‘American’ a beauty with Academy voters
By John Hartl
Knight-Ridder Tribune
“American Beauty,” a soulful
satire about suburbia, led the way
when the 72nd annual Academy
Award nominations were an
nounced Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The DreamWorks production re
ceived eight nominations, includ
ing best picture, actor (Kevin
Spacey), actress (Annette Bening),
director (Sam Mendes), screen
writer (Alan Ball), cinematography
(Conrad Hall), editing (Tariq An
war) and score (Thomas Newman).
Also nominated for best picture
were Lasse Hallstrom’s adaptation of
John Irving’s novel, ’The Cider
House Rules”; Michael Mann’s ’The
Insider,” a fact-based drama about an
expose of the tobacco industry; M.
Night Shyamalan’s ’’The Sixth
Sense,” a box-office blockbuster
about a boy who sees dead people;
and Frank Darabont’s three-hour
prison drama, ’The Green Mile.”
Hallstrom, Shyamalan and
Mann were nominated for best di
rector, but Darabont was replaced
in that category by Spike Jonze,
who made the surrealistic come-'
dy ’’Being John Malkovich.”
Bening, who plays Spacey’s un
happy wife in “American Beauty,”
faces equally tough competition:
Janet McTeer’s spirited — if imma
ture — mother in “Ttimbleweeds,”
Julianne Moore as a wartime adul
teress with a spiritual side in “The
End of the Affair,” Hilary Swank as
the cross-dressing Teena Brandon
in “Boys Don’t Cry” and Meryl
Streep as a dedicated music teacher
in ’’Music of the Heart.”
For best supporting actress, the
nominees include Angelina Jolie,
as a mentally disturbed girl in “Girl,
Interrupted”; Toni Collette as the
boy’s mother in “The Sixth Sense”;
and Samantha Morton as Sean
Penn’s girlfriend in “Sweet and
Lowdown.” Chloe Sevigny, who
plays Swank’s sexually confused
lover in “Boys Don’t Cry,” is also
nominated in this category, along
with Catherine Keener, who plays
a similarly mixed-up office worker
in “Being John Malkovich.”
Tom Cruise earned his third
nomination, this time in the sup
porting category, for his work as a
misogynistic motivational speak
er in “Magnolia.” His competition
includes Michael Caine, as an
abortionist in “The Cider House
Rules”; Haley Joel Osment, as the
perceptive child in “The Sixth
Sense”; Michael Clarke Duncan as
a death-row miracle worker in
“The Green Mile”; and Jude Law
as a hedonistic ex-patriate in “The
Talented Mr. Ripley.”
Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
were nominated for best adapted
screenplay for their work on the
high-school satire, “Election,” based
on Tom Perrota’s novel. Also in that
category are Anthony Minghella, for
his adaptation of Patricia High
smith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley”;
Michael Mann and Eric Roth for
“The Insider,” based on Marie Bren
ner’s magazine article; John Irving,
working from his own novel, “The
Cider House Rules”; and Darabont
for his adaptation of Stephen King’s
novel, “The Green Mile.”
The race for best original screen
play appears to be a toss-up be
tween Alan Ball’s script for “ Ameri
can Beauty” and Charlie Kaufman’s
“Being John Malkovich.” Also in
the running are Paul Thomas An
derson’s “Magnolia,” M. Night
Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense”
and Mike Leigh’s “Topsy-'I\irvy.”
Spain’s “All About My Mother,”
directed by Pedro Almodovar, was
nominated for best foreign-language
film, along with France’s “East
West,” Nepal’s “Caravan,” Sweden’s
“Under the Sun” and the United
Kingdom’s “Solomon and Gaenor.”
The past year’s most popular
non-fiction film, Wim Wenders’
“The Buena Vista Social Club,”
was nominated for best documen
tary, but Errol Morris’ “Mr. Death:
The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter Jr.” and Chris Smith’s
“American Movie” were shut out
by “Genghis Blues,” “On the
Ropes,” “One Day in September”
and “Speaking in Strings.”
