By JOAN LOWY and MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writers Joan Lowy And Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writers 17 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The pilot who safely ditched a jetliner in New York's Hudson River said Tuesday that pay and benefit cuts are driving experienced pilots from careers in the cockpit.
US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger told the House aviation subcommittee that his pay has been cut 40 percent in recent years and his pension has been terminated and replaced with a promise "worth pennies on the dollar" from the federally created Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. These cuts followed a wave of airline bankruptcies after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks compounded by the current recession, he said.
"The bankruptcies were used to by some as a fishing expedition to get what they could not get in normal times," Sullenberger said of the airlines. He said the problems began with the deregulation of the industry in the 1970s.
The reduced compensation has placed "pilots and their families in an untenable financial situation," Sullenberger said. "I do not know a single, professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps."
The subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee heard from the crew of Flight 1549, the air traffic controller who handled the flight and aviation experts to examine what safety lessons could be learned from the Jan. 15 accident which all 155 people aboard survived.
Sullenberger's copilot Jeffrey B. Skiles said unless federal laws are revised to improve labor-management relations "experienced crews in the cockpit will be a thing of the past." And Sullenberger added that without experienced pilots "we will see negative consequences to the flying public."
Sullenberger himself has started a consulting business to help make ends meet. Skiles added, "For the last six years, I have worked seven days a week between my two jobs just to maintain a middle class standard of living."
The air traffic controller who handled Flight 1549 said thought he was hearing a death sentence when Sullenberger radioed that he was ditching in the Hudson.
"I believed at that moment I was going to be the last person to talk to anyone on that plane alive," controller Patrick Harten testified in his first public description of his reactions to last month's miracle landing.
"People don't survive landings on the Hudson River. I thought it was his own death sentence," the 10-year veteran controller testified.
But Sullenberger safely glided the Airbus A320 into the river after it collided with birds and lost power in both engines.
Harten, who has spent his entire career at the radar facility in Westbury, N.Y., that handles air traffic within 40 miles of three major airports, struggled vainly to help get the airliner safely to a landing strip.
Making lightning-quick decisions, Harten communicated with 14 other entities in the three minutes after the bird strike as he diverted other aircraft and advised controllers elsewhere to hold aircraft and clear runways for 1549.
First, Harten tried to return the plane to LaGuardia Airport, asking the airport's tower to clear runway 13. But Sullenberger calmly reported: "We're unable."
Then Harten offered another LaGuardia runway. Again, Sullenberger reported, "Unable." He said he might be able to make Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
But when Harten directed Sullenberger to turn onto a heading for Teterboro, the pilot responded: "We can't do it .... We're going to be in the Hudson."
"I asked him to repeat himself even though I heard him just fine," said Harten. "I simply could not wrap my mind around those words."
At that moment, Harten said he lost radio contact with flight and was certain it "had gone down."
Afterward, Harten said he told his wife, "I felt like I had been hit by a bus."
NTSB investigators have said bird remains found in both engines of the downed plane have been identified as Canada geese.
Sullenberger and Skiles said anyone who's spent much time in cockpits has encountered bird strikes but that this one was exceptionally severe in knocking out both engines. Some gulls don't even dent the airplane, Skiles said, but this "was a bigger bird than I've ever hit before."
The crew and passengers of a helicopter that crashed en route to an oil platform on Jan. 4 weren't as lucky. The National Transportation Safety Board reported Monday that investigators have found evidence birds were involved in the accident near Morgan City, La., that killed eight of nine people aboard.
___
On the Net:
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: http://transportation.house.gov/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090224/ap_on_go_co/plane_splashdown_hearing/print
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Goodbye Leg Tingle?
February 23, 2009
“I can hardly believe what I’m watching on MSNBC right now. Chris Matthews is almost critical — no, not even almost, he’s flat-out critical of President Obama on the economic front.” With reason, I’d say.
UPDATE: Reader M.A. Lamascolo writes: “Matthews has himself to blame. I want Obama to succeed. I want our country to succeed. I disagree with 85% of Obama’s positions, but I want him and our country to succeed. He can’t do that if he hasn’t been tested. One of the best tests is a campaign. But he didn’t have one of those, he had a coronation. Matthews and his colleagues across the media let our country down. They gave Obama no vetting whatsoever. Now Matthews wants to complain? It’s a little late for that.” Yes, they did let the country down.
