Heeeeeeere's JACKY!!

No Oscar nom for my man, but he's still my favourite...can't wait to hear him laugh in the front row come Oscar night (hopefully there WILL be some laughs - Oscar host Ellen Degeneres is NOT that bloody funny!!).

Got the photo from perezhilton.com, and he did his usual little stupid 'coke' thing on the face. That guy's a sap!! But I loved Jacky's espression SO much, that I decided to use it anyway!!!

LOVE YA JACKY!

Reaction to the Oscar Noms

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Hmmm – this year’s a toughy! I want Leonardo DiCaprio AND Forest Whitaker to get it…and they both deserve it! Ryan Gosling is a welcome nomination, but he won’t get the Oscar – he’s just too darn Canadian and low key in his brilliance! Will Smith and Peter O’Toole are both slight spanners in the works, as Smith is just DYING for that Oscar, and Oscy-baby knows it! O’Toole, on the other hand, is just plain dying (ba-da-boom-chiiii)…always the bridesmaid, never the bride!

SHOULD: Leonardo DiCaprio & Forest Whitaker
WILL: Forest Whitaker

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

Oscar is just so unpredictable when it comes to sentimentality…we could see Eddie Murphy getting this damn statue JUST for doing something that didn’t involve the ‘Axel Foley’ laugh!! However, I think it’s a three-horse race between Alan Arkin, Mark Walberg and Djimon Hounsou. Of the three, I though Djimon’s performance is most Oscar-worthy, with Alan Arkin coming in second, and Mark holding up the rear with a brilliant-but-just-not-Oscar-worthy jobby. Mark will only get it if Scorsese doesn’t bag director or picture. Again, I’m tied for shoulds!!

SHOULD: Djimon Hounsou & Alan Arkin
WILL: Alan Arkin

Best Actress: Penélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Well, who are we kidding here? It’s gonna be Helen Mirren. And, for once, I’m gonna agree! Her portrait of an icon was by all accounts touching and emotive, but reserved and disciplined – a hard act to follow! Obviously I’d be thrilled if Penélope got it…or my little fav Kate Winslet, but I really think things are gonna come up Mirren on this one!

SHOULD: Helen Mirren
WILL: Helen Mirren

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)

Right. Firstly, Abaigail – was there anything cuter in cinema this year? Or more earnest? But Oscar doesn’t do child actors very often, so my money is on a tight run between the two Babel girls. By all accounts, Rinko’s character is a tightly wrought piece of controversial acting, and Adriana’s is beautiful and distraught. Hmm – toughy! I don’t think Jennifer Hudson will get an OSCAR for her performance…Golden Globe sections are one thing, where they reward musicals and comedy, but Oscar is quite another.

SHOULD: Abigail Breslin
WILL: Adriana Barraza

Animated Feature: Cars, Happy Feet, Monster House.

God, crap year for Animated Features, eh?!?!? I reckon the penguins will sweep it. They probably deserve it too…I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t seen any of them!

SHOULD: Happy Feet
WILL: Happy Feet

Cinematography: The Black Dahlia, Children of Men, The Illusionist, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Prestige.

God, what a pile in there! And where’s Apocalypto?? Mel really shot himself in the foot with that outburst during the year!! I think probably Pan’s Labyrinth will get it. I’m a big fan of Children of Men and The Prestige, but I think they’re just in this category for the hell of it.

SHOULD: Pan’s Labyrinth
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth

Costume Design: Curse of the Golden Flower, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Marie Antoinette, The Queen.

All the costumes are quite similar in this little group, apart from The Devil, which is more contemporary. Musicals tend to be the most lavish, so Dreamgirls is certainly in for a shot, but I wouldn’t put it past The Queen to get this one.

SHOULD: Dreamgirls
WILL: The Queen


Best Director: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen, United 93.

Come on! The Departed, obviously!! Brilliant stuff that no sitting-on-a-bloody-plane-terror can surpass! Babel could sweep in there, but another cut-and-paste jobby would wreck my head…give him editing instead! And by sweet bippy, if Clint gets it again then this is the LAST Oscar ceremony I’ll bloody watch!!!

SHOULD: Martin Scorsese
WILL: Martin Scorsese

Documentary: Deliver us from Evil, An Invonvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, My Country My Country.

