… another week old story. No one serious is talking about nausea or box office being a problem for the movie… not since it was seen. (I will, however, have a DP/30 discussion with WETA effects god Joe Letteri about how they managed the problem that 100% full out 3D in chase scenes and others would, in fact, make people vomit.)
What idiot is claiming that Paramount is overspending on Up In The Air? Paramount has been much more conservative than last year and expects to actually make money on this movie, whereas Button was so expensive that they were fighting uphill the whole way. Complete non-story.
Badmouthing of Lee Daniels? Yeah. In the NY Times. A month ago. Is Nikki teaching history now?
A Serious Man being hard for Jews to take? Wow. That one goes back to stories done September. And no one who worked on the movie seems to take it seriously… even if it makes Focus staff a bit uncomfortable.
And attacking Harvey Weinstein based on credits issued by HFPA… which have had huge mistakes every single year I have covered the Globes announcements? Oh how the bitchy have fallen!
Nikki must be having a hard time getting anyone to tell her what’s going on now… and not just the old, played out news. So sad for her. The New Queen of Mean declawed by her own sources. Boo hoo.