Glenn Close & Michael Fassbender: Academy’s Governors Awards

Glenn Close: Potential Best Actress Oscar contender at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards.

Glenn Close: Potential Best Actress Oscar contender at Academy’s Governors Awards

Five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close, a likely 2012 Best Actress Oscar contender for her performance as a woman passing for a man in Rodrigo García’s period drama Albert Nobbs, is pictured above arriving at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2011 Governors Awards, held in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, Nov. 12.

Veteran actor James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars) was a long-distance Honorary Academy Award honoree. Make-up artist Dick Smith (The World of Henry Orient, Dad), for his part, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar.

TV talk show celebrity and sometime film actress/producer Oprah Winfrey (Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple) was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Glenn Close Oscar nominations

Glenn Close already has five Oscar nominations, all of them in the 1980s.

• Best Supporting Actress for The World According to Garp (1982).
  Director: George Roy Hill.
  Cast: Robin Williams. Mary Beth Hurt. John Lithgow.
• Best Supporting Actress for The Big Chill (1983).
  Director: Lawrence Kasdan.
  Cast: Tom Berenger. Kevin Kline. JoBeth Williams. William Hurt. Jennifer Tilly. Kevin Costner. Mary Kay Place. Jeff Goldblum.
• Best Supporting Actress for The Natural (1984).
  Dir.: Barry Levinson.
  Cast: Robert Redford. Kim Basinger.
• Best Actress for Fatal Attraction (1987).
  Director: Adrian Lyne.
  Cast: Michael Douglas. Anne Archer.
• Best Actress for Dangerous Liaisons (1988).
  Director: Stephen Frears.
  Cast: John Malkovich. Michelle Pfeiffer. Keanu Reeves. Uma Thurman. Swoosie Kurtz. Mildred Natwick.

Glenn Close’s biggest competitor next year will be two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979; Sophie’s Choice, 1982), who plays right-wing British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady.

Glenn Close photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen: ‘Shame’-ful presence at the Governors Awards.

Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen: Potential Oscar contenders at Academy’s Governors Awards

Actor Michael Fassbender and filmmaker Steve McQueen arrive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards ceremony, which was held in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood on Saturday, Nov. 12, ’11.

This year’s three honorees were:

• Best Actor Academy Award nominee James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, 1970), who is also responsible for the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars. Jones had to accept his Honorary Oscar from London, where he is appearing opposite Vanessa Redgrave in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy.
• Make-up artist Dick Smith, whose credits include The Exorcist, The Godfather: Part II, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Nighthawks, and Dad.
• Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Oprah Winfrey, among whose screen credits are Beloved and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

Michael Fassbender: Best Actor Oscar contender?

Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender are both potential 2012 Oscar contenders for their work on the psychological drama Shame. A couple of years ago, the duo had collaborated on the political drama Hunger – not to be confused with the vampirical drama The Hunger, Tony Scott’s slick 1983 production starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon.

Michael Fassbender has kept himself busy in 2011. Besides Shame, which also features Carey Mulligan, he was seen in the following:

• Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, with James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Jennifer Lawrence. (Fassbender plays Erik Lensherr a.k.a. Magneto.)
• Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, with Mia Wasikowska in the title role. (Fassbender plays Rochester.)
• David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, with Viggo Mortensen (as Sigmund Freud) and Keira Knightley. (Fassbender plays Carl Jung.)

Upcoming Michael Fassbender movies include:

• Steven Soderbergh’s actioner Haywire, with Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, and Antonio Banderas.
• Ridley Scott’s horror sci-fier Prometheus, with an all-star cast that includes Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron.

Additionally, Fassbender is set to star in Steve McQueen’s next effort, Twelve Years a Slave, and he is in talks to star in the planned RoboCop remake.

Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Glenn Close and Janet McTeer: ‘Albert Nobbs’ actresses and potential Oscar contenders in Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress categories.

Glenn Close and Janet McTeer: ‘Albert Nobbs’ potential Oscar contenders

Janet McTeer and Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs’ two “manly” female characters, pose for the camera while on the Red Carpet of the 2011 Governors Awards.

