The 2007 Awards Season Has Started!

[MacGuffin]

`Instinct,' `Little Man' Lead Razzies

At least someone was happy Sharon Stone reprised her notorious femme-fatale role with "Basic Instinct 2."

The box-office bomb received seven nominations Monday for the Razzie Awards that mock the bottom of Hollywood's barrel, among them worst picture and worst actress of the year.

Also receiving seven nominations was the Wayans brothers comedy "Little Man," about a thief posing as a baby, including worst picture and director for Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Shawn and Marlon Wayans shared a worst-actor nomination, while sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff shared a worst-actress nomination for "Material Girls."

"We stuck the siblings together to allow room for more dreck," said Razzies founder John Wilson.

The other worst-picture nominees were the fantasies "BloodRayne" and "Lady in the Water" and the thriller "The Wicker Man"

Winners will be announced Feb. 24, the day before the Academy Awards.

Joining Stone and the Duffs in the worst-actress category were Lindsay Lohan for "Just My Luck," Kristanna Loken for "BloodRayne" and Jessica Simpson for "Employee of the Month."

Stone previously won a Razzie as worst-actress for 1994's "The Specialist" and "Intersection."

"She's what we call a Razzie repeat offender. Perhaps even a recidivist," Wilson said.

"Basic Instinct 2" also had a nomination for worst screen couple for Stone's "lopsided breasts." Also nominated were co-star David Thewlis for worst supporting actor and the movie's director, Michael Caton-Jones.

Along with the Wayans, "Little Man" co-star Rob Schneider had a worst-actor nomination. The other nominees were Tim Allen for "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," "The Shaggy Dog" and "Zoom"; Nicolas Cage for "The Wicker Man"; and Larry the Cable Guy for "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector."

The Razzies added a new category, worst excuse for family entertainment. The nominees were "Deck the Halls," "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties," "RV," "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" and "The Shaggy Dog."

The big surprise for Wilson was that all-time Razzies champ Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky Balboa" was not nominated. Stallone, who has 30 Razzie nominations and 10 wins, surprised many skeptics by delivering a sequel that was well received by audiences and earned better-than-expected reviews.

"At the first of the year, you could not have convinced me it wasn't going to be a Razzie contender," Wilson said. "I would like to publicly say that Stallone has made a good movie."

[hedwig]

the razzies might be the only awards organization that gets it right.

nevermind. i haven't forgotten 1980, you razzy bastards. and i never will.

[MacGuffin]

Screen Actors Guild Award Winners

A complete list of winners of the 13th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:

Movies:

Actor: Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"

Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"

Supporting actor: Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"

Supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"

Cast: "Little Miss Sunshine"

___

Television:

Actor in a movie or miniseries: Jeremy Irons, "Elizabeth I"

Actress in a movie or miniseries: Helen Mirren, "Elizabeth I"

Actor in a drama series: Hugh Laurie, "House"

Actress in a drama series: Chandra Wilson, "Grey's Anatomy"

Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"

Actress in a comedy series: America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"

Drama series cast: "Grey's Anatomy"

Comedy series cast: "The Office"

[Pubrick]

getting a bit carried away with the black thing this year aren't they.

and can anyone tell me what the deal is with forest whitaker? you know what i mean. is it something to do with the eye?

[pete]

you really gotta draw a line about when to stop complaining.

[hedwig]

you really gotta draw a line about when to stop complaining.

or draw several lines about it and post it in the drawing corner.

[Pubrick]

you really gotta draw a line about when to stop complaining.

i wasn't really complaining. the black thing was a joke, and i guess the forest whitaker comment was the only mean part.

in any event the awards season so far has been good for gags. since now more ppl know who forest whitaker is, whenever i zone out and start saying things that don't make sense, i've been able to recover with "sorry, i just had a forest whitaker moment."

[MacGuffin]

Directors Guild honors Scorsese
The award for 'The Departed' is seen as a possible precursor to an Academy Award.

