Friday, April 29, 2005
STUDENT LIFE -YE/-.E II f EE V
‘Baby’ goes one more round with ‘Aviator’
By Daniel J. Stasiewski
from the Feb. 25 issue
As excited as I usually am this time of year, I’m
starting to have that feeling I had the week before
Election Day 2004. I just want it over. At this
point, two worthy candidates (unlike Election
2004) are up for the top spot; the rest of the cate
gories are heated races, then there is Jamie Foxx,
the sure thing.
Best Picture
Nominees: ‘The Aviator,” “Finding Neverland,”
“Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray,” and “Sideways”
As Steve Buscemi would say, “Define irony.” Six
years after Miramax’s “Shakespeare in Love”
stunned the world with its deserved win over
“Saving Private Ryan,” Miramax’s year-in
advance favorite “The Aviator” is looking down
the barrel of a surprise loss to “Million Dollar
Baby.” As a fan of the epic, “The Aviator” I do
want to see it win. But the Director’s Guild Award
win for Clint Eastwood says it all. It’s the most
accurate Oscar precursor when it comes to pre
dicting both Best Director and Best Picture. The
conservative activist groups and fundamentalists
who have lambasted the film’s final scene, have
only fueled the fire underneath what could be
Warner Bros, first winner in nearly 12 years. The
same thing happened with “A Beautiful Mind,”
and as long as the controversy is short-sighted and
easy to overcome, the Academy will stick it to the
right-wingers and vote “Million Dollar Baby.” Of
course, Clint’s pure Hollywood-style also works
toward the favor of “MDB” over the stylized
“Aviator.” The epic isn’t back quite yet.
Prediction: “Million Dollar Baby”
Close Second: ‘The Aviator”
Best Director
Nominees: Clint Eastwood, “Million Dollar
Baby;” Taylor Hackford, “Ray;” Mike Leigh,
“Vera Drake;” Alexander Payne, “Sideways;” and
Martin Scorsese, “The Aviator”
While Scorsese may be overdue, he’ll likely join
Violence struck at New
By Siobhan Conway
from the April 8 issue
Students who attended the New Found
Glory concert March 31 may have been
surprised by the chaos that erupted dur
ing the show. Apparently, ignoring the
signs on the door warning “No
Moshing,” a mosh pit formed and stu
dents were injured.
Students were allowed to crowd surf
twice, although they weren’t advised of
this rule. There was supposed to be one
person on each side of the stage who
would put slash marks with a red marker
on anyone’s hand that decided to crowd
surf. If a person had two slashes and
tried to crowd surf a third time, they
were supposed to be removed from the
premises.
Because there was so much chaos at
the front of the stage, this procedure was
not successful. It was almost impossible
to keep track of the students and the
number of times they crowd surfed. It
was also difficult to control the crowd
because the band members were also
encouraging audience members to con
tinue.
The Student Security Committee was
told not to touch anybody. They were
informed that they could get in trouble
or the school could get sued if they con
fronted anyone physically. The security
committee was instructed that Police and
Safety would be in charge of any physi
cal violence.
Police and Safety officers can t be in
two places at once and the physical vio
lence and injuries were too numerous for
the officers to handle by themselves.
the elite circle of directors to go zero and five
when it comes the Best Director Oscar. If
Hitchcock and Robert Altman couldn’t win, I
doubt New York-boy Scorsese can get over the
Academy’s distain for outsiders. Eastwood on the
other hand is all Hollywood. Even though he’s
already won a directing Oscar for “Unforgiven,”
his work today is as poignant as it is classical. His
purely American directing style woos the
Academy for a second time and Hollywood once
again salutes its own. Because Eastwood is doing
some of the best directing work of his career, he
should easily overcome Scorsese, who people
seem to dislike for not being as brilliant as he was
almost 30 years ago.
Prediction: Clint Eastwood, “Million Dollar
Baby”
Close Second: Martin Scorsese, “The Aviator”
Best Actress
Nominees: Annette Bening, “Being Julia;”
Catalina Sandino Moreno, “Maria Full of Grace;”
Imelda Staunton, “Vera Drake;” Hilary Swank,
“Million Dollar Baby;” and Kate Winslet,
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
I may be making this
category harder to
predict than it really
is, but a “Million
Dollar Baby” Best
Picture win doesn’t
seem like it would
help Swank. With
one Oscar to her name already, a Swank win here
would make her royalty. The last actress to win
two award this close together was Jodie Foster,
WARNER BROS
Found Glory concert
CRAZEWIRE.COM
Mosh pits and crowd surfing caused students injuries at the New Found Glory concert.