An Inconvenient Truth needs to win this! It is a fantastically put together documentary, as well as giving a wonderful insight into the world that could have been were it not for a botched Florida count.

SHOULD: An Inconvenient Truth
WILL: An Inconvenient Truth

Film Editing: Babel, Blood Diamond, Children of Men, The Departed, United 93.

God, Babel should definitely get this. Stringing together three diverse stories into one coherent tale needs a strong hand in the editing room. However, things could go towards United 93, just to give it something. Hopefully not, though!

SHOULD: Babel
WILL: Babel

Foreign Language Film: After the Wedding, Days of Glory (Indigénes), The Lives of Others, Pan’s Labyrinth, Water.

Where the hell is Apocalypto?? Or Volver??? OK, Pan’s Labyrinth deserves it, but could we not at least have some appropriate competition?

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth

Makeup: Apocalypto, Click, Pan’s Labyrinth

Hmmm. Apocalypto could get this little pat on the back just to give it something. Pan’s probably deserves it more, because it has that character’s evolution.

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Apocalypto

Best Picture: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen.

I have my suspicions on this one. I really think that Scorsese’s gonna get director, which means they may not give him this one. And, actually, I think that Little Miss Sunshine IS a better ‘Best Film’ for this category, even though I loved The Departed. I think Oscar will want to give it to the little-engine-that-could of Little Miss. Of course, things could go horribly wrong, with Oscar divided on the two, and it could slip between two stools and go to one of the others! Aaarrrggghhh!!

SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal

It’s not going to go to Borat, that’s for sure. I’m thinking a toss up between The Departed and Notes on a Scandal. And I think The Departed was a great script ,so I’m gonna hope for it to win!
SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Notes on a Scandal

Writing (Original Screenplay): Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Queen

Wonder will they give it to Clint, so as the film gets SOMETHING! Hmmm….they could do it, the slimey fecks!! Of course, Babel has the complicated script, so they could feel intellectual voting it. I think Little Miss might take this one. It’s a very funny, quirky script in the indie-type movie Oscar just falls in love with.

SHOULD: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine

OH....and P.S.

I also got a mention on the homepage of the Film Ireland website for my review of the Darklight Compedium Vol. 1 DVD.....

www.filmireland.net

As Nerea said, I'm on FIRE this week!!

Ha ha!

Blowing my own trumpet...

Well, yet again I have my boyfriend to thank for another progression in my life!! He constantly pushes me to do things I wouldn't normally do, so THANK YOU ALAN!! He sent me a link to a competition on the BBC website for people to write a piece on movies of 2006 with a view to becoming an online Oscar panelist for the BBC website. Well, just as the whistle blew on the fantastic Liverpool whoomping of Chelsea on Saturday, I got a phone call from the BBC to say that I am one of the six.

Here's the 100-word max. entry that got me a place on the website:

2006? Blockbuster Bond returned with brightened hair, smashing pre-conceptions that blondness means blandness. 'Little Miss Sunshine' wowed cynics with a musical display mixing humour and a squirming mortification not seen since 'Napoleon Dynamite'. Politically, 'Syriana' astounded, 'United 93' overwrought, 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' stung...we still care, even though we are doomed (according to Gore!). Documadness from 'Grizzly Man' and 'Borat' elevated a filmtastic year – not to mention a Scorcese return to form with 'The Departed'. A ferocious mind-bender, this was my definite movie of 2006 – golden statue finally beckons? Maybe if Dirty Harry stays home this Oscar night...!

So, post phonecall I had to write a short piece on my predictions for the Oscars. Thanks to being snowed in on Monday, I had to do it from home, and use a crappy picture from my laptop...not my best side, let me tell you!!

Here's a link to what went up on the website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6286925.stm

Now I've to write my reaction to the predictions - so I'll publish that piece here too. Woo, and indeed, Hoo!

Love, huh?

Why do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

...how you always make me laugh
...how cute you look ALL THE TIME
...how funny you can be (subtly different to just 'making me laugh')
...how much of a good time I have with you
...how intelligent you are
...how even the fact that you don't want to talk to people or learn about their lives doesn't stop you from being a bloody friendly guy (ha ha)
...how gorgeously sexy you are
...the way you make me feel
...the way you earn more money than me and sometimes do stuff like pay for my train ticket

There's my little 'ode to Alan'. Feeling good about my man on a Friday morning!