If history is any indicator, this could be Martin Scorsese's year to finally take home an Oscar.

The Directors Guild of America on Saturday named Scorsese best director of 2006 for "The Departed."

It is the first win in the category for the iconoclastic filmmaker, who had been nominated seven times before.

"I can't believe this," a stunned Scorsese said after accepting the award, a hug from presenter Steven Spielberg and a standing ovation from the audience. Scorsese went on to joke: "This is the first movie I've done with a plot."

The 64-year-old Scorsese won a Golden Globe as best director for the gangster epic set in contemporary Boston and is nominated for an Academy Award.

The DGA awards are generally considered one of the most reliable forecasters of the Academy Awards. Over the last 58 years, the DGA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have only disagreed six times.

Scorsese — considered one of the most influential filmmakers in history, with the likes of "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" — has been nominated five times before for an Oscar for best director, but has always gone home empty-handed. Now it remains to be seen whether his sixth nomination, for "The Departed," will earn him the Oscar when the Academy Awards are handed out Feb. 25.

The 59th annual DGA ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, with Carl Reiner serving as host for the 20th time. Reiner also was granted an honorary lifetime membership in the guild.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Sunshine' steals PGA movie award
Honor puts indie feelgood on an Oscar collision course with 'Dreamgirls,' 'Departed.'

"Little Miss Sunshine" was awarded the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award for Theatrical Motion Pictures Saturday night as part of the 2007 Producers Guild of America Awards. Presented by Tom Cruise in a ceremony at the Century Plaza Hotel, the award went to producers Marc Turtletaub, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf and Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa.

"Cars" was awarded the Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures. Presented by Morgan Freeman, the award went to Darla K. Anderson.

For a year that seemed all but locked up in late November, this year's awards season just becomes more and more intriguing. "Little Miss Sunshine," a low-budget independent film acquired by Fox Searchlight at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2006, now stands to face down such Hollywood heavyweights as "Dreamgirls" and "The Departed" in the coming Academy Awards race.

As well, "Sunshine," with its five credited producers, stands to become something of a problem child for the Academy, which has rules allowing only three producers to be included for the purposes of Best Picture. Last year, the credits over Best Picture winner "Crash" become a point of much contention.

[MacGuffin]

Directors Guild Meet the Nominees Panel

Movies are an evolving art, especially when animals are involved, agreed the six directors nominated for the Directors Guild of America feature film award at Saturday's annual morning panel. The filmmakers endured more than two hours of grilling by moderator Jeremy Kagan and later wound up the night at the black-tie awards ceremony at which, as expected, "The Departed" director Martin Scorsese accepted his long-awaited award. "The making of a film is the learning what you're making," said "The Queen" director Stephen Frears via satellite feed. "The whole thing is a journey as you learn many things. You're creating something complex and making it very simple."

While Scorsese, Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls"), the husband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Little Miss Sunshine") and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel") gamely answered Kagan's detailed queries, Frears was more prickly. He enjoyed needling Scorsese about his bigger budget, a theme that was picked up by the rest of the panel over the course of the morning. When Dayton and Faris looked over at Scorsese as they pointed out that they shot "Little Miss Sunshine" in 30 days, he shrugged.

All the directors admitted that rewrites, rethinking and reshoots were required as what they imagined and planned did not always work out. In order to liven up an intense confrontation between Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson, Scorsese decided to shoot it again the following day after telling Nicholson to think of something to punch up the scene. As they were filming, Nicholson picked up a gun. "We didn't know what would happen at that moment," said Scorsese. "This is why I do this. Suddenly everything goes wrong, then right. When something like that happens and Leo holds his own, that's why I made this film."

Only after he saw the edited film did Scorsese figure out how he wanted the Vera Farmiga character to function in it. So he reshot several new scenes from writer Bill Monahan. "The picture is making you," said Scorsese.

