Out of Focus

A 25TH BIRTHDAY PRESENT TO US: THE REAL BOXING CHAMP

It's January, which means that unless you're catching-up with the major film awards contenders, your choices at the cinema become more and more limited by the week. January brings the dregs of theatrical releases, the major studios relative throwaways that most likely would flop against most good competition the rest of the year. But this weekend, if you live in New York, there is a release starring the great Robert De Niro that is absolutely required viewing.

No, I'm not talking about (or judging) Hide and Seek. Rather, opening at the Ziegfeld Theater today is the 25th Anniversary re-release of Raging Bull. It doesn't matter if you've seen it before – well, except if you haven't, what the hell is wrong with you? Here's a chance that rarely comes along anymore: to see one of the best and visually most beautiful movies ever made projected the way it was meant to be onto one of the biggest and best screens around. I don't care how many thousands of dollars you can afford to spend on a home theater system with a big, flat screen and professional sound system; and I'm sure the transfer on the brand new two-disc special edition coming out in two weeks is as good as can be. But all that money later still won't buy you the experience of seeing Martin Scorsese's stunning film like the $10.50 that will get you into the Ziegfeld and put you in front of that gigantic screen.

In the new issue of Sports Illustrated, there's a story by John Schulian called "One Tough Baby" (avail only to SI mag subscribers) about Clint Eastwood's current critical and Oscar favorite Million Dollar Baby. Under the headline on page 66, it says, "It may be the most troubled of sports, but boxing still packs a punch in Hollywood. The Latest fight film, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, just may be the greatest ever."

No it isn't. I'm not an MDB hater like some others, but as good as MDB may be, it is most definitely not the best boxing film ever. That title goes to Raging Bull. Even if MDB does accomplish what Raging Bull couldn't, namely a win on Oscar night (Robert Redford and his Ordinary People took hom the Best Director and Picture prizes), Marty and Bobby can still kick Clint's and Hilary's asses any day. Go see for yourself at the Ziegfeld this week. There's no good reason not to, and while rep houses may screen the film repeatedly over the years to come, the opportunity to see it again on a screen the size of the Ziegfeld's may not be for another 25 years.

CHRIS ROCK ISN'T GOING TO BE WEARING A BUNNY SUIT ON OSCAR NIGHT

Look, I'm sure being an AP copywriter isn't the most exciting job, and proofreading articles can probably get tedious, but at least you might get the chance to express a bit of creativity in the headlines, right? So then why are the headlines often so lazy, crappy, boring and, depending on the reader, borderline offensive. Case-in-point: "Chris Rock Hip-Hops Into Oscar Gig". OK, I suppose the headline writer should get a bit of a break since the bigger crime was actually committed by writer Beth Harris within the story: "Hip-hopping into the traditional footsteps of such Oscar emcees as Billy Crystal and the late Johnny Carson appealed to Rock," she writes. Ironically, this line comes just a few paragraphs after Rock criticizes journalists for solely focusing on his skin color:

Rock mimicked the typical question he gets these days: "Oh, a black comic, how are you going to make it whiter? I'm like, 'Dude, look around, can you get any whiter?'"

So what does Harris do? Throw in "hip-hopping" simply because Rock is a black comic?

There's nothing about Hip-Hop culture or comedy in any of Rock's quotes in the story. In fact, if anything, all he talks about is how his ticket sales and ratings demos show that he's a major crossover attraction. "Whereever I'm at, people show up," he says. Nor do I think the Oscars, especially with Gil Cates still producing the show, is suddenly going to look like Def Comedy Jam. So seriously? What's the deal. I'm actually a bit surprised I reacted to this at all, but it's actually kind of annoying. Tossing tired phrases, cliches and adjectives, especially when they're not applicable, into stories and headlines has become way too prevalent especially within modern entertainment journalism. Can't an organization like the AP stay away from it, even if tripe like Entertainment Tonight or The Insider can't?