Janet McTeer was nominated for the 1999 Best Actress Oscar for Gavin O’Connor’s comedy-drama Tumbleweeds (1999), in which she plays Kimberly J. Brown’s mother. She lost to Hilary Swank – curiously, in a “manly” role – in Kimberly Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry.

This year – or rather, in 2012 – she is a likely Best Supporting Actress contender for Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs.

Glenn Close and Janet McTeer photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen, making a fashion statement.

Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen

Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen – the one with the shoes matching the Governors Awards Red Carpet – are seen above just outside the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood.

Like Tate Taylor, Fassbender and McQueen are both potential contenders for the 2012 Academy Awards – for their psychological drama Shame. The two had previously collaborated on the well-received 2008 political drama Hunger, starring Fassbender as imprisoned IRA member Bobby Sands.

Michael Fassbender movies

Michael Fassbender has been quite busy in 2011. Besides Shame, which also features Carey Mulligan, there have been:

• X-Men: First Class (2011).
  Director: Matthew Vaughn.
  Cast: James McAvoy. Michael Fassbender (as Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto). Jennifer Lawrence. Nicholas Hoult. January Jones. Kevin Bacon. Rose Byrne. Oliver Platt. Jason Flemyng. Álex González. Zoë Kravitz. Caleb Landry Jones. Lucas Till. Edi Gathegi. Demetri Goritsas. James Remar. Michael Ironside. Cameo: Hugh Jackman.
• Jane Eyre (2011).
  Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga.
  Cast: Michael Fassbender (as Rochester). Mia Wasikowska. Judi Dench. Jamie Bell. Holliday Grainger. Sally Hawkins. Craig Roberts. Simon McBurney. Freya Wilson. Sophie Ward. Imogen Poots. Valentina Cervi.
• A Dangerous Method (2011).
  Director: David Cronenberg.
  Cast: Viggo Mortensen (as Sigmund Freud). Michael Fassbender (as Carl Jung). Keira Knightley. Vincent Cassel. Sarah Gadon. André Hennicke. Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey.

Michael Fassbender and red-shoed director Steve McQueen photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Tate Taylor: Oscar hopeful at the Governors Awards.

Oscar hopeful Tate Taylor: Governors Awards

Tate Taylor, a potential Best Director Academy Award nominee for the socially conscious domestic sleeper hit The Help, arrives at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2011 Governors Awards, held in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood on Saturday, Nov. 12.

This year’s honorees were actor James Earl Jones, make-up artist Dick Smith (Taxi Driver, Altered States, Death Becomes Her), and somewhat controversial Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Oprah Winfrey.

While onstage accepting her award, Winfrey mentioned The Help, a likely Best Picture Oscar contender. The show business magnate said that the movie, which is set in the American South of the 1960s, felt like the story of her family, as both her mother and her grandmother had been maids to Southern white families.

‘The Help cast’

Based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett (who reportedly was Tate Taylor’s pre-schoolmate in Mississippi), The Help stars the following:

Emma Stone. Viola Davis. Bryce Dallas Howard. Jessica Chastain. Mike Vogel. Chris Lowell. Octavia Spencer. Allison Janney.

Best Actress Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980).

Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980).

Best Actress Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972).

Tate Taylor movies

The Mississippi-born (June 3, 1969, in Jackson) actor-director-screenwriter-producer Tate Taylor has been working in movies since the late 1990s. Prior to The Help, his only two directorial efforts have been the following:

• The comedy short Chicken Party (2003).
  Dir./Scr.: Tate Taylor.
  Cast: Octavia Spencer. Allison Janney. Tate Taylor. Melissa McCarthy. John Wesley. Josh Hopkins. Grady Lee Richmond. Terry Everett Brown. Jonathan Fraser. Ben Falcone.
• The poorly received comedy Pretty Ugly People (2008).
  Dir./Scr.: Tate Taylor.
  Cast: Missi Pyle. Larry Sullivan. Melissa McCarthy. Josh Hopkins. Phill Lewis. Jack Noseworthy. Octavia Spencer. William Sanderson. Ben Falcone. Tate Taylor.

