L A Starz - Award Shows and the Stars Who Attend Them

MORA, MORA, MORA

We were recently looking through our celebrity portfolios and realized just how many more pictures and autographs we still have to share with you! From the SAG Awards, we will be putting up new candid pictures of David Boreanaz, Lisa Nicole Carson, Juliette Landau, Bradley Whitford & Jane Kaczmarek, and more.

* note: the above pictures have been added to the Screen Actors Guild page

We've also added pictures from last week's MTV Movie Awards, including Brenden Fraser & The Rock,

Sean Combs, Aaliyah, Tom Cruise, Julia Stiles, Halle Berry, Sean Patrick Thomas, Cameron Diaz and the Lady Marmalade sirens, Pink, Mya, Lil' Kim, and Christina Aguilera.

TV NEWS

Nominations for the 17th annual Television Critics Association Awards were announced on June 3rd. Nominees for Program of the Year are: Gilmore Girls (starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel), Survivor II (shouldn't this be in another category?), The Sopranos (with Lorraine Bracco and Edie Falco), The West Wing (starring Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, and John Spencer) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the amazing cast includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anthony Head and Amber Benson).

The Television Critics Association Awards ceremony will take place July 21st.

MOVIE REVIEWS

PEARL HARBOR is a fairly entertaining movie, though we don't expect

the cast to take home many acting awards. BEN AFFLECK was a

handsome enough leading man, but we found ourselves looking at him

on the big screen and just saw Ben Affleck playing a movie role.

KATE BECKINSALE simply lacks the charisma to lead such a

dynamic production. We can think of several talented actresses who

possess the right personality for the role and subsequent promotion.

Katherine Heigl for example. We heard several movie goers comment on such distractions as the way certain lighting illuminated Ms. Beckinsale's extensive facial hair and the glare of her pearly white perfect teeth. She just didn't fit the role of a 1940's beauty. JOSH HARTNETT, on the other hand, was perfectly cast as Danny Walker, the connecting link of the love triangle and was by far the most appealing of the three lead actors.

Josh Hartnett made his feature film debut playing Jamie Lee Curtis's son in 1998's Halloween H20, and was immediately recognized by fans as someone to watch. In 1999, for his role in H2O, he was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance, the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Male Newcomer and was chosen as one of Teen People Magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21." Josh also won 1999's Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor/Actress for portraying Zeke, the mysterious high school student in The Faculty. His future movie releases include Forty Days and Forty Nights which is currently scheduled for release in January, 2002, and O, which was filmed in 1998 but was held back while America dealt with it's school violence issues. O finally premiered on May 26, 2001 at the Seattle International Film Festival and will hit theaters nationwide on August 24th.

Back to Pearl Harbor ... it too is a film which might inspire today's students to explore America's history surrounding World War II, though many independent film reviewers have pointed out historical inaccuracies and suggest any viewing of this movie be followed by the "real" Pearl Harbor chronicle, Tora Tora Tora. As for Pearl Harbor's characters, Cuba Gooding, Jr. compassionately portrayed a real life hero (Dorie Miller), Tom Sizemore was perfect as rough and ready Earl, and Dan Aykroyd did a great job in a serious role. Jon Voight (who is currently working on a film with Ron Lester), was virtually unrecognizable playing President Eisenhower and many feel his performance will be remembered when next winter's major award nominations are announced. It was also a delight to see Popular's Sara Rue appear in the Navy Nurse Corps.

The film's cinematography was breathtaking, the attack scenes brilliant, but some scenes felt like a Top Gun prequel (Pearl Harbor even has a pilot named Goose.) To quote one reviewer, Pearl Harbor isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a great movie either, which is sad, because it easily could have achieved greatness.

MOULIN ROUGE

contributed by Susan Cruz

Moulin Rouge opens slowly (read boring) as I kept an eye on my watch timing Nicole Kidman's first appearance in the film. It was worth the wait: she makes a spectacular entrance on a swinging sling slung from the ceiling singing Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend and she does not disappoint for the remaining two hours of this film. I wish I could say the same for the movie itself. Yes, it is dizzying, dazzling, electrifying, bizarre, blindingly colorful and very, very loud. Baz Lurhman, the director, seems to have emptied the entire contents of his CD collection along with his giant box of crayons into a spirograph warped on speed and Moulin Rouge was born. Who needs magic mushrooms when eight bucks for a movie ticket sends you on a lengthy hallucinogenic trip? The only saving grace was the surprising vocal talent of Kidman and Ewan McGregor. The soundtrack was entirely enjoyable. *

* this review & the opinions stated are not shared by the editor