MORE: Reader Timothy Gehris emails: “Lamascolo is holding two contradictory propositions. The country can’t succeed if Obama does. Until that is widely and deeply recognized, no adequate solution will present itself.” Uh oh.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/70992/
“I can hardly believe what I’m watching on MSNBC right now. Chris Matthews is almost critical — no, not even almost, he’s flat-out critical of President Obama on the economic front.” With reason, I’d say.
UPDATE: Reader M.A. Lamascolo writes: “Matthews has himself to blame. I want Obama to succeed. I want our country to succeed. I disagree with 85% of Obama’s positions, but I want him and our country to succeed. He can’t do that if he hasn’t been tested. One of the best tests is a campaign. But he didn’t have one of those, he had a coronation. Matthews and his colleagues across the media let our country down. They gave Obama no vetting whatsoever. Now Matthews wants to complain? It’s a little late for that.” Yes, they did let the country down.
MORE: Reader Timothy Gehris emails: “Lamascolo is holding two contradictory propositions. The country can’t succeed if Obama does. Until that is widely and deeply recognized, no adequate solution will present itself.” Uh oh.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/70992/
Meltdown on MSNBC: The Leg Tingle Is Gone?
I can hardly believe what I'm watching on MSNBC right now. Chris Matthews is almost critical — no, not even almost, he's flat-out critical of President Obama on the economic front. He mentions an earlier conversation with CNBC's manic stock analyst Jim Cramer and a University of Maryland professor (Peter Morici?) knocking Obama for several economic decisions — that the stimulus bill needed more real infrastructure and less pork, that the housing bill isn't inspiring confidence and doesn't look like it will work, and that no one has faith in Tim Geithner's solution for the banks.
Howard Fineman of Newsweek says Obama has been "grim and a little distant at the same time . . . Tim Geithner hasn't inspired any confidence anywhere, as far as I can tell."
Matthews: "He seems like Barney Fife to me."
Eugene Robinson: "I actually referred to him as Doogie Howser, Treasury Secretary, and I think it's a little unfair." Much laughter ensues.
More Fineman: "Despite his high approval rating and obvious intellect and goodwill, he hasn't quite yet seemed to convey the sense that he knows the way forward and that he can get us there . . . I thought the first fifteen minutes of this show were devastating. Not that Jim Cramer is the only person they have to convince, but they have to convince people that they know what they're doing, that they're not just feeling their way forward." Robinson points out that they are feeling their way forward.
Matthews: "I thought 8,000 was the floor, and it looks like 6,000 is the floor. People are angry, I'm getting angry."
02/23 05:54 PM
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTAyYTk1NWVlOThhZDUyMGU1YTJhYTNjOTNlYzU2MTU=
Howard Fineman of Newsweek says Obama has been "grim and a little distant at the same time . . . Tim Geithner hasn't inspired any confidence anywhere, as far as I can tell."
Matthews: "He seems like Barney Fife to me."
Eugene Robinson: "I actually referred to him as Doogie Howser, Treasury Secretary, and I think it's a little unfair." Much laughter ensues.
More Fineman: "Despite his high approval rating and obvious intellect and goodwill, he hasn't quite yet seemed to convey the sense that he knows the way forward and that he can get us there . . . I thought the first fifteen minutes of this show were devastating. Not that Jim Cramer is the only person they have to convince, but they have to convince people that they know what they're doing, that they're not just feeling their way forward." Robinson points out that they are feeling their way forward.
Matthews: "I thought 8,000 was the floor, and it looks like 6,000 is the floor. People are angry, I'm getting angry."
02/23 05:54 PM
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTAyYTk1NWVlOThhZDUyMGU1YTJhYTNjOTNlYzU2MTU=
Monday, February 23, 2009
`Slumdog Millionaire' kid stars face uphill battle
By Erika Kinetz, Associated Press Writer | February 17, 2009
MUMBAI, India --They are not your typical movie stars.
Ten-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail lives in a lean-to made of tarpaulins and blankets. Nine-year-old Rubina Ali's home is a tiny bubble-gum pink shack. A murky open sewer runs down her narrow lane.
Plucked from one of Mumbai's teeming slums to star in the Oscar-nominated hit "Slumdog Millionaire," they are India's real slumdog millionaires.
Like the film's hero, an impoverished tea seller who wins money and love on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," they now have a chance to escape the grinding poverty they were born into. But as their still-unfolding story shows, things never go as smoothly in real life.
The filmmakers are helping the children, but fast discovering that good intentions and deep pockets don't guarantee success. Meanwhile, sudden fame and relative fortune are sowing resentment within the families and with neighbors, who wonder why their big-eyed boys weren't cast instead.
The Fox Searchlight release has grossed more than $100 million, but the children's lives seem nearly as fragile as before.
