My latest MSN DVD column is up, looking at “Up in the Air” in light of its recent Oscar shutout and wondering if perhaps the Academy missed its point.
Though I do have to consider the possibility that the older members of the Academy thought they were voting for George Clooney’s character when they gave Ryan Bingham the Best Original Song prize for “The Weary Kind”.
Is that a first, by the way? An actual person up for an Oscar in the same year as an actor who plays a character with the same name goes up for an acting prize?
Did that even make sense? I’m awfully tired this morning.
In other news, I just heard Variety let Todd McCarthy go. Nuts.
I don’t know the answer to your question about an actual person having the same name as a character nominated at the same time. However, in regard to one of the questions you posted in your Oscar live-blog, Slumdog Millionaire was the first all-digital movie to win a Best Cinematography Oscar. Avatar is the first 3-D movie to win, though.