As an actor, Tate Taylor’s credits – mostly in minor roles – include David Mirkin’s Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), Betty Thomas’ I Spy (2002), Adam Shankman’s short Prop 8: The Musical (2008), and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone (2010).

Tate Taylor photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

James Earl Jones – long-distance Honorary Oscar recipient – and Mary J. Blige.

Honorary Oscar recipient James Earl Jones

A Best Actor Academy Award nominee for Martin Ritt’s The Great White Hope (1970) and the booming voice of both Star Wars’ Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, Honorary Oscar recipient James Earl Jones, 80, had to accept his award – via a pre-taped ceremony – from London, where he is starring opposite Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia, 1977) in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy.

“I am gobsmacked at this improbable moment in my life,” Jones remarked. “You cannot be an actor like I am and not have been in some of the worst movies like I have.” (Redgrave, who has also had her share of poor movies – e.g., Bear Island – received her own Academy recognition the following day.)

In James Earl Jones’ honor, Academy president Tom Sherak hopped onstage in Hollywood dressed up as Darth Vader.

James Earl Jones movies

James Earl Jones – like Tate Taylor, born in Mississippi (Jan. 17, 1931, in Arkabutla) – has been featured in more than 70 big-screen productions, mostly in supporting roles, since his 1964 debut in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Here are a couple of notable titles:

• The Harlem-set comedy-drama Claudine (1974), with Jones as a garbage collector unsure about his relationship with a mother of six living on welfare.
  Director: John Berry.
  Cast: James Earl Jones. Best Actress Oscar nominee Diahann Carroll. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. Tamu Blackwell. David Kruger. Yvette Curtis.
• The Man (1972), originally to have been a TV movie. Adapted by Rod Serling from a novel by Irving Wallace, the sociopolitical drama stars Jones as – even if by default – the first black president of the United States.
  Director: Joseph Sargent.
  Cast: James Earl Jones. Martin Balsam. Burgess Meredith. Lew Ayres. William Windom. Barbara Rush. Georg Stanford Brown. Janet MacLachlan. Patrick Knowles. Robert DoQui. Anne Seymour. Cameo: Jack Benny.

Mary J. Blige and James Earl Jones Governors Awards photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Cary Joji Fukunaga

Director/screenwriter Cary Joji Fukunaga (a.k.a. Cary Fukunaga for short) is pictured above on the 2011 Governors Awards’ Red Carpet, outside the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood. Fukunaga had a prestige “arthouse” hit this year, Jane Eyre, starring the aforementioned Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska. Two years ago, his socially conscious drama Sin Nombre received numerous critics awards.

In 2011 Fukunaga was also an executive producer on Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s Alaska-set thriller On the Ice.

‘Jane Eyre’ movies

There have been countless movie versions of Charlotte Brontë’s classic Gothic novel – in addition to a number of variations on the tale. Notable ones include the following:

• Woman and Wife (1918).
  Director: Edward José.
  Cast: Alice Brady. Elliott Dexter.
• Jane Eyre (1921).
  Director: Hugo Ballin.
  Cast: Mabel Ballin. Norman Trevor.
• Jane Eyre (1934).
  Director: Christy Cabanne.
  Cast: Virginia Bruce. Colin Clive. Jean Darling (as the young Jane).
• Jane Eyre (1943).
  Director: Robert Stevenson.
  Cast: Joan Fontaine. Orson Welles. Peggy Ann Garner (as the young Jane).
• Jane Eyre (1996).
  Director: Franco Zeffirelli.
  Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg. William Hurt. Anna Paquin (as the young Jane).

Based on Daphne Du Maurier’s novel of the same name, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Best Picture Academy Award winner, Rebecca, was not only a Jane Eyre rehash of sorts but it has also been accused of being a plagiarized adaptation of Brazilian author Carolina Nabuco’s A Sucessora (“The Successor”). In Rebecca, the 1943 Jane Eyre, Joan Fontaine, starred as the mousy heroine “I” de Winter, while Laurence Olivier played the Rochester-like leading man.