"He's supposed to be the hero in the movie, but look how he's living," said Azharuddin's mother, Shameem Ismail, sitting on a rotting board outside their lean-to. "It's a zero."
About 65 million Indians, roughly a quarter of the urban population, live in slums, according to government surveys.
"Most of them are doomed to remain as they are," said Amitabh Kundu, dean of Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of Social Sciences in New Delhi.
It's too early to tell whether Rubina and Azharuddin -- Azhar to his friends -- will buck the trend.
The filmmakers debated whether to use slum kids at all.
"Part of your brain thinks, would it distort their lives too much?" said Danny Boyle, the British director, by phone from London. "Then someone said, 'These people have so much prejudice against them in their lives. Why should we be prejudiced against them as well?'"
Rubina was cast as the young Latika, who grows up to become the hero's love interest, and Azhar as his brother, Salim.
Boyle and producer Christian Colson figured education was the best way to help Rubina and Azhar. They got them places in Aseema, a nonprofit, English-language school for underprivileged kids in Mumbai.
Some arrive at Aseema with matted hair, never having seen a mirror before. Many need counseling. On one blackboard, the lesson of the day read: "I must close my mouth when I eat."
School chairwoman Dilbur Parakh said half make it through high school, and she tries to find vocational training for the rest.
The filmmakers also paid the children for 30 days of acting work, give the families a small monthly stipend and set up trust funds that Rubina and Azhar can tap once they graduate.
Colson describes the amount in the trust as substantial, but won't tell anyone how much -- not even the parents -- for fear of making the kids vulnerable to exploitation.
As the movie's popularity swelled, the filmmakers' plan began to fray.
Journalists swarmed the school, forcing Rubina and Azhar to stay home. The families started demanding more, asking for cash and new houses, Colson said.
When the city razed Azhar's neighborhood, Colson wired the family money for a new home. He doesn't know what happened to the money, but the family remains camped out in a lean-to.
Most troubling, he said, the parents' commitment to seeing their kids through school has waned.
So the filmmakers have agreed to buy apartments and allow the families to move in. But they won't transfer ownership to the parents until Rubina and Azhar finish school at age 18.
The filmmakers have also faced criticism that they didn't fairly compensate the children, but have declined to reveal how much they paid, again citing fear of exploitation.
"It's becoming a full-time job dealing with the daily hassle," Boyle said. Still, he added, "I'm glad we did it, even with all the headache."
He hopes to give Rubina and Azhar an education rather than a jackpot -- what he called a "slow nurturing" instead of "a sudden dash for glory."
"Moviemaking is distorting," Boyle said. "The last thing you want to do is turn them into a star."
But directing movies is easier than directing lives. Stardom is already distorting Rubina's world.
The latest additions to her family's meager belongings -- some stainless-steel pots and old blankets -- are two small photo albums.
Inside are photographs of Rubina wearing a glittering "salwar kameez" outfit and sitting in a helicopter, ready to fly off to a strange new world of red carpets and Bollywood heroes.
"My friends when they see me on TV say, 'Look, you're going to be a big actress when you grow up. You're going to forget us,'" Rubina said. "I say, 'You are my best friends. How can I forget you?'"
She dashed outside and scurried along the sewer. "See this?" she said, pointing at a tract of weeds. She seemed proud to pronounce a new English word to a foreign visitor: "jungle."
But on the narrow, dirty lanes Rubina knows best, most kids speak Hindi and Urdu and forgo school to work.
"If I wear something nice then people say how I'm trying to show off, and I normally don't talk to them in English," she said.
Azhar's mom, wrapped in the sparkly pink sari she wore to the movie opening, wonders where all the money the filmmakers promised is.
"I don't know if I should go ask them if money is coming in," she said.
Her husband usually brings in 1,500 to 3,000 rupees ($30 to $60) a month selling scrap wood, but now is hospitalized with tuberculosis, Ismail said.
Azhar sat at her elbow, distracted. His friends had been staring at him as he talked with one journalist after another.
"My friends have seen me get new clothes and go in cars and get books," he said. "Even they want that sort of life."
He celebrated his birthday recently by buying a cake and balloons for his neighbors.
Now he wanted to buy his friends chocolate, but his mother controlled the purse strings.
Azhar began to cry. Tears ran down his small face.
"It's my money and you are using it!" he shouted.
"We have 200 rupees," his mother said. "I'll give you some later."
He kept crying, twisting his body in small unhappy thrusts. "You're not giving me money," he yelled. "You're spending it on other things."
His mother grabbed a piece of brick and raised it over her head.