Frears also had to reshoot key scenes between Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. "When we cut it, bits of the film didn't work," he said. "We shot the wrong scenes. The writer [Peter Morgan] went off and wrote the right scenes about the relationship between Blair and the Queen. I'm always sweeping up behind myself, clearing up what I've done wrong."

Seventeen days ahead of filming "Babel" in Morocco, Gonzalez Inarritu was unhappy with the actors that were being presented to him and made the decision to announce an open casting call from a mosque minaret. The result of placing local non-actors who had never seen a camera, opposite seasoned professionals like Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett so excited and pleased the director that he recast other sections of the movie accordingly. "You pit Andre Agassi with a guy who never held a racket before," Gonzalez Inarritu said. "I was spoiled, or blessed, to have their honesty. Better than that I can't get."

While landing "every one of the roles was a nail biter," said Condon, he waited until two weeks before filming to add rookie "American Idol" survivor Jennifer Hudson to the "Dreamgirls" cast in the key role of Effie. He had no confidence that he was making the right choice, he said, although an elaborate full-on screen test helped. He had to go on his gut instinct that she was going to deliver in the role, he said. "I just didn't believe any of the others." When the time came to film Hudson's last song, "I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," which Condon calls "the Mt. Everest of the show," he had to beg for more extra money for extra days, because the untrained singer's voice would give out after four hours of full-tilt belting.

Condon and Scorsese, who boasted lavish studio budgets, worked on soundstages for maximum control and were able to build sets. For Condon, who pre-visualized the entire movie with storyboards and animatics using mini-cam footage of screen tests, rehearsals and readings, "Dreamgirls" "was the closest I've come to making a Hitchcock movie," he said. Using six sound stages and four of the lavish old movie theaters in downtown Los Angeles, "this is a movie told through lighting and color," he said.

The toughest "Dreamgirls" location to find turned out to be Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles' modern glass Hollywood mansion, because mid-century houses weren't built on the oversize scale of the 80s and 90s, Condon said. He eventually redressed three times the largest room in the hilltop Chatsworth home built by Frank Sinatra. For a nightclub set with a skylight, Condon admitted, he ripped off Scorsese's "New York, New York," which he showed to his crew many times, he said. Scorsese shrugged graciously.

With lower budgets, Dayton and Faris, Frears and Gonzalez Inarritu shot their films almost entirely on location. "We didn't have Marty's budget," Frears said, as Scorsese shook his head sadly. "The carpets were dreadful. We couldn't afford to replace them or color them in the computer." Frears used some computer graphics to create the noble stag who communes in Balmoral with Queen Elizabeth II, but for the helicopter shot over the Scottish highlands, "it's a wooden stag. It's slightly embarrassing. The real stag would run away."

Working with animals also proved a challenge for Scorsese, who brought down the house with his lengthy description of filming the final frames of "The Departed," when a real live rat walks into the frame near one of the lead actors' dead body. It was the last thing he shot, "three weeks before we printed," admitted the director. Finding the right angle for the rat to enter the frame took weeks. Finally, Scorsese filmed a rat slowly walking down from the balcony railing toward Damon's body double. "It was a great rat," he said. "A real rat. He loved the job. He was eating croissants. He was having a great time. Another take? No problem." (Visual effects master Rob Legato refined the shot.)

Gonzalez Inarritu had more trouble trying to wrangle a herd of 300 goats into the same shot as two Morroccan boys. "It was a nightmare," he said. "Goats are goats. That's a tough, stupid thing, to have them in the frame."

While shooting in the deserts of Morocco and Sonora was very difficult, said Gonzalez Inarritu, nothing compared with the horrors of shooting in Tokyo. Filming in an underground train had to be planned like a "robbery," he said. Police chased his crew while they were filming on the freeway. "They were trying to stop and cancel the film," he said. "In a collective society, they are very strict with any ant disrupting the running of the system. We shot like a student university film."

