This year's "people of the hour" group has a lot of old-timers, so I had such glorious fun spotting the connections and remembering how they all know each other in one giant actor-cest circle.
Christian Bale actually has the most ties at these award shows, despite being seen as more of an outsider. He's worked with Nicole Kidman in 1995's "Portrait of a Lady". And of course, he and Christopher Nolan are one of the best Hollywood duets, even if it's quite ironic that their best-reviewed work was not with each other. He also used to be a good friend of Winona Ryder, who's been everywhere (fun fact: his wife was Winona's assistant before they got married! They met at a BBQ Winona was throwing) and I wonder if she was at the Golden Globes because Depp was there, and do they ever have awkward run-ins? Or maybe they're just all chill about it, like "let's pretend we weren't actually madly in love for years and you didn't used to have a tattoo of my name and you were not, in fact, my 'first everything'. Cool." Bale must also be seeing a lot of his "I'm Not There" costar Julianne Moore and fellow "Little Women" Claire Danes (who won awards endlessly for Temple Grandin) at these events, and be happy for Lisa Cholodenko who directed him in "Laurel Canyon". Oh, and lastly it's a shame Bale wasn't at the BAFTAS because Miranda Richardson was a nominee and of course, they worked together in his legendary debut film, Empire of the Sun. He really has worked with a lot of people, having been around for 20 years. I wonder what Richardson thinks of her growed up young costar.
A bit bizarrely, Natalie Portman and Annette Bening were both in "Mars Attack!" (I don't remember who they played at all) and she was also in "Cold Mountain" with Kidman.
Tom Hooper, despite being kind of a Hollywood newbie, still probably sees tons of friendly faces at these award circuits from his great TV work, like Paul Giamatti from "John Adams" and Barbara Hershey and Hugh Dancy from "Daniel Deronda" (I'm a fan of both, especially 'Daniel Deronda" - it's sensual, grandly moving and perfect for a rainy Saturday).
Maestro David Fincher knows a lot of people, obvs., like fellow Oscar nominee and "Fight Club" alum Helena Bonham-Carter (I love both of them so much), and has directed Mark Ruffalo, and "somewhat" directed Nicole Kidman (she was originally cast in "Panic Room" but backed out from a busted knee and made a voice cameo instead).
Just at the Golden Globes alone, it was cool that Johnny Depp was nominated (even if the nom was a completely facetious one) because he was nominated along with his "Pirates" co-star Geoffrey Rush and obvs. HBC since they and Tim Burton complete a robust triangle of weirdo-love. Speaking of Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" will be the second Best Picture-winning movie he's been in that also has Geoffrey Rush - they were both in "Shakespeare in Love" and most impressively, this is actually Firth's third BP winner - he was also in "The English Patient". So both he and Ralph Fiennes have three BP Oscar winners under their belt. Can we call up the stats for that? Who else has done that?. Um, according to Wikipedia, a lot. But still impressive! Best of all, I discovered a few months ago that Firth starred opposite Annette Bening in 1986's "Valmont", an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses, which so surprised me that I watched the whole thing on instant Netflix. God, they were so YOUNG! And oh so beautiful. I highly recommend that one as well. If only Bening could win....it'd be so cool for the both of them.
Firth and Bening being period-wear sexy in "Valmont"
Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams were both in Shutter Island. You would have thought that their Oscar-nominated performances would have come from that movie.
Javier Bardem is nominated with The Coen Brothers who directed his Oscar-winning performance in No Country, of course.
Oddly enough, Jeff Bridges, despite having the longest career in the group, has no connections to any of the nominees, except the the Coen Bros.
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