"Is it your money?" he shouted, daring her: "Hit me. You hit me!"
Then he fled.
Suddenly, school, Bollywood and the upcoming Oscars all seemed terribly irrelevant. There was only the plain dirt Azhar and his mother live on, and the immediate, unruly desire for cash.
Ismail tossed the brick to the ground, rolling her one good eye in exasperation. She can't see out the other one and says she needs 6,000 rupees ($120) for an operation.
"He's a star," she sighed.
------
Fox Searchlight Pictures is owned by News Corp.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/02/17/slumdog_millionaire_kid_stars_face_uphill_battle?mode=PF
MUMBAI, India --They are not your typical movie stars.
Ten-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail lives in a lean-to made of tarpaulins and blankets. Nine-year-old Rubina Ali's home is a tiny bubble-gum pink shack. A murky open sewer runs down her narrow lane.
Plucked from one of Mumbai's teeming slums to star in the Oscar-nominated hit "Slumdog Millionaire," they are India's real slumdog millionaires.
Like the film's hero, an impoverished tea seller who wins money and love on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," they now have a chance to escape the grinding poverty they were born into. But as their still-unfolding story shows, things never go as smoothly in real life.
The filmmakers are helping the children, but fast discovering that good intentions and deep pockets don't guarantee success. Meanwhile, sudden fame and relative fortune are sowing resentment within the families and with neighbors, who wonder why their big-eyed boys weren't cast instead.
The Fox Searchlight release has grossed more than $100 million, but the children's lives seem nearly as fragile as before.
"He's supposed to be the hero in the movie, but look how he's living," said Azharuddin's mother, Shameem Ismail, sitting on a rotting board outside their lean-to. "It's a zero."
About 65 million Indians, roughly a quarter of the urban population, live in slums, according to government surveys.
"Most of them are doomed to remain as they are," said Amitabh Kundu, dean of Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of Social Sciences in New Delhi.
It's too early to tell whether Rubina and Azharuddin -- Azhar to his friends -- will buck the trend.
The filmmakers debated whether to use slum kids at all.
"Part of your brain thinks, would it distort their lives too much?" said Danny Boyle, the British director, by phone from London. "Then someone said, 'These people have so much prejudice against them in their lives. Why should we be prejudiced against them as well?'"
Rubina was cast as the young Latika, who grows up to become the hero's love interest, and Azhar as his brother, Salim.
Boyle and producer Christian Colson figured education was the best way to help Rubina and Azhar. They got them places in Aseema, a nonprofit, English-language school for underprivileged kids in Mumbai.
Some arrive at Aseema with matted hair, never having seen a mirror before. Many need counseling. On one blackboard, the lesson of the day read: "I must close my mouth when I eat."
School chairwoman Dilbur Parakh said half make it through high school, and she tries to find vocational training for the rest.
The filmmakers also paid the children for 30 days of acting work, give the families a small monthly stipend and set up trust funds that Rubina and Azhar can tap once they graduate.
Colson describes the amount in the trust as substantial, but won't tell anyone how much -- not even the parents -- for fear of making the kids vulnerable to exploitation.
As the movie's popularity swelled, the filmmakers' plan began to fray.
Journalists swarmed the school, forcing Rubina and Azhar to stay home. The families started demanding more, asking for cash and new houses, Colson said.
When the city razed Azhar's neighborhood, Colson wired the family money for a new home. He doesn't know what happened to the money, but the family remains camped out in a lean-to.
Most troubling, he said, the parents' commitment to seeing their kids through school has waned.
So the filmmakers have agreed to buy apartments and allow the families to move in. But they won't transfer ownership to the parents until Rubina and Azhar finish school at age 18.
The filmmakers have also faced criticism that they didn't fairly compensate the children, but have declined to reveal how much they paid, again citing fear of exploitation.
"It's becoming a full-time job dealing with the daily hassle," Boyle said. Still, he added, "I'm glad we did it, even with all the headache."
He hopes to give Rubina and Azhar an education rather than a jackpot -- what he called a "slow nurturing" instead of "a sudden dash for glory."
"Moviemaking is distorting," Boyle said. "The last thing you want to do is turn them into a star."
But directing movies is easier than directing lives. Stardom is already distorting Rubina's world.
The latest additions to her family's meager belongings -- some stainless-steel pots and old blankets -- are two small photo albums.
Inside are photographs of Rubina wearing a glittering "salwar kameez" outfit and sitting in a helicopter, ready to fly off to a strange new world of red carpets and Bollywood heroes.