The Mexican director also saved his elaborate final shot, when the camera pulls back from a skyscraper balcony, for the end of filming. He couldn't get permission from the balky Tokyo authorities to use a helicopter, nor could he string a cable between two buildings. So cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto rigged a dolly and crane on top of the building to shoot the beginning of the shot, and then combined that in the computer with film stills from different angles.

In order to keep the complexities of "Babel"'s diverse non-linear story lines straight, Gonzalez Inarritu kept little note cards for each day's shooting with everything he had to remember. "Without that card I would have a panic attack," he said. After the first four and half hour assemblage, he wanted to kill himself, he admitted. "You think, you're not there, you're exhausted, you have to start again. It was terrifying."

While Scorsese shot many exteriors in Boston, he preferred to use his familiar New York location interiors for many of the scenes, including one Brooklyn bar "I have been shooting in for 40 years," he said. "This picture is about people, faces, the paranoia in their eyes," he said. "The look of it, the places they were in didn't matter. Everyone is on top of each other. Different Celtic groups were warring with each other. It's a B genre film. It's a gangster movie—I think. It's the first film I've done in the modern world. I don't know how to use a cell phone."

Scorsese started his cast with DiCaprio, then added Matt Damon, who hails from Boston, at the suggestion of writer-director Kenneth Lonergan. To be the Zeus of the picture, Scorsese wanted someone larger-than-life: Nicholson. "I had always wanted to work with Jack," he said. Discussions with Nicholson lead to basing his character on real-life Boston mobster Whitey Bolger, who did work closely with the FBI. "Once we began to read books on these people," said Scorsese, "there's nothing exaggerated in this movie in any way. Nobody knows where anybody stands. There's no good, no bad. Morality is at ground zero—and everyone ends up paying for it."

In depicting the true-life events in "The Queen," Frears mixed archive footage with dramatic reenactments. For the most part he wanted audiences to "be aware of cutting between various elements," he said. But he would also use newsreel footage to save costs. "We couldn't afford the extras," he said. But when he included footage of an actress doubling for Princess Diana heading into the tunnel car crash that ended her life, audiences were distracted by her likeness to Diana, and he kept only a shot of the top of her head. As for the little princes, Frears chose to show them as little as possible. "They lost their mother. I didn't want to linger on them. I would have been crucified."

The toughest casting in "The Queen" was Prince Philip, who is often the object of ridicule. "In British social life he's a comic fascist," said Frears. "These characters were very familiar to all of us. I was trying to get beyond caricature." American actor James Cromwell was the solution: "He was capable of playing a character more considerable than pantomime."

Music video directors Dayton and Faris, who were making their first film feature with a wide screen format and a miniscule budget, liked to figure out the architectural logistics of their filming in advance on video "to see how the shots line up with the camera," Dayton said.

Their first battle was convincing their financeers to let them shoot in Southern California. "Nothing in Canada looks like the Southwest," said Faris. Some of the exterior shots with the VW bus were shot in 125 degree heat in Phoenix. "All of our stunt doubles sat in the car with their feet in buckets of ice," said Faris. "There was no air conditioning in the van, because we had shot with the windows open." On set the cast and crew were not laughing, she said. On set they were playing their characters straight: "It was about getting the right feeling, so if we were truthful, hopefully it would be funny."

Faris and Dayton gave their actors notebooks so they they could write in character, which they then read to each other, to build a sense of family, "so we would be up and running by the time we got to the set," said Faris. Little Abigail Breslin, who was partly cast off her poised and natural simplicity talking about playing poker on the Jay Leno Show, really did jump into the VW bus herself, they said, although sometimes there was a stunt coordinator inside ready to grab her if necessary. "It's actually fun, if you've ever done it," Faris said.

[MacGuffin]

"Sunshine," "Departed" win top Writers Guild awards

Road comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" and crime thriller "The Departed" won top film awards from the Writers Guild of America on Sunday, setting up a showdown between the two movies at the Oscars in two weeks.