WHO KNEW ALL IT WOULD TAKE IS A GOLDEN GLOBE WIN AND OSCAR NOM: WE COULD HAVE INSURED THAT WITH A FEW BRIBES AGES AGO

According to UK gossip newspaper The Sun Clive Owen is the new favorite to take over the role of James Bond. Thanks Thigh Master!) I've been crying out for Owen to get the role since the news of Pierce Brosnan hanging up his tux first hit Entertainment Weekly back in July. If you're really a Bond fan, have ever read any of the novels and/or ever seen Owen in anything, you'd realize that talk of anyone else playing the role is ludicrous. All the other rumored names that have been out there -- Eric Bana, Julian McMahon, or even Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor -- simply wouldn't be as good in the role. I'm not judging any of them as actors -- especially Jackman and McGregor, both of whom I love -- but for Bond, it really should be Owen.

Now of course, by "favorite," none of this really carries any weight. This is simply what the bookies in the UK who track this stuff are reporting. And actually, according to Reuters, the odds for Owen have only been halved with the actual odds-on favorite remaining Jackman at 2-to-1 followed by McGregor at 7-to-2, right in front of Owen's upgraded 4-to-1 status. If the Ms. Broccoli was to actually make this decision based on the betting line, that would be quite unfortunate -- at least until Owen's on top of the heap. Maybe after Oscar night....

BECAUSE WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES NEW YORK A THEATER TOWN IS NOT BROADWAY

I'm sure you've passed a newsstand by now and seen the poster-sized cover, but if there has ever been a week to make sure you pick-up the current issue of Time Out New York this would be it. Instead of just presenting their comprehensive listings of everything going on in the city, this week, the magazine is actually educational as it celebrates the 30th Anniversary of one of, if not the, most important and influential theater groups around.

I've only had the chance to see a few shows by The Wooster Group so I'm definitely not putting myself forward as any expert, but every time I have attended a performance, it has been, to say the least, an experience. Granted, some might consider the multimedia cacophony of noise that emanated from the stage during The Hairy Ape more of an antagonistic experience than a pleasant evening at the theater, but what the Woosters do is never less than daring and always a creative and interesting perspective.

Time Out New York brings together the founding members of The Wooster Group -- with the obvious exceptions of the two who have died, Ron Vawter and the late, great Spaulding Gray -- as well as a few other members of the New York theater world for an "oral history" of the group. The most famous of the members, of course, is Willem Dafoe. An interesting sidebar lists several other actors who have performed with the troupe throughout the years, including Steve Buscemi and Frances McDormand.

The Wooster Group's current production is a revival of 1999's House/Lights, directed (as always) by Elizabeth LeCompte and starring Kate Valk, two more founding members. Performances begin on Feb. 5 at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO, and tickets can be purchased through Ticketweb.

MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANY: NOTES FOR A DREARY HUMP DAY

In lieu of anything really pushing my buttons today, here are a bunch of random notes I've been collecting over the past couple days:

• If like me you're not blogging from Park City but are still curious what's going on at Sundance, you might want to tune in to Festival Dailies on The Sundance Channel every night this week at 9 PM (and repeated several times until the next episode premieres). Hosted for some reason by Jay Mohr (I guess Last Comic Standing really bumped-up his indie cred), the half-hour show is a decent little companion to the festival for the home viewer, without being so inside about what's actually going on there that you can't follow it. I've only seen Monday's episode during which we got to know a few of the filmmakers and competition films, while also experiencing life at the fest. Plus, every night there's "A Conversation with Alan Cumming," where the British actor sits down with festival participants for a little chat. Monday featured the director and two stars (including Naomi Watts as the titular role) of competition film Ellie Parker. The only curious thing about Sundance Channel's lineup is that in previous years they also broadcast the closing awards ceremony which I believe will be happening this Saturday 1/29. However, looking at the schedule, I don't see it listed. Am I just missing it, or it there no ceremony for the home viewer this year? I know it's not very exciting, but it was still mildly interesting to watch.