Another 1940 Best Picture Oscar nominee, Anatole Litvak’s All This and Heaven Too, also shared elements in common with Jane Eyre. Based on a novel by Rachel Field, itself inspired by real-life events, the film starred Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Barbara O’Neil.

Cary Joji Fukunaga photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Robert Forster and Denise Grayson: Governors Awards’ Red Carpet.

Robert Forster and Denise Grayson: Governors Awards

Robert Forster, soon to be seen supporting George Clooney in Alexander Payne’s likely multiple Oscar contender The Descendants, is seen with actress Denise Grayson on the 2011 Governors Awards’ Red Carpet just outside the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, Nov. 12.

James Earl Jones (Best Actor Oscar nominee for The Great White Hope) was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree, as he was in London, appearing onstage with Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy. Make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist, The Godfather, House on Haunted Hill, The Godfather: Part II), for his part, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar.

TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Robert Forster movies

Robert Forster was a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997). Forster’s other film credits include:

• John Huston’s Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), in which he plays Marlon Brando’s object of desire and Elizabeth Taylor’s stalker.
• Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969), as a TV cameraman covering the social upheavals during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
• George Cukor’s Justine (1969), as a Coptic activist in this poorly received box office flop starring Dirk Bogarde and Anouk Aimée in the title role.

Among Denise Grayson’s movie credits is David Fincher’s critically acclaimed The Social Network.

Robert Forster and Denise Grayson photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Julie Taymor, Elliot Goldenthal.

Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal

Oscar-nominated songwriter Julie Taymor, in the news after suing Broadway’s Spider-Man producer and lambasting U2’s Bono and The Edge, is seen next to Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal on the red carpet at the 2011 Governors Awards.

Julie Taymor movies

Julie Taymor’s film credits include the following:

• The Tempest (2010), starring Helen Mirren as a female version of Prospero – Prospera – in addition to Tom Conti, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, and others.
• The musical Across the Universe (2007), with Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, and Joe Anderson.
• Frida (2002), with Best Actress Oscar nominee Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera.
• Titus (1999), with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus and Jessica Lange as Tamora.

Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal shared a Best Song Academy Award nomination for “Burn It Blue” from Frida.

Elliot Goldenthal movies

Elliot Goldenthal’s movie credits include:

• Julie Taymor’s Titus.
• Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
• Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever (1995), with Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O’Donnell, Michael Gough, Drew Barrymore, and Pat Hingle.
• Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy (1989), with Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, and Heather Graham.

Elliot Goldenthal won the 2002 Best Original Score Academy Award for Frida. Besides his Best Original Song nomination for the same film, Goldenthal was shortlisted two other times:

• Best Original Dramatic Score for Michael Collins (1996).
• Best Original Score for Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994).

Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Margaret Avery

Actress Margaret Avery, best known for her performance opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, attends the 2011 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, November 12. [Photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.] Actor James Earl Jones, currently appearing with Vanessa Redgrave in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy in London, was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree; make-up artist Dick Smith (The Hunger, The Deer Hunter), however, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar. TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey were both Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees for The Color Purple. They lost the Oscar to Anjelica Huston in John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor. Avery created a stir at the time because of her Oscar ads.

Viola Davis: Potential Best Actress Oscar contender.

Viola Davis: Eventual Best Actress Academy Award nominee for ‘The Help’?

Viola Davis, who stars in Tate Taylor’s socially conscious ensemble drama The Help, is seen arriving at the Academy’s Governors Awards held in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood.

Davis was a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee for John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (2008), starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. She is also a potential 2012 Best Actress Oscar contender for The Help, whose cast includes:

Emma Stone. Bryce Dallas Howard. Jessica Chastain. Mike Vogel. Chris Lowell. Octavia Spencer. Allison Janney. Ahna O’Reilly.

Best Actress Oscar winner and multiple nominee Sissy Spacek (won for Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980). Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980). Best Actress Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972).

Viola Davis photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) website.