"Little Miss Sunshine," about a dysfunctional family that takes their young daughter across country to compete in a beauty pageant, won best original screenplay for Michael Arndt from the Guild, which represents film and television writers.

"The Departed," directed by Martin Scorsese and telling of corruption among the Massachusetts state police, won the award for best adapted screenplay for its writer William Monahan.

Accepting his award, Arndt said he wrote "Little Miss Sunshine" when he had no job and no screenwriting credits to his name, yet the producers took a chance on him.

He thanked producers Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa and Marc Turtletaub for keeping it away from Hollywood's mainstream studios where it might have been changed.

"They spent five years trying to protect this script from studio notes," Arndt said.

Like Arndt, Monahan also thanked the Hollywood writers for his honor for "The Departed."

Both movies have earned a slew of critical praise and are nominated for the best film Oscar, the movie industry's top award, which will be given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on February 25.

"Little Miss Sunshine" already was named best film by the Producers Guild of America and was given the best ensemble cast award by the Screen Actors Guild. Scorsese earned the honor of best director at the recent Directors Guild of America awards.

"Sunshine" and "Departed" now become clear favorites for the best film Oscar because many guild members also vote for the Oscars.

The other three best film Oscar nominees are "The Queen," about the British royal family, Japanese war drama "Letters From Iwo Jima" and searing cultural saga "Babel."

The Writers Guild gave the award for best film documentary screenplay to Amy Berg for "Deliver Us From Evil," which explores a Catholic priest's sexual abuse of children and efforts by church officials to shield the priest.

"This is a huge honor," Berg told Reuters.

"Deliver Us From Evil" is nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.

The Writers Guild also gives out awards in television, and the top winners in that arena were mafia drama "The Sopranos" for best drama series and "The Office" for best comedy series.

[MacGuffin]

'Sunshine' Sparkles at Spirit Awards

The road comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" won best picture and three other prizes for independent films at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, one day before competing for Hollywood's top honors at the Academy Awards.

The hilarious though dark-tinged tale of a deeply dysfunctional family also won the supporting-actor award for Alan Arkin; best director for the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and best first screenplay for Michael Arndt.

Arkin won for his role as an obscenity-spewing, heroin-snorting grandfather training his granddaughter (Abigail Breslin) for a saucy dance performance at a children's beauty pageant.

"If my mother was here today, if she was alive, she would think: 'Is he going to find something to fall back on, like a teacher's license?'" Arkin joked at the awards ceremony, which was held in a beach tent.

He thanked his co-stars, calling them "the most cohesive, loving" group of actors he had worked with.

Arkin's competition for supporting actor at the Spirit Awards included "Little Miss Sunshine" co-star Paul Dano, who played his grandson, a morose youth maintaining a vow of silence.

Arndt thanked organizers for having a category for first-time writers.

"Anybody who sits down to write a screenplay without any prior credits, I think it's an act of insanity," Arndt said.

The awards honoring the best in independent film were the latest in a string of honors for "Little Miss Sunshine" since its premiere at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

Its Oscar nominations included best picture and supporting-acting slots for Arkin and Breslin.

"I can only hope that filmmakers out there trying to get their first film made or their second or third film and are having some trouble can find some hope from what has happened to us on this movie," Dayton said. "We were dead...in the studio system. They had given up on us and thankfully people in the independent world stuck with us."

The lead-acting Spirit Awards went to the stars of another Oscar contender, the classroom drama "Half Nelson." Ryan Gosling played an inspiring teacher battling a severe drug habit and Shareeka Epps won for her role as a bright student who becomes both his protege and counselor.

Gosling had a best-actor Oscar nomination for "Half Nelson," which also debuted at Sundance last year.

A third Sundance premiere, "Friends With Money," took the supporting-actress Spirit Award for Frances McDormand as a fashion designer who finds that wealth does not necessarily buy happiness.

The top prize winner at Sundance last year, the teen drama "Quinceanera," won the John Cassavetes Award for a film shot for less than $500,000.

