Oscars Printable Downloadable 2010 Ballot In PDF Form

Click here to download the complete nominations for your Oscar party. The ballot is in pdf form (the free Adobe Reader required) and is

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The Late Shift II

In "The Critics Notebook" today in The Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara unravels what the NBC decision to move the line-up cards around means for late night television and more importantly the future of television drama it meant to replace. How many late night hosts are too many?

Mary was a guest on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 as the news broke and look for her on the terrific CBS Sunday Morning Jeff Greenfield interview (we will update when we have the air date). Why shouldn't the television critic show up on tv once in a while even if they write for a newspaper?

"This is all assuming, and desperately hoping, that NBC doesn't lapse back into madness and jam 10 p.m. with reality shows, which it may have to if reported plans to boot the Leno show in March are true. Yesterday, as critics across the land high-fived each other with grateful glee, the poor beleaguered worker bees at NBC no doubt crowded into one office or the other wondering what exactly they were going to put on at 10 p.m. Sure, they may have recently ordered up a slew of new pilots, but currently the Cupboard. Is. Bare."

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The Little Spy Comedy That Could

Mary reviews for the Los Angeles Times.

As it enters its third season, NBC's "Chuck" is the little spy comedy that could, saved from cancellation by fan protest, Subway and the sheer force of creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak's wills.

If only any episode of the actual show were as tense and intriguing as the struggle to keep it alive.

I say this with love, because I like "Chuck," in no small part because it is one of a handful of shows I can watch with my children. In many ways "Chuck" is precisely the show many Americans say they want. A clever conceit -- Zachary Levi's titular character is an underachiever suddenly turned into a reluctant super spy -- buoyed by sharp, funny writing and an able cast with an unapologetic PG rating. The violence is kung fu-light, sex is kept mostly in a state of hopeless longing, there is no swearing, no pathologies, nothing more un-PC than the mildly nationalistic tendencies of "real spy" John Casey (Adam Baldwin)."

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Star-Packed "Cranford" Returns To PBS

Fans of Cranford will get a star-studded "Return To Cranford" from PBS. Mary reviews in the Los Angeles Times.

Full of as many frilly bonnets and quaint platitudes as fine performances, "Cranford" aired in 2007 in the U.K., where it not only was lauded by critics, it was a smash hit, averaging close to 8 million viewers for each of its five parts.

Imagine, just for a moment, 8 million Americans tuning into a period drama. HBO's lavishly awarded " John Adams" was quite happy with 2.5 million viewers for its first two installments, and AMC was over the moon when " Mad Men," more modern but still period complete with requisite headgear, hit a 4-million cume for its premiere."

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The Starlet

Once upon a time a young reporter for the Los Angeles Times who was sent to the Cannes Film Festival and along with reporting news stories was asked to keep a diary. The diary became very popular and many who might never have a chance to go to Cannes or the festival felt like they were THERE! That reporter later wrote a book about the Oscars called Oscar Season: A Novel which was published by the glitzy Simon & Schuster publishing house and made an appearance on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. It also came out in paperback and in the UK. It was full of the real life detail from behind the scenes.

Simon & Schuster has bought a second novel from our reporter friend (Mary McNamara of course) which involves our heroine Juliette from Oscar Season who has escaped to Italy leaving her life in Hollywood far behind. Juliette might have thought she was going to get away Hollywood, but Hollywood is everywhere and soon she is saving a strung out starlet from self-destruction in the wake of her co-star’s death by overdose (or was it?). Before you know it, the filmmakers have descended on her Tuscan estate, where sex drugs and death is the order of the day.

We hear it is called The Starlet. Bellisimo.

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Television's Top Ten Moments In 2009

Television critic for the Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara, looks at the top ten moments that made American television in 2009.

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Little Women's Woman

Mary McNamara reviews The American Masters PBS presentation of the woman who was the J.K. Rowling of her time, in the Los Angeles Times:

"For those who know Louisa May Alcott only as the author of some of the most enduring classics of children's literature, "Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women' " will be a revelation. For those already familiar with Alcott's Transcendentalist-boho childhood, her sensational tales of love and horror under the pen name A.M. Barnard and her refusal to diminish her personal and economic freedom by marrying, the dramatically reenacted documentary gives life and texture to a woman of extraordinary talent and determination who became as great a celebrity in her day as J.K. Rowling is in ours."

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The Reality Television Decade

So what does a decade of reality TV tell us about television programming and more importantly, ourselves? Mary McNamara from the La Times has an essay in the "Decades" section of the Los Angeles Times. After a decade of the "real":

"No wonder so many young people turn to the magic of " Harry Potter" or the dark longing of the "Twilight" series, in which lovers are still allowed to brood in silence and the heroes are the ones not interested in survival but transcendence. Though there may be reassurance and entertainment in semi-scripted reality shows, there is no mystery, no poetry. If we would sing of ourselves, let us sing. Not indulge in temper tantrums for a camera crew or offer smug justifications to Larry King."

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Nominees Announced For 2010 Golden Globes

 

Mary McNamara and Betsy Sharkey of the LA Times give their reactions to the Golden Globe Nominations as they happened this morning in LA. Sphere: Related Content

Stars Read Documents Of The People's History On The History Channel Sunday

The People's History Of The United States by Howard Zinn has long been the preferred alt history book of our time. The dramatic readings by major stars which will run on History Channel on Sunday is reviewed by Mary McNamara of The Los Angeles Times.

Democracy is not a political theory, it's a political activity.

"That is the leitmotif of “The People Speak,” a series of dramatic readings from inspiring historical documents that airs on the History Channel on Sunday night. Based on Howard Zinn's revisionist "A People's History of the United States," "The People Speak" employs the talents of Hollywood heavy hitters, including Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Marisa Tomei, Don Cheadle, Josh Brolin, Sandra Oh, Viggo Mortensen, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and provides a striking, exhilarating and at times horrifying reminder of not just our indomitable ability to change but also this country's collective history of oppression"

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