A regular look at whats hot and whats not in the wild, weird and ever changing world of Hollywood.
RED HOT:
THE KING'S SPEECH TRIUMPHS AT THE DIRECTOR'S GUILD AWARDS
Mark the date - 29th January, 2011 as the night when
The King's Speech overtook The Social Network in the Best Picture race. Before last weekend David Fincher's film was seen as a red hot favourite for the prestigious Oscar award but now the tides have turned in a rather dramatic fashion. Last Saturday Harvey Weinstein was all smiles as The King's Speech prospered at the Producer's Guild Award and this past weekend it was Tom Hooper's turn to take to the stage as he was rewarded with the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film. Hooper declared that he was "overwhelmed" and earlier in the evening thanked his mother for suggesting that he embark on the project in the first place. The King's Speech became the sixteenth film to triumph at both the Director's and Producer's Guild Awards and in the past only three films have failed to capitalise on this momentum come Oscar night. Nothing is ever certain but things are looking very promising indeed for the picture. Hooper will also be encouraged by the fact that in the history of the Director's Guild Awards which stretches all the way back to 1948 only six winners have not gone on to win Best Director at the Oscars.
HOT:
WINS FOR PORTMAN, FIRTH, BALE & LEO 
Her fellow Oscar nominees will have been disheartened to see
Natalie Portman pick up yet another accolade last night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in what is looking like a very clear path to Oscar success. Portman was named outstanding female actress in a lead role for her portrayal of Nina Sayers beating out competition from main challenger Annette Bening as well as other nominees Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence and Hillary Swank. In a speech that highlighted her cool sense of humour Portman declared that:
" taught me to work the hardest and never to be an a*shole, that wasn't acceptable,...."
In spite of Annette Bening's relentless campaigning as of late it seems inevitable that her fifth Oscar nomination will duly become her fifth loss. A shame as her performance in The Kids Are All Right is simply sublime. The SGA's have been running since 1994 and only on four occasions has the winning actress not gone on to Oscar glory. However Bening and her fellow nominees can take some solace in the fact that two of those losses have arisen in the last four years. In 1999 it was Bening who was the heavy favourite for her performance in American Beauty and Swank the underdog for Boys Don't Cry in a very similar pattern to what we are seeing now with Bening winning everything in sight before Oscar night when the extremely low profile Swank prevailed. Bening will have to hope that in her role as underdog to Portman's favourite a similar pattern will occur. As expected it was Colin Firth who won Outstanding Male Actor in a lead role. Later in the night he was joined by his co-stars as The King's Speech also received Best Ensemble Cast in yet another triumph over The Social Network. The Fighter also picked up two awards on the night however with wins for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo in the two supporting categories. It was an especially pleasing win for Bale who happened to be celebrating his 37th birthday.
COLD:
NETWORK DISCONNECTS FROM AWARDS
On Saturday night
The Social Network came out empty handed at a big awards ceremony for the second week in a row. Despite the film's loss at the Producer's Guild Awards - The Social Network was still heavily backed to win Best Picture but I'm sure that some reshuffling will now shortly be arranged amongst the Oscar bookies. The Social Network now faces a tough battle against Oscar history knowing that in the past decade only Brokeback Mountain has failed to succeed at the Academy following on from wins at the Producer and Director's Guild Awards. At least that year Crash's Best Ensemble Cast win at the SGA's gave the film some hope in the build up to the Oscar ceremony but King's Speech win in that category also will make Fincher and co even more anxious.