"My friends when they see me on TV say, 'Look, you're going to be a big actress when you grow up. You're going to forget us,'" Rubina said. "I say, 'You are my best friends. How can I forget you?'"
She dashed outside and scurried along the sewer. "See this?" she said, pointing at a tract of weeds. She seemed proud to pronounce a new English word to a foreign visitor: "jungle."
But on the narrow, dirty lanes Rubina knows best, most kids speak Hindi and Urdu and forgo school to work.
"If I wear something nice then people say how I'm trying to show off, and I normally don't talk to them in English," she said.
Azhar's mom, wrapped in the sparkly pink sari she wore to the movie opening, wonders where all the money the filmmakers promised is.
"I don't know if I should go ask them if money is coming in," she said.
Her husband usually brings in 1,500 to 3,000 rupees ($30 to $60) a month selling scrap wood, but now is hospitalized with tuberculosis, Ismail said.
Azhar sat at her elbow, distracted. His friends had been staring at him as he talked with one journalist after another.
"My friends have seen me get new clothes and go in cars and get books," he said. "Even they want that sort of life."
He celebrated his birthday recently by buying a cake and balloons for his neighbors.
Now he wanted to buy his friends chocolate, but his mother controlled the purse strings.
Azhar began to cry. Tears ran down his small face.
"It's my money and you are using it!" he shouted.
"We have 200 rupees," his mother said. "I'll give you some later."
He kept crying, twisting his body in small unhappy thrusts. "You're not giving me money," he yelled. "You're spending it on other things."
His mother grabbed a piece of brick and raised it over her head.
"Is it your money?" he shouted, daring her: "Hit me. You hit me!"
Then he fled.
Suddenly, school, Bollywood and the upcoming Oscars all seemed terribly irrelevant. There was only the plain dirt Azhar and his mother live on, and the immediate, unruly desire for cash.
Ismail tossed the brick to the ground, rolling her one good eye in exasperation. She can't see out the other one and says she needs 6,000 rupees ($120) for an operation.
"He's a star," she sighed.
------
Fox Searchlight Pictures is owned by News Corp.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/02/17/slumdog_millionaire_kid_stars_face_uphill_battle?mode=PF
'Slumdog' rules Oscars with 8 prizes, best picture
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer David Germain, Ap Movie Writer 1 hr 51 mins ago
LOS ANGELES – "Slumdog Millionaire" took the best-picture Academy Award and seven other Oscars on Sunday, including director for Danny Boyle, whose ghetto-to-glory story paralleled the film's unlikely rise to Hollywood's summit.
The other top winners: Kate Winslet, best actress for the Holocaust-themed drama "The Reader"; Sean Penn, best actor for the title role of "Milk"; Heath Ledger, supporting actor for "The Dark Knight"; and Penelope Cruz, supporting actress for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
A story of hope amid squalor in Mumbai, India, "Slumdog Millionaire" came in with 10 nominations, its eight wins including adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and both music Oscars (score and song).
"Just to say to Mumbai, all of you who helped us make the film and all of those of you who didn't, thank you very much. You dwarf even this guy," Boyle said, holding up his directing Oscar.
The filmmakers accepted the best-picture trophy surrounded by both the adult professional actors who appeared among the cast of relative unknowns and some of the children Boyle cast from the slums of Mumbai.
The film follows the travails and triumphs of Jamal, an orphan who artfully dodges a criminal gang that mutilates children to make them more pitiable beggars. Jamal witnesses his mother's violent death, endures police torture and struggles with betrayal by his brother, while single-mindedly hoping to reunite with the lost love of his childhood.
Fate rewards Jamal, whose story unfolds through flashbacks as he recalls how he came to know the answers that made him a champion on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
As he took the stage to accept his prize for playing slain gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk, Penn gleefully told the crowd: "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns."
He followed with condemnation of anti-gay protesters who demonstrated near the Oscar site and comments about California's recent vote to ban gay marriage.
"For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think it's a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that support," Penn said. "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."
For his demented reinvention of Batman villain the Joker, Ledger became only the second actor ever to win posthumously, his triumph coming exactly 13 months after his death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
His Oscar for the Warner Bros. blockbuster was accepted by Ledger's parents and sister on behalf of the actor's 3-year-old daughter, Matilda.
"I have to say this is ever so humbling, just being amongst such wonderful people in such a wonderful industry," said his father, Kim Ledger. "We'd like to thank the academy for recognizing our son's amazing work, Warner Bros., and Christopher Nolan in particular for allowing Heath the creative license to develop and explore this crazy Joker character."