"Quinceanera" centers on a Mexican-American teen ostracized by her family after she becomes pregnant.

Jason Reitman won the screenplay award for the tobacco-industry satire "Thank You For Smoking," which he also directed.

Robert Altman nominated as best director for his final film, "A Prairie Home Companion" was saluted with an honorary Spirit Award for his lifetime devotion to independent film. Altman died last November.

Spirit Awards organizers have created a new prize, the Robert Altman Award, which beginning next year will be given out to a film's director and acting ensemble a nod to Altman's gift for overseeing large, overlapping casts.

Other Spirit Award winners were:

_ Best foreign film, "The Lives of Others," Germany, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

_ Best documentary, "The Road to Guantanamo," directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross.

_ Best first feature, "Sweet Land," directed by Ali Selim.

_ Best cinematography, Guillermo Navarro, "Pan's Labyrinth."

[MacGuffin]

'Basic Instinct 2' Wins 4 Razzies

Sharon Stone should have trusted her first "Basic Instinct" and left it alone, according to voters of the Razzies, which mocks the worst of Hollywood.

"Basic Instinct 2" won four Razzies on Saturday, including worst picture and worst actress for Stone.

The Wayans brothers comedy "Little Man" placed second with three Razzies, including shared prizes by Shawn and Marlon Wayans for worst actor and worst screen couple.

A follow-up to Stone's career-making 1992 hit, "Basic Instinct 2" revived her femme-fatale predator for a murder thriller set in London, with relatively unknown British actor David Morrissey inheriting the victim's mantle from Michael Douglas, the star of the first film who did not return for the sequel.

Razzies founder John Wilson said that while Stone still looked good in her late 40s, the movie had no other reason to exist.

"Yes, she still has some excuse to drop her robe, but the dialogue, the story, the overall attitude of the character is cartoon-like," Wilson said. "You have to sort of wonder, is she vamping the movie or does she think she's giving a serious performance? Is she the lone person on the project who got the joke?"

The other Razzies for "Basic Instinct 2" were worst screenplay and worst prequel or sequel.

Along with the Razzies for the two Wayans, "Little Man" also won for worst remake or rip-off because it essentially took the premise of a Bugs Bunny cartoon about a pint-sized hoodlum masquerading as a baby and expanded it to feature length, Wilson said.

The images of Marlon Wayans' grafted head on a 2 1/2-foot man's body were creepy rather than comical, Wilson said.

"I will admit there is `so stupid it's funny,' but there is also `so stupid, get out of my face,' and that's what this movie is," Wilson said.

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, a Hollywood darling a few years ago with such blockbusters as "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," was named worst director and worst supporting actor for his fantasy flop, "Lady in the Water."

Unable to get Disney, which made his previous hits, to back "Lady in the Water," Shyamalan decamped to Warner Bros., which produced the movie that was based on a bedtime story the filmmaker dreamed up for his children.

The movie follows the plight of a mythical water nymph that turns up in a swimming pool at an apartment complex, whose residents band together to send her back to her otherworldly home.

Shyamalan has a pivotal role as a writer whose book will one day bring salvation to humanity.

"He cast himself as the savior role of the film on top of everything else," Wilson said. "Shyamalan falls into one of the traps that's almost guaranteed to win you a Razzie, when you let your ego run rampant as that man did."

Carmen Electra won for worst supporting actress for "Date Movie" and "Scary Movie 4," the latter featuring her as a character that spoofs Shyamalan's "The Village."

Robin Williams' road-trip comedy "RV" was chosen as worst excuse for family entertainment.

[MacGuffin]

MTV Movie Awards Nominees: Pirates, Spartans — And That Crazy Kazakh
Will Ferrell, Abigail Breslin, Emily Blunt will also vie for Golden Popcorn on Sunday, June 3.