• Anyone else see this headline this past weekend: "Madden Was Intended to Star in Towel Scene"? That's right: ABC originally wanted to keep everything in-house by using their own announcer John Madden rather than Eagles wide-receiver Terrell Owens in the little Monday Night Football bit which put everyone in an uproar. When I wrote about the stupidity of the uproar after I finally saw the televised sketch, I said that I didn't believe there would have been any controversy had the player in question been a white quarterback like Peyton Manning or Brett Favre. John Madden?!? People would have loved it, and the only complaint ABC or the NFL might have received would have been from the Parents Television Council (or whatever their name is) who are responsible for 99% of all the FCC complaints regarding anything already. (And I'm only barely exaggerating.) Continuing to show his creativity places him above it all, Desperate Housewives series creator Marc Cherry has the money quote in this story: "I didn't want to upset people. I didn't realize that 'Monday Night Football' was such a family viewing experience. I wouldn't let my 5-year-old watch beer commercials with big-busted cheerleaders, but that's just me." Nice!

• In what should only be described as the result of Viacom co-president and CBS head Les Moonves doing too many shrooms on his honeymoon with Julie Chen, Survivor All-Star love-birds (and winners) Amber and Rob are going to do their best to ruin the next version of The Amazing Race. Seriously, the reality show crossover contestants never were and still aren't a good idea, unless it involves The Surreal Life. It was a bad idea when Big Brother's Allison went on TAR with her battered and abused boyfriend Donnie, and it's not like Rob and Amber are really so compelling. They weren't even the favorite people from Survivor, what with CBS having to manufacture a second prize in order to compensate Rupert. But actually going to CBS's best reality show isn't all. Apparently, they've also signed a deal to televise their pending nuptials on the network as well. Hell, even Donald Trump managed to avoid that little bit of narcissism (shockingly). Does anyone really care about Rob & Amber anymore?

• NBC has announced that the Americanized version of the brilliant BBC series The Office will premiere on March 22 at 9:30 PM right after Scrubs. The good: stepping in for Ricky Gervais is the potentially just-as-funny Steve Carell, and the man in charge of adapting the series is Greg Daniels who wrote for the late-great HBO Daily Show predecessor, Not Necessarily the News as well as Seinfeld and The Simpsons. He also co-created King of the Hill with Mike Judge. The guy knows from funny. The bad: Americanizations rarely do well, and NBC's recent track record flat-out sucks. (Yes, both Three's Company and All in the Family were very successful Americanizations, but they’re both exceptions as far as I'm concerned.) Coupling last season was absolutely awful, and I fear that the humor in The Office is so straight, deadpan, sarcastic and subversive that there's no way NBC would believe such an exact translation would appeal to American audiences. Maybe I'm just being cynical – it's been known to happen – but I fear that this show won't just be bad, but utterly unwatchable.

• This news has been a long time coming, but ABC has decided to cancel life as we know it. TV Guide quotes network head Steve McPherson at the Television Critics Association presentation saying, "We feel like we've failed in terms of getting that show an audience. We really want to make sure we've exhausted every possibility before we officially say it's gone. But it's not looking good." What a cop-out. The show has had two time-slots: Thursdays at 9 PM, before being moved to Thursdays at 8 PM. Other than Wednesday nights, it couldn't have had a more difficult job getting to audiences, even if it's demo isn't the primary target for CSI and The Apprentice at 9 PM. Moving it up to 8 PM doesn't help since that pits it directly against Joey and The O.C., which is the show's target demo. The sad part is, the show isn't all that bad – other than the horrific acting by Kelly Osbourne. (Yes, that Kelly Osbourne!) It's no My So-Called Life, to which critics unfavorably compared it before this TV season, but a few ridiculous plotlines aside, it's a pretty good show with a (mostly) talented young cast. So McPherson is right that ABC has "failed," but they sure as hell haven't "exhausted every possibility" by putting it in two time slots that basically signaled death from the very beginning.