Since his death, the 28-year-old Ledger has gained a mythic aura akin to James Dean, another rising star who died well before his time.
The Joker was his final completed role, a casting choice that initially drew scorn from fans who thought Ledger would not be up to the task given Jack Nicholson's gleefully campy rendition of the character in 1989's "Batman."
In the months before Ledger's death, buzz on his wickedly chaotic performance swelled as marketing for the movie centered on the Joker and the perverted clown makeup he hid behind.
Ledger's death fanned a frenzy of anticipation for "The Dark Knight," which had a record $158.4 million opening weekend last summer.
The previous posthumous Oscar recipient was Peter Finch, who won best actor for 1976's "Network" two months after his death.
Cruz triumphed as a woman in a steamy three-way affair with her ex-husband and an American woman in Woody Allen's romance.
"Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one," Cruz said, who went on with warm thanks to Allen. "Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character. Thank you for having written all these years some of the greatest characters for women."
"OK, that fainting thing, Penelope," Winslet joked later as she accepted her best-actress prize for "The Reader," in which she plays a former concentration camp guard in an affair with a teen. "I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably 8 years old and staring into the bathroom mirror, and this would be a shampoo bottle. But it's not a shampoo bottle now."
It was Winslet's first win after five previous losses.
"Slumdog" writer Simon Beaufoy, who adapted the script from Vikas Swarup's novel "Q&A," said there are places he never could imagine being.
"For me, it's the moon, the South Pole, the Miss World podium, and here," Beaufoy said.
The epic love story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which led with 13 nominations, had three wins, for visual effects, art direction and makeup.
"The Dark Knight" had a second win, for sound editing.
"Milk" writer Dustin Lance Black offered an impassioned tribute to Milk.
"If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours," Black said.
"Man on Wire," James Marsh's examination of tight-rope walker Philippe Petit's dazzling stroll between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, was chosen as best documentary.
The acting categories were presented by five past winners of the same awards, among them last year's actress winners, Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton, plus Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Kevin Kline, Sophia Loren, Anthony Hopkins, Shirley MacLaine and Robert De Niro.
It was a much different style for the Oscars as each past recipient offered personal tributes to one of the nominees, without clips of the nominated performances. Awards usually are done in chit-chat style between a couple of celebrity presenters.
After last year's Oscars delivered their worst TV ratings ever, producers this time aimed to liven up the show with some surprises and new ways of presenting awards. Rather than hiring a comedian such as past hosts Jon Stewart or Chris Rock, the producers went with actor and song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, who has been host of Broadway's Tony Awards.
Instead of the usual standup routine, Jackman did an engaging musical number to open the show, saluting nominated films with a clever tribute.
Jackman later did a medley staged by his "Australia" director Baz Luhrmann with such performers as Beyonce Knowles and "High School Musical" stars Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron.
"Slumdog Millionaire" went into the evening after a run of prizes from earlier film honors.
The film nearly got lost in the shuffle as Warner Bros. folded its art-house banner, Warner Independent, which had been slated to distribute "Slumdog Millionaire." It was rescued from the direct-to-video scrap heap when Fox Searchlight stepped in to release the film.
"Slumdog" composer A.R. Rahman, a dual Oscar winner for the score and song, said the movie was about "optimism and the power of hope."
"All my life, I've had a choice of hate and love," Rahman said. "I chose love, and I'm here.
___
On the Net:
Academy Awards:
http://www.oscars.org
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090223/ap_on_en_mo/oscars/print;_ylt=Ah6i9R9lt61jSfcCqChAC0OmG78C;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--
Oscars 2009: Why Slumdog Millionaire richly deserves its hoard of Academy Awards
The time has come for those, like me, who treated it with friendly scepticism to wake up to why it is such a compelling winner
Slumdog Millionaire has won one of those extraordinary Oscar-night landslides: a film whose aura of success and feelgood word-of-mouth manages to replicate itself virally inside the heart and mind of every Academy Award voter.
Slumdog Millionaire
Release: 2008
Country: UK
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 120 mins
Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Cast: Amil Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Azharudin Mohammed Ismail, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Rubina Ali
It was the biggest British victory since Chariots of Fire and once again, the spirit of Colin Welland returned to gloat at the ceremony. The British always seem to be coming at the Oscars, but last night they really did arrive in force with a pumped-up, hyperactive, hyperreal melodrama set in south Asia with no stars other than a global TV franchise which everyone thought was past its sell-by date.