They've battled bloodthirsty Persians, supernatural pirates and a seemingly endless charge of soldiers, spooks and sea monsters. Now, 300 surly Spartans and the Pirates of the Caribbean will face their greatest adversaries yet: each other.

"300" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" are the most-nominated flicks for this year's MTV Movie Awards, leading all films with five and four nods, respectively. The adrenaline-fueled action flicks will vie for Best Movie, while stars from the films will battle in the Best Performance and Best Villain categories.

But will either group be able to survive a naked wrestling match with the crazy man from Kazakhstan? The exhaustingly titled "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" has also been nominated for Best Movie, while star Sacha Baron Cohen is also throwing three individual noms into his wedding sack: Best Comedic Performance, Best Fight (the infamous wrestling match with Ken Davitian) and Best Kiss (Cohen's smooch with Will Ferrell in his other comedy, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby").

Not to be outdone, Ferrell himself will be on hand during the ceremony on Sunday, June 3, to battle Baron Cohen in the same four categories. His crotch-slamming ice-skater comedy, "Blades of Glory," was nominated for Best Movie, while Ferrell received nominations in the Best Comedic Performance, Best Kiss and Best Fight (for his take-no-prisoners tussle with Jon Heder) categories. No matter how their epic battles shake out, however, at least we can take solace in knowing Ferrell and Baron Cohen have already kissed and made up.

Rounding out the list of nominees for Best Movie is the sugar-sweet Sundance hit "Little Miss Sunshine." Abigail Breslin, who played the precocious center of the Hoover family, will also compete for Breakthrough Performance.

That category will hardly be a beauty pageant, but there's stiff competition nonetheless. Breslin's fellow nominees include Lena Headey ("300"), Columbus Short ("Stomp the Yard"), Jaden Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness"), Justin Timberlake ("Alpha Dog") and Emily Blunt ("The Devil Wears Prada").

We can only assume that the 24-year-old Blunt will be wearing Prada when she shows up at Universal City, California's Gibson Amphitheatre to join Baron Cohen and Ferrell in vying for Best Comedic Performance. To pull out a win, she'll also have to take down Adam Sandler ("Click") and Ben Stiller ("Night at the Museum"), who round out the nominees.

The real devil, of course, is none other than Meryl Streep, whose Prada-wearing ways struck fear in the hearts of homebody heroines (and interns) everywhere — and earned her a nod for Best Villain. But, c'mon, how bad can you really be when you haven't even killed anyone? It's a question her competition won't have to ask — it includes nefarious "Saw III" torturer Tobin Bell, dastardly "Departed" star Jack Nicholson, infernal "Pirates" ghost Bill Nighy and Rodrigo Santoro, the monstrous slayer of the "300" Spartans.

With so many good baddies around, there's bound to be some unforgettable fisticuffs. Along with Heder/Ferrell and Baron Cohen/ Davitian, the nominees for Best Fight are Jack Black and Héctor Jiménez vs. Los Duendes ("Nacho Libre"), Gerard Butler vs. the unchained Uber Immortal ("300"), and the catfight between Uma Thurman and Anna Faris ("My Super Ex-Girlfriend)."

Among the behind-the-scenes battles viewers will undoubtedly be keeping an eye on is Beyoncé vs. Jennifer Hudson, the "Dreamgirls" co-stars who spent the early months of this year competing for adulation and Oscars; prepare for round two, as both are nominated for Best Performance. Other nominees in the category are A-listers Johnny Depp ("Pirates"), Keira Knightley ("Pirates"), Butler and Will Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness").

From songstress disses to grinning kisses, the nominees for Best Kiss should lighten up the evening. Aside from the Baron Cohen/ Ferrell smooch, nominees include Cameron Diaz and Jude Law ("The Holiday"), Columbus Short and Meagan Good ("Stomp the Yard"), Mark Wahlberg and Elizabeth Banks ("Invincible"), and Marlon Wayans and Brittany Daniel ("Little Man").