The Matrix and btar wars:
Episode 1— The Phantom Menace”
will be competing for best visual ef
fects, sound recording and sound ef
fects editing. And the highly bleep
able “Blame Canada,” horn “South
Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,”
was nominated for best song.
Billy Crystal will host this
year’s Academy Awards, which
begin with a pre-show special at 8
p.m. ET March 26 in Los Angeles’
Shrine Auditorium.
Reclaiming the
‘The Vagina Monologues,’
performed
on Valentine’s Day,
extolled the
agma
By Sandra
Colton
for the Emerald
“Vaeina! Dara I
feminine
genitalia
Fple, Cyn
thia Gomez,
Diane John
son. Melissa
say it? Vagina; I’ll
say it again!”
Those were the first
words uttered by Carol
Horne in “The Vagina
Monologues,” a play pre
sented Feb. 14 bv the EMU
Lebofsky, T.K.
McDonald, and
Margot Treiger —
were joined by nine
special guests. An esti
mated 200 people at
tended the show in the
Cultural Forum in collabora
tion with Little Apple Produc
tions. The event was held to raise
awareness in the fight to stop vi
olence against women.
Some of the topics featured in
the play were the importance
that hair plays on and around the
vagina, how one explores the
vagina and all its potential, the
reclaiming of the word “vagina,”
as well as the smell and sexuali
ty that surrounds the vagina.
“It covered all of the emotions.
I thought it was really good,”
said University student Justus
McCann, a journalism major.
The author of “The Vagina
Monologues” is Eve Ensler, and
she and other performers such as
Julie Kavner, Swoosie Kurtz and
Rosie Perez regularly bring the
show to New York City stages.
Ensler is a an award-winning
poet, playwright, screenwriter
and activist; “The Vagina Mono
logues” won a 1997 Obie Award
and was also nominated for Dra
ma Desk and Helen Hayes
awards.
The University cast — Horne,
the artistic director of Little Ap
oenijuger i_.uungtj.
The V-Day 2000 College Ini
tiative is a growing movement
nationwide and worldwide to get
colleges to “celebrate V-Day in
their communities with a per
formance of ‘The Vagina Mono
logues’ on Valentine’s Day,” ac
cording to the organization’s
literature.
The mission statement of V-Day
outlines a “vision of a world
where women live safely and
freely.” The only way the perform
ance can be put on at a university
or college is if the event’s profits
are directed to organizations that
raise awareness about violence
against women. The three organi
zations involved with this presen
tation were Sexual Assault Sup
port Services (SASS),
Womenspace and Mother Kali’s
Bookstore.
Horne said pointed out to the
audience that acts of violence
against women happen on a dai
ly basis in our society. In the
play, she said that 500,000
women are raped in the United
States each year. A spokesperson
from Womenspace stated that
“70 percent of men who abuse
their female partners also abuse
their children.”
In 1999, there were about 65
colleges involved in V-Day Initia
tive and this year there were
about 160 that participated,
Horne said. “Next year [the na
tional organization is] shooting
for 300 and the big event, the
millennium one in 2001, is going
to be held at Madison Square
Garden.”
Even though the word “vagi
na” does not usually come up in
everyday conversation, through
out this performance the buzz
around the room was that very
word.
The program reached emotion
al highs with laughter, hooting
and hollering. “The Vagina
Monologues” cast created the
playful atmosphere by pulling
the audience in with humor and
keeping it there with stories of
pain and wonder..
The show, which lasted an
hour and 45 minutes, was fol
lowed by a standing ovation
from the audience.
“This is the best Valentine’s
Day I’ve ever had in all of my 53
years,” an audience participant
Mary Drew said.
When it was all finished, “The
Vagina Monologues” turned out
to be a play that wants to involve
people and send the message
that violence against women
must be stopped. In addition,
they asked the predominantly fe
male audience to reclaim the
words that had been silenced or
taken away from them.