Showbiz Sandbox 40: Taylor Ain’t Swift At The Grammys

February 1, 2010

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The highlights of this week’s entertainment news were the Grammys and Sundance. First though, there was “Avatar”, “Avatar”, and more “Avatar”. The 3D wunderkind was number one at the box office again and has sold roughly 56 million tickets in North America so far. “Titanic” sold roughly 128 million admissions in North America, so if “Avatar” did that, it would gross about $1.2 billion in the U.S alone.

But there is more going on in the entertainment world besides “Avatar”. The music world gathered for the Grammys on Sunday, January 31. Geoff Boucher from the Los Angeles Times and David Wild, one of the writers on the Grammy telecast, join us to discuss the hits (Pink’s performance), the misses (Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks) and what was going on backstage (Alice Cooper hangs with Smokey Robinson).

The Grammys weren’t the only prizes handed out over the weekend. Sundance announced its festival winners and Alison Willmore, a senior editor at IFC.com, stops by to talk about her favorite festival films and a few she recommends skipping. (Pause for J. Sperling Reich to geek out asking Alison about all the movies she didn’t manage to see in Park City this year.)

Meanwhile, Michael Giltz and Karen Woodward are still arguing over the Jay Leno – Conan O’Brien debacle. This week they have Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Leno to debate. Was Jay able to do some damage control, or will America turn off their TV’s when he returns to “The Tonight Show”?

Lastly, in Inside Baseball news, indie film great Miramax has officially shut its doors. Or more accurately, Miramax had their doors shut for them by Disney. The film company, named after the parents of co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miriam and Max, will live on as a shell of its former self as Disney searches for a buyer. The closing of Miramax makes those of us who were around when “Pulp Fiction” was released feel very, very old.

Avatar Ticket Sales in US
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/movies/awardsseason/27record.html?8dpc

Is This A Box Office Record with an *?
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-bigpicture30-2010jan….

Avatar Plot FAIL.
http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

Breakdown of Avatar Costs
http://graphjam.com/2010/01/19/funny-graphs-avatar-costs/

Kathryn Bigelow Is First Woman To Win DGA Award
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/01/kathryn-bigelow-first-woman-dga-award

IFC’s Sundance Coverage
http://www.ifc.com/sundance/

Alison Willmore’s Writing On IFC.com
http://www.ifc.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&id=6

“Winter’s Bone”, “Restrepo” Lead Sundance Award Winners
http://www.indiewire.com/article/sundance_10_awards_in_progress/

Best & Worst of Sundance: “Gasland”, “Giftshop” Lead Critics Polls
http://www.indiewire.com/article/best_worst_of_sundance_gift_shop_gasland_lead_critics_poll/

Sundance Sales Pick Up
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014532.html

Karina Longworth’s Sundance Coverage
http://www.voicefilm.com/search.php?tag=sundance&blog_id=175

Not Even Oprah Can Keep America From Hating Jay
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b164507_not_even_oprah_can_stop_america_from.html

Transcript of Jay Leno on Oprah
http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/complete-transcript-of-jay-leno-on-oprah/

Conan and NBC Make Deal For Pilots Conan Developed
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9b1….

Jersey Shore Will Return For Second Season
http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2010-1-30-jersey-shore-will-return-for-second-season

Michael Bay Announces ‘Transformers 3’ Release Date
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=59643

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman Now Have The Same Publicist
http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2010/01/29/tom-cruise-nicole-kidman-now-have….

Scarlett Johansson Finds Herself On Broadway
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-scarlett-johansson….

Indie Film Great Miramax Shutters
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014433.html

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