James Franco - FishbowlLA

The Oscars Are Now Jimmy Kimmel’s to Lose

Richard Horgan — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:29 +0000

Remember that brief March 1 New York Post “Page Six” item? Here’s a quick refresher:

Jimmy Kimmel is already being lined up to host next year’s Oscars, we’re told. One source said, “Jimmy is favored to host the Oscars next year; ABC has been pushing him for the role.” The late-night host already seems a shoo-in for the job after he earned his best post-awards show ratings on Sunday night.

We’ve been saying for several years that the logical host for the annual ABC-TV telecast is the one within walking-commute distance. Now that Seth MacFarlane has confirmed what pretty much everyone in Hollywood already knew, it’s hopefully only a matter of very little time before Kimmel finally gets his outside-the-special-box shot.

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UCLA Student Rates Professor James Franco

Richard Horgan — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:55:38 +0000

Recent LA Weekly intern Brittany Taylor has gifted her Culver City mentors with a really fun little item today: a Q&A with UCLA film school student Nicolas Crucio about what it was like to take James Franco‘s first-semester screenwriting class.

Taylor, also a UCLA student, ended her stint with LA Weekly in January. Franco’s multi-multi-hyphenate reputation now precedes him everywhere; here, it definitely seems like the failed Oscar host and successful-everything-else artiste did not disappoint. From Crucio’s answer when asked what the class was about:

“It’s definitely very experimental and a few people were weirded out by this. [...] The experimental part is we film on two cameras the whole class and the readings. We’ll film the feedback James gives us, the discussions of the readings and movies of the week.

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James Franco Gets Thrust Into a Very Awkward Sundance Analogy

Richard Horgan — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:00:55 +0000

Apparently, there is going to be a lot of sex on-screen as well as off this year at Sundance. At least that’s the Day One decoupage offered by Movie City News head honcho David Poland.

In setting the salacious scene, Poland pays a certain male A-lister the ultimate backhanded compliment (the bolding is ours):

We’ve already seen Gaby Hoffman running around buck naked – and not highly sexualized – in the title role of Crystal Fairy. But just wait til they get a load of dick. James Franco is the finger in the ass of Sundance this year, with two strong pieces.

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David Wild Revisits the James Franco-Anne Hathaway Oscar Disaster

Richard Horgan — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:30:12 +0000

This week’s episode of Allison Hope Weiner’s Lip.tv interview program Media Mayhem is fantastically entertaining. The guest is David Wild, who got a job straight out of college with Esquire magazine, moved on from there to a staff position with Rolling Stone before winding up (with a little help from Steven Spielberg) as a go-to guy for the Emmys, Grammys and various other awards show/celebrity tributes.

One of Wild’s Oscar writing brushes was the year that James Franco and Anne Hathaway co-hosted. Weiner asks Wild for his thoughts on why it went so wrong:

“I cannot explain it other than I felt like it was the worst blind date in show business history. It was the homecoming queen or head of drama club trying hard in the sweetest possible to put on a show, and a guy who for whatever reason I don’t think wanted to host the show. In fact he went on Jimmy Kimmel and announced his intention to be the worst host in Oscar history. So on a certain level, the show was a tremendous success, because he achieved that goal.”

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The Oscar Show That Could Have Been

Richard Horgan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:00:56 +0000

With cynics predicting an Academy Awards snooze fest this year thanks to The Artist‘s inexorable march towards Best Picture, Best Actor and more, hints of a different kind of entertainment have been dropped in the New York Times.

According to reporter Michael Cieply‘s sources, more change was afoot last year following the disastrous James Franco-Anne Hathaway program. And that perhaps, if the production process had not been thrown into a tizzy by the departure of Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy, there might have been a more radical flavor embraced than the one currently being rehearsed behind closed doors:

One line of thinking, according to people who were briefed on the discussions but insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the Academy, proposed throwing the Oscar process wide open to a public that has been trained by American Idol, TMZ and an endless feed of Internet moments to expect some grit with their glamor. Among the suggestions: nominees using smartphones to photograph themselves in the run-up to the show.

