Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch Sign Roman Polanski Petition

Woody Allen, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, and Terry Gilliam have added their names to the petition, organized by France’s Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), demanding the release of Palme d’Or and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, currently in the custody of Swiss authorities.
In 1978, Polanski pleaded guilty to a charge of statutory rape (sex with a minor) of 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Geimer), whom he allegedly drugged before having sex with her against her will. Polanski, who at the time claimed that the sex was consensual and that he was led to believe that the 13-year-old was 18, reportedly fled the United States upon learning, after spending 42 days in prison, that [...]

Oscar 2008: Miley Cyrus, Michael Moore, Ronald Harwood

Miley Cyrus, Robert Osborne

Ronald Harwood, Robert Osborne

Michael Moore, Robert Osborne
Photos: Matt Petit / © AMPAS

Oscar 2008 Predictions: Best Screenplay, Animated Feature

Elle Page, Michael Cera in Juno

Oscar 2008 Predictions: Acting Categories
Best Original Screenplay:

Diablo Cody, Juno
Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton

Possibly: Steven Zaillian, American Gangster (though actually "inspired" by a magazine article)
 

Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Joseé Croze in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best Adapted Screenplay:

Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Possibly: Sarah Polley, [...]

BEING JULIA – Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons

Being Julia (2004)
Direction: István Szabó
Screenplay: Ronald Harwood; from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1937 novel Theatre
Cast: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Shaun Evans, Bruce Greenwood, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson, Lucy Punch, Michael Gambon, Sheila McCarthy, Leigh Lawson, Rosemary Harris, Rita Tushingham
 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT AVICE
In Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 Oscar-winning classic All About Eve, Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, a major Broadway star who, despite her talent and wit, falls prey to the ambitious wannabe Eve Harrington: sweet, soft-spoken Anne Baxter on the outside, ruthless, poisonous gargoyle on the inside.
More than a decade earlier, in 1937 to be exact, W. Somerset Maugham had written Theatre, a novel about a West End star, the stage diva Julia Lambert (that four years later would [...]