Oscar Blogger Calls Out Publicists for Use of ‘Sure Fire’

Ha ha. In a blog post yesterday, indieWIRE’s Hollywood movie maven Anne Thompson suggested that publicists hyping the Oscar-qualified Sally Kirkland live action short African Chelsea should have stayed away from the word “sure fire.”

The expression appears in both the press release headline and body-text, although it turns out the real culprit looks to be populist film critic Leo Quinones. On one of his “Film Freak” KFWB-AM broadcasts, it was he who first deemed the short to be “a sure fire Oscar nominee.”

FishbowlLA took the time to watch the six-minute drama, which is available for free at IMDB.com. And we’re here to tell you that the Oscar hype makes as much sense as calling a movie about a Hollywood exotic dancer African Chelsea.

Our advice, for any future releases, is to opt for the more modulated (and marquee) endorsement of Norman Lear. On the website for the short’s writer-director Brent Roske, Lear is quoted as saying that African Chelsea is a “wonderful film” with a “lovely” lead actress. That’s more like it.

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