Showbiz Sandbox 650: “Oppenheimer” Gives Christopher Nolan His Oscar Moment

March 12, 2024

As expected, “Oppenheimer” dominated the 96th Academy Awards winning seven categories including Best Actor, Best Picture and, for Christopher Nolan, Best Director. “Barbie” only picked up a single trophy for Best Original Song. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s Editor-at-Large attended this year’s Oscar ceremony and joins us to describe what it was like to be in the room where it happened.

Meanwhile, a recent Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action based college admissions has led to a reverse discrimination lawsuit against CBS by a script coordinator of the show “SEAL Team.” The outcome could determine whether it becomes the first of many more such legal actions.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the BBC is going all in on the streaming service BritBox, the launch of a new author driven publishing house and Kanye West’s latest album tops the charts despite not being on streaming services.

Read more

Showbiz Sandbox 576: Director Frank Marshall Strikes A New Note With Jazz Fest

March 15, 2022

Frank Marshall is probably best known as a producer of some of Hollywood’s biggest films, but he has also directed four successful narrative features throughout his career. More recently he has turned to directing documentaries, including “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” which he co-directs with Ryan Suffern. Marshall joins us to discuss the film, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release.

Meanwhile, as we inch our way closer to this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, the Directors Guild, BAFTA and the Critics Choice Awards were all announced over the weekend, helping to better define who may take home an Oscar.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how compact disc sales are on the rise (sort of), Amazon launches a live DJ streaming service and this year’s Olivier Award nominations.

Read more

Showbiz Sandbox 35: Women In Hollywood… It’s Complicated

December 28, 2009

You know it’s a slow entertainment news week when J. Sperling Reich, Karen Woodward, and Michael Giltz wind up talking about their personal arrest records. However even during the holiday season we can find showbiz news to talk about, not to mention places to talk. Michael joins us from the boisterous Cranky Café where he was enjoying homemade mac and cheese (and free Wifi).

America was sinning over the holidays, and by that we mean seeing movies on Christmas Day. Avatar set box office records with a $75 million North American gross and a $145 million international gross, but is it really a good movie? One movie that Karen and Michael agree is not at all good is “It’s Complicated”, and yet it’s doing rather well at the box office – is that because women are so starved for a decent “women’s film” that they will see whatever is in theatres?

Speaking of women’s films, or lack thereof, Karen digs up a couple of interesting news pieces focusing on the lack of a strong female presence in Hollywood, both on screen and off. Read more