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Madison Avenue vs. Oscar’s Median Age

Richard Horgan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:14 +0000

As might be expected, the Ratner-Murphy-Grazer-Crystal game of Oscar musical chairs is echoing across Madison Avenue. According to Claire Atkinson of the New York Post, brand new AMPAS marketing chief Christina Kounelias (pictured) and her colleagues are scrambling to adjust an ad sales pitch that until recent events at the Arclight and on Howard Stern airwaves, was predicated entirely on Axel Foley.

One of the problems the Oscar marketing gang faces is that the selection of a 63-year-old, traditional format replacement host leaves them challenged to explain how they will fix what happened last year. Despite the presence of a tweeting James Franco and giggling Anne Hathaway, the 2010 Oscars broadcast was a disaster:

Horizon Media researcher Brad Adgate noted that the Oscars broadcast actually aged upwards last year with the median age hitting 50.6 years — the oldest it’s ever been.

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James Franco Kisses Off Twitter, Oscar Show Drug Rumors

Richard Horgan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:00:41 +0000

Leave it to actor James Franco to pick April Fool’s Day as the perfect date for some Academy Awards related spring cleaning.

Per the Hollywood Reporter‘s Mark Cina, he is off Twitter, just a couple of months after creating an account to lead up to the 83rd Oscars telecast. And tonight on Letterman, he deflects all those viewer comments that he must have been high on the 27th of February, suggesting that even the Tasmanian Devil would look “stoned” next to the energizer bunny aura of co-host Anne Hathaway:

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Live Action Short Winner Gets Star Treatment Back Home

Richard Horgan — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:00:07 +0000

The 83rd annual Academy Awards may have blown harder than the Santa Ana’s, but that golden statuette still holds a powerful glow when removed from the stench of a James Franco let down by Bruce Vilanch.

In a great little piece in Delaware’s Dover Post, we learn that Live Action Short winner Luke Matheny (God of Love, pictured) was treated like royalty when he returned on March 14th to his Alma Mater Concord High School. There to welcome him were teachers, neighbors, students, journalists, a 10-foot replica of the Oscar, and… state Governor Jack Markell.

In honor of his hometown pride and willingness to give Delaware a “shout-out,” during his acceptance speech at the Oscars and in God of Love, Markell named Matheny “Delaware’s Ambassador to Hollywood.”

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Chronicle Reporter Apologizes to Readers for Saturday Snow Job

Richard Horgan — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:45:38 +0000

San Francisco Chronicle pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub has posted a tongue-in-cheek apology for the part he played in helping feed local hysteria over the possibility of a weekend Bay Area snowstorm that failed to materialize.

Hartlaub points to his February 17th and February 23rd historical photo galleries shared on the site as culprits #1 and #2, and his Twitter feed as culprit #3. Admirably, he says thought it would be easy to do so, he is not interested in shirking responsibility:

It’s easy to pretend like the snow hype never happened with things like Charlie Sheen‘s meltdown and the James Franco‘s Academy Awards hosting disaster (my theory: instead of being too stoned, his poor performance was a product of not being stoned enough) causing new distractions. But I know sins of overhype were committed in the past two weeks, and this time I’m not going to let it pass.

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James Franco’s Home Porn Advice: ‘What Feels Best Isn’t Always What Looks Best’

Matthew Fleischer — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:00:59 +0000

Haha. Newsweek convened one of those Oscar-time actors roundtables and got a funny moment out of Oscar host-to-be James Franco. To the question: “Is there a secret to landing a really good onscreen kiss?” Franco responded, “Anyone who’s ever made a home sex tape knows, what feels best isn’t always what looks best.”

Duly noted, sir.

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For Your Consideration: Younger, Better-Looking Oscar Hosts

Richard Horgan — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:15:47 +0000

The analysis has begun with a vengeance as to a) why the Academy has chosen this morning as its latest Oscars telecast hosts the handsome young duo of James Franco (32) and Anne Hathaway (28), and b) whether or not this will help make the moribund program relevant again to younger audiences.

