Lee Farber is currently a writer for "The Soup" on the E! channel. Before that, he wrote on "The Wayne Brady Show" and won an Emmy.
It's shiny and pointy and looks great when worn around the neck. He is putting together his first feature, "The Yentas of Sunrise Lakes", about old ladies in Florida, because he knows what the public wants. Lee lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his collection of bootleg CDs.
Email him at Globe nominated and/or winning films. He has worked for talent, production companies and studios, in capacities ranging from PA to editing to marketing executive to screenwriter. He is an unabashed lover of cinema, a student of the art form and prone to seizure-like moments of clarity.
Steve Mason is a Los Angeles-based talk show host for 710 ESPN Radio. He has previously hosted the nationally-syndicated "The Late, Late Radio Show with Tom Snyder Steve One Radio Network. He is also President of which owns the University Village Theatres near downtown Los Angeles and in Palm Desert, California.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel (Paramount Vantage) scored the most nominations with 7, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Director, Best Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, Best Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza and Best Score: Gustavo Santaolalla. The Departed (Warner Bros.) was next with 6 nominations, followed by Dreamgirls (Paramount/Dreamworks) with 5 and The Queen (Miramax) with 4.
Among the surprises is Bobby (MGM/Weinstein) which snuck into the Best Picture (Drama) category. This will give the Emilio Estevez ensemble film a huge boost. To date, it has generated just under $11 million in domestic box office, but the Weinsteins may be able to leverage this nomination into another $10-$15 million.
Also coming from out of the blue, although I love the movie, is Maggie Gyllenhaal who receives a Best Actress (Drama) nomination for her work in Sherrybaby (IFC Films). This gritty little drama about a woman who tries to put her life back together and stay off drugs after being paroled, received a limited release earlier this fall generating just $200,000, but now, this movie will be seen and could score a couple of million.
The very best category at this year's Globes will be Best Foreign Language Film.
Letters From Iwo Jima (Paramount/Warner Bros.) and Apocalypto (Buena Vista) were only eligible in the Foreign Language category (at the Oscars, they are not eligible for Best Foreign Language Film because they were not submitted by foreign countries). Eastwood and Gibson will do battle with Volver (Sony Classics), Pan's Labrynth (Picturehouse) and the well-received German film The Lives of Others (Sony Classics).
My hunch is that this race boils down to Letters and Volver.
Today's nominations effectively kill chances for major success for a number of films. The Painted Veil (Warner Independent) received only a Best Score nom and now has limited upside.
The Good German (Warner Bros), Half Nelson (ThinkFilm), United 93 (Universal), The Good Shepherd (Universal), The Children of Men (Universal) and World Trade Center (Paramount) were all shut out.
Notable snubs in the acting categories include Ken Watanabe for Letters From Iwo Jima, Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps for Half Nelson, Catherine O'Hara in For Your Consideration (Warner Independent), Edward Norton for either The Painted Veil (Warner Independent) or The Illusionist (Yari Film Group), Matt Damon for either The Departed or The Good Shepherd, Derek Luke for Catch A Fire (Focus), Adam Beach in Flags of Our Fathers (Paramount/Warner Bros.), Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear all from Little Miss Sunshine (Fox Searchlight), Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond (Warner Bros.
), Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children (New Line) and Michael Sheen for The Queen all missed out on nominations. It will now be difficult for them to climb into the Academy Award race.
Fantasy Moguls Lowdown: Bobby, Babel and Little Children stand to gain the most in terms of domestic box office.
Babel is at $18 million now, and I say it could hit $45 million by the time the Oscars are handed out.
The Good German, starring George Clooney, is irreparably hurt by its Globes shutout. The film has received very lukewarm reviews from critics, and this black-and-white, noirish Casablanca homage almost requires awards attention to break through in the marketplace.
Because of the slow platform release, it remains a decent Ultimate Moguls play, but it will not score at the box office for you.
The Painted Veil is a slightly better Ultimate Moguls play because it has garnered some awards attention, but don't look for more than $10-$15 million in box office.
This effectively kills Warner Bros.
's efforts to save Blood Diamond. It will not recover from its awful first week without a nomination in the Best Picture (Drama) category.
Strange that Eastwood received one of his two Best Director nominations for Flags of Our Fathers, because it was left out of the Best Picture race.
People clearly like Letters better than Flags.
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