Anthony Minghella by Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage.com
Fifty-four-year-old U.K. filmmaker Anthony Minghella, whose 1996 The English Patient scored a remarkable 12 nominations and won nine (including best picture and best director), died Tuesday morning of a brain hemorrhage as he recovered from what a spokesman termed "routine surgery" at London's Charing Cross Hospital. Minghella’s remarkable career spanned television, theater and film, and ranged from children’s programs to grand opera.Minghella grew up on the Isle of Wight, three miles off the coast of England, where his Italian-immigrant parents ran an ice-cream factory. By the late 1980s, sharp-eyed observers had noticed his scripts for the Jim Henson television series The Storyteller. Minghella's supernatural romance Truly Madly Deeply (1990), starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman, inspired a modest but intensely devoted following. The English Patient, a favorite target of Oscar detractors who claim the awards are profoundly out of touch with the tastes of ordinary ...
read more
Glitter: Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Question: Renee Zellweger has been nominated for an Oscar three years in a row. Can you tell me how many other times this has happened? Has anyone ever pulled it off more than three times in a row? Thanks!Answer: William Hurt and Russell Crowe have both been nominated for best actor three times in a row, Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987) — he won for Kiss of the Spider Woman — and Crowe for The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Crowe won for Gladiator. And just for the record, Zellweger's three-in-a-row nominations were for Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Chicago (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003); the third time was the lucky one for her.
In the past, Elizabeth Ta
read more
Jena Malone in Pride & Prejudice
Of all the multinominated films vying for Academy Awards this Sunday, Pride & Prejudice may be the most overlooked. The latest adaptation of Jane Austen's ageless tale picked up four nominations — including a best-actress nod for Keira Knightley — but its buzz is nowhere near that of higher-profile contenders such as Walk the Line and Brokeback Mountain. Jena Malone, who plays Knightley's on-screen sister Lydia is a bit skeptical of putting too much stock in awards, but she hopes the extra attention will bring new audiences to the film. TVGuide.com found this out when we spoke with Malone about the classic romance's arrival this week on DVD.
TVGuide.com: Be
read more
White Stripes rockers Meg and Jack White have branched out into the movie biz. Jack's already done the Civil War flick Cold Mountain, and the duo currently appear in Coffee and Cigarettes, the new indie by director Jim Jarmusch. Even so, Jack insists that all this big-screen dabbling isn't an effort to boost their celeb status.
"I hate that word," he says adamantly. "A love for celebrity is very empty. There are all these people talking about Paris Hilton, and there is really nothing going on there. She's not really doing anything — it is fake celebrity. But people want that and people strive for that, and I've never wanted that.
"I think people misinterpret some things," he continues ranting. "My being in Cold Mountain was because of how much I love American Southern vocal music. It wasn't a step in the direction towards fame and celebrity."
So why did the Whites sign up for Jarmu
read more