Already, the film's almost-straight-to-DVD production history has passed into legend. You could not, in Richard Littlejohn's famous phrase, make it up. It is a richly deserved victory for its likeable director Danny Boyle, whose acceptance speeches have melted hearts all over the place, and for its driving force, Film4's Tessa Ross, who is now fully entitled to luxuriate in her new status as Queen of Hollywood.
Oscarology is not an exact science and quite why it has done so spectacularly well is still a bit of a mystery to me, but the time has come for those, like me, who have treated the film with a touch of friendly scepticism to wake up to an important part of what made it so compelling: its differentness, its originality. At a time when consumers of commercial cinema are offered romcoms that look like all the other romcoms, thrillers that look like all the other thrillers, classy period dramas that look like all the other classy period dramas, Slumdog Millionaire really did deliver the shock of the new.
In addition, the 2009 Oscars gave a thoroughly welcome prize to Man On Wire, the extraordinary British documentary about Philippe Petit, the man who wire-walked New York's twin towers in 1974. This, I would venture to say, is the single best film to be honoured at last night's ceremony, and it can claim to have played a role in healing the wounds of 9/11.
The big surprise, of course, was Sean Penn, whose best actor award showed that Academy voters are prepared to reward old-fashioned technique: Penn's Harvey Milk was an elaborately, even brilliantly detailed impersonation of a gay man. (As with Brokeback Mountain, it may be the case that the Academy is prepared to welcome films about gay politics and gay sexuality, but not to the extent of giving them the best picture award.) Sean Penn really was Acting with a Capital A in 72-point bold.
Mickey Rourke, by contrast, was being himself: merging his established persona and reputation with a happily chosen piece of casting. Everyone, including me, thought that this was going to be the evening's sure thing. Even Kate Winslet wasn't as sure of her award as Mickey Rourke was of his. But it was not to be. Winslet herself got a well-deserved prize, though I can't help wishing that she had been awarded it for her performance in Revolutionary Road: a better performance in a far superior film.
Heath Ledger's posthumous Oscar was an event with a singular flavour: a tribute to his remarkable and deeply unnerving performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, now the fourth highest grossing movie in history. Ledger had pulled off the considerable triumph of effacing the memory of Jack Nicholson in the role. It was also a melancholy tribute to a lost talent: it was like a Curtailed Lifetime Achievement Award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/feb/23/oscars-danny-boyle/print
Friday, February 20, 2009
'Benjamin Button': Big Oscar loser in the making?
By DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer
Posted: 02/18/2009 11:41:56 AM MST
Updated: 02/18/2009 11:42:49 AM MST
Click photo to enlarge
In this image released by Paramount Pictures,... ((AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Merrick Morton) )
«12»LOS ANGELES—The producers of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" toiled for 18 years on their strange romantic epic, so simply bringing it to the screen—let alone grabbing a leading 13 Academy Awards nominations—was a victory.
Winning any of those Oscars come Sunday night is another challenge.
"Benjamin Button" is in a curious awards position, tied with eight past films for second-most nominations ever. Yet there's a slim chance it could go home empty-handed, setting a record for Oscar futility by a single film.
Of the 10 past films with 13 or more nominations, all won at least four Oscars. If "Benjamin Button" wound up being shut out, it would become the biggest loser ever, surpassing the zero-for-11 record by 1977's "The Turning Point" and 1985's "The Color Purple." In 2002, "Gangs of New York" went zero-for-10.
"Benjamin Button" has been an omnipresent nominee at earlier Hollywood honors, but it has not won major prizes other than three technical trophies at last week's British Academy Film Awards.
It was shut out at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, while the directors, producers and writers guilds all passed it over for "Slumdog Millionaire," which has 10 Oscar nominations and is expected to dominate the evening.
"Slumdog Millionaire" also defeated "Benjamin Button" for top honors from trade groups for cinematography and film editing, two of the seven total categories where both are competing at the Oscars. The historical pageant "The Duchess" beat "Benjamin Button" at the Costume Designers Guild Awards.
"Benjamin Button" is considered a longshot in its top four categories: best picture, director (David Fincher), actor (Brad Pitt) and supporting actress (Taraji P. Henson).
"Slumdog Millionaire" is the heavy favorite to win best picture and director for Danny Boyle. Oddsmakers place Sean Penn ("Milk"), Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") and Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon") ahead of Pitt and Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and Viola Davis ("Doubt") ahead of Henson.
Even if it wins some of its other categories, losing out on best picture would put "Benjamin Button" producer Kathleen Kennedy in the Oscar record books. It would be Kennedy's sixth loss, tying her with Stanley Kramer for most best-picture nominations without a win.
Frank Marshall, Kennedy's producing partner on "Benjamin Button," would move into second place, going zero-for-five on best picture.