• In other cancellation news, and heading back to CBS, the awful Center of the Universe (one of the most tragic wastes of talent on TV today), is being put out of its misery. However, far more upsetting is that it will be replaced by the return of the almost-as-bad Yes, Dear, another show with writing that doesn't do justice to its lesser known but very talented cast.

• And last but not least, did anyone watch Jay Leno's little tribute episode of The Tonight Show Monday night in honor of Johnny Carson. Leaving aside any potential truth to the well-known rumors that the two didn't really like each other (or at least Carson was not a huge fan of Leno), was anyone else struck by how uncomfortable Leno looked during his monologue. It was like he was trying to be emotional and serious and somber, and either he just doesn't know how or he was overacting. I don't know, but it felt very false to me. Then, by the way, on last night's show, not one word whatsoever about the previous night's program, at least not during the monologue. Instead, it was business as usual, and crappy business at that. He was telling jokes about the East Coast digging out from under multiple-feet of snow. Maybe it's just me, but considering the largest part of the blizzard blew through Saturday night, in today's day and age wasn't that old news? To give The Tonight Show a little bit of credit, at least they cancelled their original guests for Monday night. I don't think some sad words about the death of Carson would have been quite that effective had the monologue ended with, "And we'll be right back with Paris Hilton!" Yes, poor Paris was bumped from the lead guest slot. Hopefully that's just the beginning of erasing her from our TV screens. If you want to help out, don't tune in to The Simple Life: Interns which premieres tonight on Fox.

SET THOSE DIVOS, AND BE THANKFUL YOU HAVE THE ELECTRICITY TO DO SO

Somehow I just noticed this, but if you have a chance to catch PBS's Independent Lens tonight (airing locally on Thirteen at 10 PM, you'll be able to see the film Power Trip, a fascinating documentary about what happened when a for-profit American corporation bought and tried to run the previously state-owned-and-operated electric company in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Not to get too cliche here, but the film is a tragic-comedy of dramatic proportions. Really, it's quite unbelievable. The situation in Georgia was so bad that musicians even wrote songs about it. One lyric featured on the film's Independent Lens web site reads as follows:

I'm home, I'm tired.
There's no electiricity in my house.
There's no electricity in the whole town.
I don't believe in Telasi... I want electricity.

Almost Ramones-like, eh? ("Telasi" is the name of the electric company in the film.)

I saw it last year around this time because the film was nominated for Best Documentary at the IFP Spirit Awards. Up against Errol Morris' The Fog of War, it didn't have much of a chance, but that's not becaue it's not a wonderful picture in its own right. I highly suggest you watch or record it. If anything, to you fellow New Yorkers out there, even with memories of last year's blackout relatively fresh, Power Trip will make you reconsider how magnificent (comparatively) our electrical system is here in the U.S.

By the way, if you have Time Warner digital cable, you can catch repeats of plenty of PBS shows via WNET World, a digital channel somewhere in the 700 range (maybe 713? not sure). If you miss Power Trip tonight, it will be replayed on WNET World tomorrow (1/26) at 7:30 PM and on Thursday (1/27) at 2 AM, 8 AM and 2 PM. So there's really no excuse not to record it at some point over the next 48 hours.

THE RACE IS ON: OSCAR ANNOUNCES AND DOESN'T SURPRISE, OR DISAPPOINT, TOO BADLY

Well that was something. Here's the complete list of Oscar noms. Not really any huge surprises among the nominations, but as usual some big disappointments. I still can't fathom how so many people love Ray so much. See, I'm not always so cynical – I actually thought quality might win out and Oscar would forget about Ray and its director, but instead, Hackford got the nod over Forster, and I picked the wrong Mike.

