Saturday Hot Links
Time for another round of Saturday Hot Links.
Today: The “World According to K-Tel” Edition
First the “K-Tel Kitchen Magician”:
A bunch of Oscar news!
16 nominations. That’s at the top of the company list and it’s The Weinstein Company beating out Sony / Columbia and Paramount with 13 each.
Find reactions here from many Oscar nominees. Subtext of each: “Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
But why only two best original song nominees?
Sundance Institute backed movies picked up 7 Academy Award nominations.
On the heels of its Oscar nomination, Rango to be re-released. If you haven’t seen it, please do. One of the best films of the year.
And with its nomination, Margin Call gives a big boost to VOD.
Hey, for once Oscar shines on comedies!
Groundling alums make a good showing with Oscar noms.
No Harry Potter love by Oscar and MTV’s movie blog attempts to explain why.
Uggie, the canine co-star of The Artist, is going to retire at 50 doggie years old.
Finally Vulture with this cool catch: A map of the setting for all the Best Picture nominated movies.
Great headline from TheWrap: Porn condom law signed: Industry swells with outrage.
Read a sample from a script that won a Nicholl Fellowship this year.
And this news sucks: Of the top 250 box office gross movies of 2011, only 5% of them had female directors.
To our friends in the Great White North and on behalf of all Americans, I apologize: “The Bachelor” franchise is headed to Canada.
TotalFilm: 50 most successful indie movies.
Jane Friedman with The Basic Pitch Formula for Novelists.
10 great silent sequences in sound movies.
Go figure: The mere anticipation of interaction with a woman can impair men’s cognitive performance.
You have to see this: 10 Buildings Shaped Like What They Sell.
A brief history of Hollywood pooping on our greatest writers.
In legal news, the Watchmen case between Warner Bros. and Fox looks like it’s finally settling.
Hollywood must be feeling the love: Weinstein Co. settles lawsuit with Relativity over The Crow.
That dude who stole John Travolta’s car? Results: 16 months in jail and $50K. BTW it was a ’70 Mercedes-Benz.
Speaking of Relativity: Ron Burkle closes multiple investments with Relativity.
James Cameron sued for stealing Avatar — again.
And to round out our weekly jaunt through jurisprudence, religious group sues Jay Leno for joke about Mitt Romney.
Digital music sales surged 8% worldwide in 2011.
Those sales a contributing factor to this: Apple market value tops Exxon-Mobil again.
Weinstein’s multiplatform distribution company finally gets a name: Radius.
On the real estate front Giselle Bundchen and Tom Brady move into a $20M Brentwood mega-mansion.
In the Kobe Bryant divorce case, his wife is forced to make do with three Orange County houses worth $18.8M.
Meanwhile really big news out of Burbank: Disney changes dress to allow employees to grow beards.
YouTube crosses 4 billion video streams per day.
Next the “K-Tel Mood Shirt”:
In screenwriting news, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) have been drafted to pen “Robotech”, Warner Bros.’ adaptation of the anime series.
Larry Kasdan is teaming up with novelist Harlan Coben to adapt and direct Coben’s new novel “Stay Close”.
Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (3:10 to Yuma) land a pilot deal with NBC for “Chicago Fire”.
Jesse Wigutow (Eragon) signs to write the remake of The Crow.
Travis Wright (Eagle Eye) hired to reboot The Saint.
Alan Ball (American Beauty) sells series “Banshee” to Cinemax.
The WGA announces its hosts for awards ceremonies: East = Rachel Dratch / West = Zooey Deschanel and Joel McHale.
Gavin Polone: Why I’m for SOPA, and How the Entertainment Industry Blew It.
More Polone: The Great Oscar Farce.
The lineup for Puppy Bowl VIII has been announced.
The stars of Hangover 3 are up for a really big payday.
It’s the authors of Google+.
Speaking of authors: 11 literary friendships we can learn from.
NBC orders 10 new TV pilots and here’s Vulture with a breakdown.
More TV: Rainn Wilson in a spinoff of “The Office”?
When Obama sang that little Al Green riff? Bumped sales of “Let’s Stay Together” up 490%.
Peter Bart to host “Movie Talk” on KNBC and internationally.
From the “People With Too Much Time On Their Hands” files: 26 Life-Size Versions of Popular Board Games.
Vancouver gets ‘cloudy’… but in a good way.
It’s Amazon vs. Netflix.
More Netflix: Their CEO says, “We expect DVD subscribers to decline forever”.
And the PayPal to Hollywood connection continues: Ex-Pay Pal Exec Jack Selby opens Incognito Pictures.
To all our friends in the Land Down Under: Geoffrey Rush named Australian of the Year.
One explanation why Warner Bros. is able to buy so many spec scripts? Their profits were up $564M in 2011 on revenues of over $5B.
While lots of other countries had record-setting B.O. in 2011, Japan’s declined 18%. Why? Remember, it was a year of disasters there.
Must. Buy. Now! New Bob Dylan tribute album: 76 tracks, 80 musical artists.
More music: Ben Gibbard (“Death Cab for Cutie”) does a duet with… Bobcat Goldthwaite?!?!
HT to Mike Le [@DFTVYP] for this link: The 10 Greatest Justice League Villains.
Media Corp. launches MundoFox to challenge Univision and Telemundo.
There’s a new doc out called Room 237 about the making of The Shining. Here are the 5 wackiest theories about the movie.
Monty Python troupe to voice animated comedy Absolutely Anything.
Fran Drescher: Aliens abducted me, implanted a chip in my hand.
And for all you guys who got nominated for an Academy Award, here are 10 red carpet essentials for men.
Finally the “K-Tel Hair Magician”:
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