"Obviously, we've never won. It would be nice to win for this one," Marshall said. "Thirteen nominations is also a lucky number for us, because I was born on Friday the 13th."
Kennedy and Marshall, who first took on "Benjamin Button" in 1990, have shared past nominations for "The Color Purple," "The Sixth Sense" and "Seabiscuit." She also had nominations on her own for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Munich," while Marshall also was nominated for "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
"Benjamin Button" is a strong visual-effects competitor for the digital magic that went into the story of a man born old and aging backward. It has tough opposition, though, in the year's blockbuster superhero tales, "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man."
"The Dark Knight" also is up against "Benjamin Button" in five other technical categories.
"Benjamin Button" is not the only potential big loser Sunday. Kate Winslet is up for best actress in "The Reader," her sixth nomination.
She lost on her previous five, and another defeat would tie her with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the only actresses to go zero-for-six.
"I have been here so many times and lost so many times, that quite honestly, I have a really good losing face," Winslet said. "I've sort of perfected that strange, Zen, blank calm that you have to have, of course, in that moment that they don't call out your name."
———
http://www.oscars.org
Posted: 02/18/2009 11:41:56 AM MST
Updated: 02/18/2009 11:42:49 AM MST
Click photo to enlarge
In this image released by Paramount Pictures,... ((AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Merrick Morton) )
«12»LOS ANGELES—The producers of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" toiled for 18 years on their strange romantic epic, so simply bringing it to the screen—let alone grabbing a leading 13 Academy Awards nominations—was a victory.
Winning any of those Oscars come Sunday night is another challenge.
"Benjamin Button" is in a curious awards position, tied with eight past films for second-most nominations ever. Yet there's a slim chance it could go home empty-handed, setting a record for Oscar futility by a single film.
Of the 10 past films with 13 or more nominations, all won at least four Oscars. If "Benjamin Button" wound up being shut out, it would become the biggest loser ever, surpassing the zero-for-11 record by 1977's "The Turning Point" and 1985's "The Color Purple." In 2002, "Gangs of New York" went zero-for-10.
"Benjamin Button" has been an omnipresent nominee at earlier Hollywood honors, but it has not won major prizes other than three technical trophies at last week's British Academy Film Awards.
It was shut out at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, while the directors, producers and writers guilds all passed it over for "Slumdog Millionaire," which has 10 Oscar nominations and is expected to dominate the evening.
"Slumdog Millionaire" also defeated "Benjamin Button" for top honors from trade groups for cinematography and film editing, two of the seven total categories where both are competing at the Oscars. The historical pageant "The Duchess" beat "Benjamin Button" at the Costume Designers Guild Awards.
"Benjamin Button" is considered a longshot in its top four categories: best picture, director (David Fincher), actor (Brad Pitt) and supporting actress (Taraji P. Henson).
"Slumdog Millionaire" is the heavy favorite to win best picture and director for Danny Boyle. Oddsmakers place Sean Penn ("Milk"), Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") and Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon") ahead of Pitt and Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and Viola Davis ("Doubt") ahead of Henson.
Even if it wins some of its other categories, losing out on best picture would put "Benjamin Button" producer Kathleen Kennedy in the Oscar record books. It would be Kennedy's sixth loss, tying her with Stanley Kramer for most best-picture nominations without a win.
Frank Marshall, Kennedy's producing partner on "Benjamin Button," would move into second place, going zero-for-five on best picture.
"Obviously, we've never won. It would be nice to win for this one," Marshall said. "Thirteen nominations is also a lucky number for us, because I was born on Friday the 13th."
Kennedy and Marshall, who first took on "Benjamin Button" in 1990, have shared past nominations for "The Color Purple," "The Sixth Sense" and "Seabiscuit." She also had nominations on her own for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Munich," while Marshall also was nominated for "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
"Benjamin Button" is a strong visual-effects competitor for the digital magic that went into the story of a man born old and aging backward. It has tough opposition, though, in the year's blockbuster superhero tales, "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man."
"The Dark Knight" also is up against "Benjamin Button" in five other technical categories.
"Benjamin Button" is not the only potential big loser Sunday. Kate Winslet is up for best actress in "The Reader," her sixth nomination.
She lost on her previous five, and another defeat would tie her with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the only actresses to go zero-for-six.
"I have been here so many times and lost so many times, that quite honestly, I have a really good losing face," Winslet said. "I've sort of perfected that strange, Zen, blank calm that you have to have, of course, in that moment that they don't call out your name."
———
http://www.oscars.org
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