Also vying for Golden Popcorn trophies this year are the mtvU Best Filmmaker on Campus nominees (including students from the University of Southern California, Columbia University, Columbia College, University of Central Florida and Savannah College of Art & Design), as well as the new-category competitors for Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet ("Evan Almighty," "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," "Hairspray," "Transformers," "Rush Hour 3" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix").

The irresistibly irreverent awards show will be broadcast live for the first time ever June 3 and will be hosted by foulmouthed funny lady Sarah Silverman. Tune in to see whether the Pirates take home the booty, or if dining in hell earns the "300" men their just desserts.

The complete 2007 MTV Movie Award nominees:

Best Movie (vote now!)
» "300"
» "Blades of Glory"
» "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
» "Little Miss Sunshine"
» "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"

Best Performance (vote now!)
» Gerard Butler, "300"
» Johnny Depp, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
» Keira Knightley, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
» Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
» Beyoncé Knowles, "Dreamgirls"
» Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"

Breakthrough Performance (vote now!)
» Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada"
» Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"
» Lena Headey, "300"
» Columbus Short, "Stomp the Yard"
» Jaden Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"
» Justin Timberlake, "Alpha Dog"

Best Comedic Performance (vote now!)
» Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada"
» Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
» Will Ferrell, "Blades of Glory"
» Adam Sandler, "Click"
» Ben Stiller, "Night at the Museum"

Best Kiss (vote now!)
» Cameron Diaz & Jude Law, "The Holiday"
» Will Ferrell & Sacha Baron Cohen, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"
» Columbus Short & Meagan Good, "Stomp The Yard"
» Mark Wahlberg & Elizabeth Banks, "Invincible"
» Marlon Wayans & Brittany Daniel, "Little Man"

Best Villain (vote now!)
» Tobin Bell, "Saw III"
» Jack Nicholson, "The Departed"
» Bill Nighy, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
» Rodrigo Santoro, "300"
» Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"

Best Fight (vote now!)
» Jack Black & Héctor Jiménez vs. Los Duendes (Wrestling Match), "Nacho Libre"
» Gerard Butler vs. "The Uber Immortal" (The Spartan/Persian Battle), "300"
» Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian (Naked Wrestle Fight), "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
» Will Ferrell vs. Jon Heder (Ice Rink Fight), "Blades of Glory"
» Uma Thurman vs. Anna Faris (Super Girl Fight), "My Super Ex-Girlfriend"

Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet (vote now!)
» "Evan Almighty" (June 22)
» "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (June 15)
» "Hairspray" (July 20)
» "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (July 13)
» "Rush Hour 3" (August 10)
» "Transformers" (July 4)

mtvU Best Filmmaker On Campus (vote now!)
» Robert Dastoli, "Southwestern Orange County vs. The Flying Saucers"(University of Central Florida)
» Maria Gigante, "Girls Room" (Columbia College, Chicago)
» Josh Greenbaum, "Border Patrol" (University of Southern California)
» Alexander Poe, "Please Forget I Exist" (Columbia University)
» Andrew Shipsides, "Bottleneck" (Savannah College of Art & Design)

[grand theft sparrow]

Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet (vote now!)
» "Evan Almighty" (June 22)
» "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (June 15)
» "Hairspray" (July 20)
» "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (July 13)
» "Rush Hour 3" (August 10)
» "Transformers" (July 4)

I was originally going to say that this is the WORST award ever conceived but then I realized just how brilliant of a market research tactic it is.

[Pubrick]

Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet (vote now!)
» "Evan Almighty" (June 22)
» "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (June 15)
» "Hairspray" (July 20)
» "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (July 13)
» "Rush Hour 3" (August 10)
» "Transformers" (July 4)

I was originally going to say that this is the WORST award ever conceived but then I realized just how brilliant of a market research tactic it is.

that is a brilliant idea.

if a bit stolen..

http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=6949.msg234160#msg234160
http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=245.msg234162#msg234162