A Tribute to Dick Smith: The Godfather of Special Makeup Effects

The Godfather: Dick Smith and Al Pacino (top); Smith, Marlon Brando, and Phil Rhodes (bottom)

"A Tribute to Dick Smith: The Godfather of Special Makeup Effects" will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Six-time Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker will host the evening, which will be attended by Dick Smith himself and will feature a panel discussion including writer-director Guillermo del Toro, actor Hal Holbrook, and makeup artists Greg Cannom, Kazuhiro Tsuji and Andrew Clement, among others.
The evening will highlight Smith’s long career, which began in 1945 when he became NBC’s first [...]

Oscar Answer #6

Oscar Answer No. 6
That’s Barry Fitzgerald (right, with Bing Crosby and Rise Stevens), who received best actor and best supporting actor nominations for his role as the cranky but golden-hearted elderly priest in Leo McCarey’s syrupy Going My Way (1944). Fitzgerald lost the best actor Oscar to Bing Crosby, the official star of Going My Way, but won the best supporting actor award.
Academy rules were then changed to prevent any more double nominations for the same role.
Other performers who have been nominated in the same year, but for different films, are:

Fay Bainter in 1938 (lead in White Banners, supporting in Jezebel);
Teresa Wright in 1942 (lead in The Pride of the Yankees, supporting in Mrs. [...]

Oscar 2005: Sidney Lumet to Receive Honorary Award

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Board of Governors has chosen director Sidney Lumet, 80, as the next recipient of the Honorary Oscar. The award, in honor of Lumet’s "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture," will be presented at the 77th Academy Awards ceremony on February 27, 2005.
Lumet, who made his feature-film début in 1957, has been nominated four times for a best directing Academy Award: 12 Angry Men (1957), starring Henry Fonda; Dog Day Afternoon (top photo, 1975), starring Al Pacino; Network (1976), starring William Holden, Peter Finch, and Faye Dunaway; and The Verdict (1982), starring Paul Newman.
Lumet (along with Jay Presson Allen) was [...]

THE INSIDER – Al Pacino, Russell Crowe

The Insider (1999)
Direction: Michael Mann
Screenplay: Eric Roth and Michael Mann, from Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Cast: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Colm Feore, Michael Gambon, Rip Torn
 

 
"It’s old news. … We’ll be ok," says Don Hewitt (Philip Baker Hall), the creator of the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes. "These things have a half-life of 15 minutes."
"No, that’s fame," replies 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer). "Fame has a 15-minute half-life. Infamy lasts a little longer."
The infamous "things" referred to by Hewitt and Wallace are the scandals that erupted in early 1996, when it was revealed that CBS News had refused to air an interview [...]

Venice Film Festival 2004 Wraps Up

The 2004 Venice Film Festival came to a close on September 11, after nearly two weeks of glitz, glamour, and glitches. Besides loads of Hollywood stars and a number of well-received and/or controversial films, the festival also offered frequent overbooking and long delays at the screenings.
The culprit, according to festival officials, was an uncooperative computer system. As a result of the electronic snafu, Al Pacino couldn’t find a seat for himself at the screening of The Merchant of Venice (above), in which he stars as Shylock, while the crown prince of Malaysia and his entourage arrived at the long-delayed presentation of the most expensive Malaysian film ever, Princess of Mount Ledang, to [...]