Pictured above is the band performing to an outside crowd in California.
“Everybody got smashed to the front,”
said Mark Walczak, MIS 04, a student
on the security committee. “I had to pick
up a girl who passed out from being
pushed. I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
Another problem was with the place
ment of the student security members
within the building. The larger members
should have been placed in front of the
stage to control the crowds.
Justin Curry, PSYCH 08, was in
charge of the hospitality committee for
the show. The possibility of violence at
the concert wasn’t discussed with any
committees except for security, but he
did notice the signs warning against
moshing at the doors.
“I don’t think anyone expected the
crowd surfing and moshing to happen to
the extent that it did. It seemed like
every three seconds someone new was
crowd surfing,” said Curry. “I believe
this concert was an excellent idea and
the work that went into it as well as the
turnout was great. I hope the adminis
tration doesn’t think so badly about this
that they wouldn’t allow us to have
another concert.”
Four people who attended the concert
were taken away in ambulances, includ
ing one girl from the student security
committee.
and Swank’s no Jodie Foster. Imelda Stuanton got
a major push got three major nominations. Her
role in “Vera Drake has wowed critics and the
political theme may be enough for the film to take
one award home. Of course, Benning may sneak
in, also. Unpredictable? Maybe, but this is the
category that looks best set for an upset.
Prediction: Imelda Staunton, “Vera Drake”
Close Second: Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar
Baby”
Best Actor
Nominees: Don Cheadlc, “Hotel Rwanda;”
Johnny Depp, “Finding Neverland; Leonardo
DiCaprio, “The Aviator;” Clint Eastwood,
“Million Dollar Baby;” and Jamie Foxx, “Ray”
I won’t waste much
space with this one.
But I will say if Foxx
doesn’t win, I will be
eating a shoe in the
Beacon office
Monday at noon,
Prediction: Jamie Foxx, “Ray”
Slam Dunk
Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Alan Alda, “The Aviator;” Thomas
Haden Church, “Sideways;” Morgan Freeman,
“Million Dollar Baby;” Jamie Foxx, “Collateral;”
and Clive Owen, “Closer”
This category is a three-horse race with Screen
Actors Guild winner Morgan Freeman leading the
pack. Traditionally a supporting award goes along
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UNIVERSAL PICTURES
The Behrend Beacon I
with Best Picture and
Alan Alda isn’t like
ly to get more than a
thank you from the
winner of this cate
gory. Church was a
critical darling, but
has faded. Owen is the Globe winner, but his film
wasn’t carried enough to make it look like a win
ner. Church and Owen could still pull it off,
they’ve been campaigning like Kerry and Bush in
October. The overdue veteran s however, has a
solid role, and Freeman is likely to finally get the
little gold guy.
Prediction: Morgan Freeman, “Million Dollar
Baby”
Close Second: Clive Owen, “Closer”
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Cate Blanchett, “The Aviator;” Laura
Linney, “Kinsey;” Virginia Madsen, “Sideways;”
Sophie Okonedo, “Hotel Rwanda;” and Natalie
Portman, “Closer”
This may be the only
race where any of
the five could take
the award. Linney
is overdue and plays
a supportive wife
Portman is a young
up-and-comer, like
Mira Sorveno and
Marisa Tomei. Madsen is a critical favorite
Blanchett plays an Oscar goddess. Okonedo plays
a supportive wife. Of the five Blachett and
Madsen have the most heat going into Oscar
night, but Okonedo may pull of an upset like
Marcia Gay Harden did when she won for playing
a supportive wife in “Pollock.” Madsen has the
problem of being in an Alexander Payne film and
he couldn’t even get Jack Nicholson an Oscar.
With Blanchett winning the SAG award, I’ll pick
her. But watch out for Okonedo.
Prediction: Cate Blanchett, “The Aviator”
Close Second: Sophie Okonedo, “Hotel Rwanda”
Best Original Screenplay
Prediction: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind”
Close Second: “Vera Drake”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Prediction: “Sideways”
Close Second: “Million Dollar Baby”
The Academy Awards will air Sunday at 8 p.m. on
ABC.
WARNER BROS
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MIRAMAX FILMS