Here at FishbowlLA, we have our own take on this bold choice away from the usual stand-up comic, late night talk show host and Social Security nipping candidates. In no particular order:

- Given that the Oscar telecast usually feels like it lasts about 127 hours, and that watching it sometimes induces the feeling that you would rather gnaw off an arm than sit through till the end, Franco is imminently well qualified.

- Since many attending divas wear Prada, parking Hathaway on the red carpet beforehand for a couple of quick Q&A’s would seem like a perfect, synergistic way to get younger eyeballs to tune in. Especially if Meryl Streep happens to walk by.

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All Roads Lead to James Franco

Richard Horgan — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:20:11 +0000

Hollywood funnyman Judd Apatow has been busy making the PR rounds on behalf of I Found This Funny, a collection of curated essays scheduled to be published November 1st by McSweeney’s. While some of the book’s content is quite serious, the 42-year-old literary virgin’s recollections of his muse James Franco are anything but.

Apatow tells The New Yorker how he came to realize that his friend and long-time collaborator, a leading contender in this year’s Best Actor race, was more than just a pretty face:

“I remember when James was on the set of Freaks and Geeks and in between takes he’d be reading Freud and I would think, ‘Is he actually reading Freud, or is he trying to impress people? Is he actually processing this information?’ And he proved that he was not kidding.”

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Broadcast Film Critics Want Their Say

Dan Cox — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:45:26 +0000

Though they’re sometimes reduced to thumbs up/thumbs down criticism, the country’s major broadcast critics are always keen to be heard as “Milk” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” both earned eight nominations for the 14th Broadcast Film Critics Assn.’s Critics Choice Awards, Variety says.

Both were among the 10 films named for best picture. “Milk,” which got off to a strong platform start last month, also picked up key nominations for lead actor Sean Penn, supporting co-stars James Franco and Josh Brolin, and director Gus Van Sant. “Button,” which opens Christmas Day, drew mentions for actor Brad Pitt, actress Cate Blanchett and supporting actress Taraji P. Henson.

Other titles nommed for picture were “Changeling,” “The Dark Knight,” “Doubt,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Reader,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Wall-E” and “The Wrestler.”

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Comic Con 2008: Freaks and Geeks

Tina Dupuy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:40:38 +0000

What have we learned from our immersion in fanboy land? Well, we learned that James Franco has shockingly bad teeth. A PR-type person sitting next to us during the Pineapple Express panel, turned around to someone sitting next to us pointing at her mouth and shook her head in disapproval.

Call that completely useless information.

Anyway, below is a picture of this Fishie at the G4 party. Unless we’ve missed something major, we think this might be the final Comic Con 2008 post.

We have one quote that we haven’t found any other place to put. It’s from Kevin Smith at the Entertainment Weekly panel. He said,”Geek culture is here to stay.” I’m sure someone said that about Disco and Grunge…but with 123,000 people in the nerd herd. What do we know?

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Pineapple Express – The Panel

Tina Dupuy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:42:58 +0000

The Pineapple Express panel was moderated by producer Judd Apatow. On the panel was director David Gordon Green, writer Evan Goldberg and cast members Amber Heard, Danny McBride, Seth Rogen and James Franco.

“Can we combine a weed movie with a Jerry Bruckheimer action movie?” Was the rhetorical question offered by Apatow.

The crowd was shown some clips of the movie and let in on the fact that a lot of the dialog was improv. Seth Rogen was totally on the whole panel. A fan asked about the script to the movie being leaked early on the internet.

“If you want to read it – you’re an idiot. Because you can watch it – its a movie.” Said Rogen.

The thing that struck us was that the panel was very much like all Apatow movies: Seth Rogen was funny, he talked about his balls a lot and the gorgeous blond female stock character was a one dimensional prop. There’s your synopsis.

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