Veteran actor and American Express pitchman Karl Malden died at age 97 today, continuing a bizarre string of celebrity deaths. Malden was an Academy Award winning actor, for his work on A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared in several other films including On the Waterfront and Patton. While he is best known to younger audiences as the man who said “don’t leave home without it”, we here at Bewildered Society would like to remember him for his final on-screen role, as Father Thomas Cavanaugh on the episode Take This the Sabbath Day of “The West Wing”. It was basically an extended cameo, however the parable he delivers was considered for our list of The Ten Best Aaron Sorkin Speeches. Below is that parable.
A man is trying to do a live reaction story about the death of Michael Jackson. Instead, he gets the reaction of an obese man to mixed drinks and a television camera. Eventually he gets tired of it.
A few days ago it was announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that their awards–commonly referred to as The Oscars–would have not five but ten nominees for the best picture Oscar. The reaction was decidedly mixed, with many of the detractors suggesting that the new rules will add to the already long broadcast while merely increasing the number of art house nominations.
If the expressed purpose is to get more genre films such as Wall-E (above) or The Dark Knight in the mix, as this L.A. Times article suggests, then will expanding the field really help? It’s too early to see what this year holds, but let’s go back through the last ten years and see what the Best Picture races could have looked like with 10 nominees. After reading this, and getting a better understanding for how the field is selected, I have tried my best to determine who would make the final ten films.
A half-assed robbery spree was diffused by a laid-off cop today.
William Standard was arrested around 1:15 p.m. by Muncie patrolmen Darrin Clark and Brian Campbell, the latter a rookie officer who has been notified he will be laid off in a cost-cutting move previously announced by Mayor Sharon McShurley.