Here's a little rundown:

• By sheer numbers (which is definitely only a mild indicator) The Aviator has to be the early favorite as it nabbed 11 total nominations, three more than Million Dollar Baby which came in second. Finding Neverland and Ray tied for third with six, and Sideways followed closely behind with five. Every year, there seems to be some picture with a large number of nominations that gets completely shut-out from any actual awards. My early pick this year for that dubious honor is Finding Neverland -- all its nominations are in categories that will likely go another way.

• Best Picture: I guess I can't completely say "I told you so," even though I included Ray as a contender. I'm going to go out on a longer limb, however, and say right now, more than 31 days out, that the film doesn't have a chance at the award. This will be a battle between The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways, and even among those three, I think Sideways is a bit of a dark horse for the award. It's going to come down to a contest between epic and tearjerker. Who will win? Give me some time to watch the ad campaigns. Thanks to the Globes, the early money has to be on The Aviator, but watch that DGA award. Oscar doesn't split the director and picture prize as much as the Globes, and if Clint walks away with it, MDB becomes a more likely winner, especially since unlike the Globes, the DGA and the Academy actually have many of the same voters.

• Best Director: Mike Leigh for Vera Drake has to be one of the biggest surprises of the morning. In fact, I'm a bit shocked the film received the three nominations it did, especially original screenplay since Leigh doesn't really work with standard screenplays. But whatever. Hackford has no right to be among this group, and I don't have to repeat myself about the omission of Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine being an absolute travesty, but as expected, the film was virtually shut-out of any nominations. Even more so than Best Picture, this will be a choice between Scorsese and Eastwood. Again, the DGA will be a huge (although absolutely not decisive) barometer. I think Oscar might feel more comfortable finally giving the award to Scorsese than a few years ago for Gangs of New York -- he lost to Roman Polanski for The Pianist. Right now, this is a toss-up.

• Best Screenplay Awards: These nominations got me a bit excited if only because there were enough slots here to give Charlie Kaufman and company a nod for Eternal Sunshine and recognizing Brad Bird for his great original script to The Incredibles. Since they separate screenplay into "original" and "adapted" categories, that creates 10 total nominations, and that also created space for Before Sunset. It's interesting to see that the Academy considered Before Sunset in the "adapted" category. It's not like sequels automatically slot into "adapted." Did I miss the original source material? Or are they considering it some sort of adaptation spawned from the first film? Regardless, the nomination is the award for Before Sunset. The "adapted" award will most likely belong to Sideways, and I won't really complain about that.

• Best Acting Awards: If there were surprises anywhere, they were in these four categories – some good, some not so good. I'm relatively shocked that Paul Giamatti was excluded, but for him to get a nod, most likely Clint Eastwood would have had to be left out, and while I might agree with that choice (he was almost too grizzled for my taste – it seemed like a put-on much of the time), I'm not surprised that the Academy voters went with Clint. Of course, the other person left-out here is Jim Carey who gave such a fabulous and nuanced performance in Eternal Sunshine. In fact, his playing the subtle straight-man, in a sense, is probably why he didn't get consideration.

  Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace and Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine made me happy, though neither will win. This award likely belongs to Annette Bening, which I still consider a shame not only because, as I've said repeatedly, Imelda Staunton gave the performance of the year in Vera Drake. In fact, this is the only nomination of the three going to Vera Drake I think the film actually deserves. Someone on E! this morning actually made sense in suggesting that Bening has the edge at least in part because Swank won the award a few years ago for Boys Don't Cry by beating (not undeservedly) Bening's magnificent performance in American Beauty. Sadly, Being Julia is at best a mediocre film in which Bening shines but not so brightly as to beat out maybe any of her fellow nominees.

  Alan Alda's nomination for The Aviator was a bit of a surprise to me, although he was fantastic in it, but otherwise this category filled itself out as expected. Jamie Foxx doubled his pleasure with a supporting actor nod for Collateral, and Thomas Haden Church rightfully received notice for Sideways, but here again, the two early frontrunners have to be Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen. Considering that Owen gave one of the other top performances of the year, I'll be rooting for him.

