A friend of a friend is in The Business, see? In L.A. “The Business” doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in Chicago (the Family, Friends of Ours, the MOB), for instance, or even in Iowa (standardized educational testing. In L.A. “The Business” means entertainment baby… pick-chahs see?
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This friend of a friend has access to The Academy screeners sent out by motion picture companies to the Oscar voters for their consideration. They are DVD’s, though without the extras, and with the occassional appearance of “Not For Resale” along the bottom.

They are also free.
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To that end, I have seen Million Dollar Baby and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou over the past few days.

Slight tangent: Have you noticed how movie titles are getting longer and longer these days? Not all of them, of course, but it seems the days of simple one-word titles seem to be waning. Compare Rocky to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

But I digress… well, not really as I don’t have a particular point in this post. Except to say: Bill Murray remains, unequivocally, The Man; and, $1,000,000 was good, but depressing… or at least sad. I’ve not seen all of the other Oscar contenders, but I’m not sure I would vote for it to take the big prize home. I do, however, highly support the Dirty Harry Lobby, so there’s that to consider.
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There is also the slight detail that I could care less who wins the Oscars. I may live in L.A. but I’m not that “L.A.”, if you catch my meaning.