  And finally, the biggest surprise to me came in the Supporting Actress category with Sophia Okonedo receiving recognition for Hotel Rwanda. Even more so than Moreno's nomination, I didn't think the Academy would pay attention to anyone other than Cheadle in this film, but Okonedo contributed a powerfully effective performance and deserves to be here. In fact, this is an incredibly strong category, and while Blanchett is my favorite for her brilliant transformation into Katharine Hepburn, all five of these women were among the best things in their films. Laura Linney, in fact, was the main thing I did like about Kinsey (along with the brilliant Peter Sarsgaard), a movie that otherwise underwhelmed me, and Globe surprise-winner Portman was fantastic in Closer. I always used to hate Madsen in almost everything, but I loved her in Sideways. Still, if Oscar trends the way of The Aviator, Blanchett should easily be among the winners.

There were a few other things that struck me about the complete nomination list.

OSCAR QUICK PREDICTS -- PREPARING FOR TORTURE

The Oscar nominations will be announced in half-an-hour. A few days ago, after the Golden Globes, I was having a discussion with a friend over what the final nominations would look like. He was convinced that Eternal Sunshine would get a Best Picture nomination. I'm pretty damn certain it won't. So just for kicks, I thought I'd jot down a few notes about the pending nominations:

• First, I'm not going to try to predict al the nominations, but I will go out on a limb with Best Picture and Best Director: As I mentioned, I don't think the true best film of the year (the past five years?!?) -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- will receive recognition this morning. I think the shoo-ins are The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. I think the remaining slots will go to either Closer, Finding Neverland, Hotel Rwanda, The Incredibles or Ray; at least all of them are more likely than Michel Gondry's film. I'm going to say Hotel Rwanda and Finding Neverland will get the nods, with Closer being a potential spoiler for one.

• As far as the director award, the nominations usually come very close to mimicking the DGA nominations, often with no more than one variation. This year won't be any different: Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne own three of the slots, and either Marc Forster (meh!) or Taylor Hackford (blech!) has a good shot for the final two slots. I'm guessing Forster will get the nod with Hackford being left out in the cold in favor of Mike Nichols for Closer. Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) could slide in as a dark horse as well, maybe even replacing Forster.

• The one nomination I would love to see this year (but won't) is an acting nod for Jeff Bridges in recognition of his brilliant performance in The Door in the Floor. Every tick (and chewing motion) that sometimes annoys me about Bridges is worked to perfection by the actor in this incredibly complex performance. Nobody saw the movie so I would be shocked to hear his name called, and I don't know that I would give him the award over Don Cheadle, Leonardo DiCaprio or Jamie Foxx, but he deserves to be in their company.

• The two foreign films that won't be receiving Best Foreign Film nominations this morning but were among the best movies I saw from 2004 are Bad Education and A Very Long Engagement. I finally saw the latter film from fantastic French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet this past weekend, and by the end of this month, I expect to be doing a bit of reediting to my Top 10 list. But thanks to the Academy's annoying rules regarding foreign film eligibility (only one film from any foreign country is eligible, and the country submits it), and neither Spain nor France submitting these films, the only chance either of them have for recognition is in other categories. (France wouldn't submit A Very Long Engagement because so much of the financing came from a Warner Bros.-owned company, making it too much of an American film.) Almodovar actually won the screenplay award (and a directing nomination) a couple years ago for Talk to Her; I wouldn't count on that happening again for Bad Education. It's too bad though because these are two of the best films this year.

That's enough for now. On to the noms … and I'll be back in a few when the headache sets-in.

THE WORST OF 2004 DESERVE SOME NOTICE TOO

Tomorrow at 8:30 AM (Eastern; 5:30 for those poor saps in LA), the Academy Award nominations will be announced, and the countdown to Oscar night (a/k/a Feb. 27) will be in full force. The Golden Globes have already happened. And all the other nominations to honor the "best" in film for 2004 have been set – IFP Spirit Awards, DGA, WGA, SAG. Finally today, the last remaining holdout other than Oscar made itself known, although unlike all the others, quality is not its strong suit.

This is the 25th year for Razzie, a/k/a The Golden Raspberry Award, dishonoring the worst achievements in film. The Razzies aren't exactly a high-tech affair, and basically anyone can be a voting member if you pay your dues, but for the 25th year in a row, Razzie founder John Wilson will give gold spray-painted golf ball sized "RAZZberry" to anyone who will actually accept his/her award. (I'm pretty sure that Tom Green is the only "winner" to ever attend the annual ceremony and take home his prize a few years ago for Freddy Got Fingered.)

This year's Razzies will be handed out the day before the Oscars, as usual, so it's only right that the nominations be announced the day before those other noms. And so it is that the 25th Annual Golden Raspberry Award Nomination are now available for cheering and jeering, and while I'm plenty surprised (and disappointed) at some of the omissions, I'm not that shocked that this year appears to be a battle royale between Alexander and Catwoman. I haven't seen Catwoman, but I am curious. In fact, I haven't seen many of this year's nominees, but considering some of the movies I did see from 2004, I have trouble believing that even multiple nominee White Chicks is really as bad as what I consider the worst of the year.

I figured this was as good a time as any to unveil my Bottom SIX of 2004: six because I don't have 10 that deserve to be trashed so severely, but I do have more than five. Surprisingly to many of you out there, Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny is not on this list, but please don't treat its omission as any kind of endorsement. No matter how great a year 2004 was for film, there are still plenty of terrible movies that didn't make my list, and plenty more that I simply didn't see.

The worst six films of 2004: Clicking will give you comments!

1. Alexander
   
2. Phantom of the Opera
   
3. The Day After Tomorrow
   
4. The Stepford Wives
   
5. Van Helsing
   
6. Blade: Trinity
   

THERE'S JOHNNY -- THE DEATH OF A LATE NIGHT KING AND AN ENTIRE ERA OF TELEVISION

I came home yesterday afternoon from a fun day of sledding and playing in the snow, exhausted but in a perfectly good mood. I love it when New York has this kind of snowfall, the streets and parks blanketed in white. But then I came home and read about Johnny Carson's death. I wasn't a huge Carson fan -- I didn't watch him religiously or anything -- but his legacy and imprint on the television landscape has been enormous. At the same time, his passing now, even though it's been more than 10 years since he was a regular on the nation's TV screens, seems symbolic of the greater shifts happening within the medium.

The first thing I did upon seeing the headline was search for a column I wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin when Carson retired from The Tonight Show. I wanted to remember what I thought and said at the time, but unfortunately, many of my college paper clips were lost a few years ago, and while I'm enough of a pack-rat to have well-over 100 other (horrifyingly poorly written) clips from that time, this column doesn't seem to be among them. I think I remember the gist of what I wrote, however, and upon further reflection, I'm struck by how far we've come from the days of Carson's late-night dominance – "far" solely referring to distance rather than necessarily implying progress.

When Carson passed the Tonight Show baton to Jay Leno, it was during a time when the "comfort stars" were getting older and starting to disappear. "Comfort stars" is my own little term – those entertainers who you simply expect to always be there: George Burns, Bob Hope, Dick Clark, Johnny Carson. You don't even have to be a fan, but there was just something comforting about knowing that Burns would be on some show doing his schtick or Hope would have his annual TV specials. These talents stopped performing as they got older, but I didn't always feel their loss until they were gone. Even though there has been no definitive report as to how debilitating Clark's recent stroke truly was, is there anybody not expecting his return to Times Square next New Year's Eve? And for what really? Even on his own annual ABC special, for years now Clark has been little more than a simple presence. How much screen time does he really have? How much time does he spend outside with the crowd? Yet that presence is comforting, and, no offense to Regis, this year wasn't the same.