Love you Al!!

Come on the Garden County!!!

For the first time in a laaaahhhhooonnnggg time, we can be proud of Wicklow GAA! Bloody hell - when have we faced Dublin before with such hope (and with such a manager - go on Mick!)?? Not in my lifetime, I can tell thee!!

So, come on Wicklow - make us proud!

Go on Beckham!!

Ha ha ha - tis all over the internet (well, someone clean it up then!!) I'm sure they'll like it over there........

Kila Gig Photos - har de frickin har!

The two happiest eejits in Rush!!

Check out my sexy boyfriend (on the right, obviously!!)!! The two cockiest feckers in Rush, eh?! Can you read the poster??? Well, Kelly (who is on the left) stands next to a poster advertising his band, and my gorgeous Alan (on the right) stands next to a poster advertising HIS DJing set!!

Oh, the synchronicity of it all!

St. Stephen's Night '06 - a delightful night spent in the company of these two delightful men!!

Why my whistle-blowing Brion is a hero!!

The Sunday Times December 10, 2006

Doubts over charity worker 'delay' humanitarian award
Colin Doyle

AND the winner of the Meteor Humanitarian Award for 2007 is . . . not Mike Meegan. The prestigious award, previously won by Bono, Elton John and the aid worker Adi Roche, was to have been bestowed next February on Meegan, an international director of Icross, a developing-world charity. But organisers have told the aid worker that he will not be given the prize, which comes with a €100,000 cheque, at next year’s Meteor Music Awards. He may be given it in 2008 instead. Organisers say they changed their minds due to concerns that Meegan is about to part company with the aid agency he founded. But the charity boss was also embroiled in controversy earlier this year when it emerged he overstated his academic qualifications in an attempt to win a €2m grant from the US National Institutes of Health, for a study into home care for Aids sufferers.

Justin Green of MCD, the music-promotion company that organises the awards, has denied Meegan was passed over for the award because of the controversy. “The award recognises people who change lives, not people with postgraduate degrees. It didn’t have an influence. We hope to be able to give Mike the award next year,” Green said. MCD confirmed that a different winner has now been chosen for the show on February 1.

Meegan said he was disappointed that Icross’s infant mortality and child survival programme won’t benefit from the award, but vowed to continue his work. “I was delighted to be considered, but we are not in Africa for awards,” he said. Rebecca Burrell, a director of Icross, confirmed that the charity is currently restructuring. “We are a small charity and €100,000 is a huge donation, but the award is given in a personal capacity, not to a particular charity,” she said.

Meegan, who is based in the remote village of Majiwa in western Kenya, confirmed he is considering his future role in Icross after an organisational review. The charity boss hopes to play a greater role in lobbying politicians. “We want to Africanise the administration,” he said. Meegan’s work in East Africa earned him an International Person of the Year Award in 2003 and an honorary degree from NUI Galway earlier this year. An RTE documentary, When You Say 4,000 Goodbyes, chronicles his efforts to fight Aids in Kenya and Tanzania. It has picked up awards in America. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has collaborated on a number of Icross’s African projects, saying it was impressed by Meegan’s “low-tech, evidence-based, sustainable solutions”.

But his reputation was dealt a blow in the summer, when it emerged that Meegan, who is listed with the title doctor on Icross’s website, had received his doctorate from Knightsbridge University, which trades from a post-box address in Denmark and is not recognised by the Danish government.

An official biography prepared for a US conference also claimed that Meegan had a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in medical anthropology, although the university confirmed last week it could find no record of his place on the course. He eventually lost the American grant over concerns about his academic achievements. The charity boss now says he has a masters in community health from Trinity College and confirms that he pursued a correspondence course with Knightsbridge. “I was in the remote bush in rural Africa with no phones or electricity. It was done in good faith and examined by a qualified supervisor. As it turns out, it was not especially useful,” he said. In 2002 USAID, a US government body, asked Price Waterhouse Coopers to carry out an audit of the organisation’s Kenyan accounts after it became concerned that funds were being mismanaged. The inquiry found that the charity had a number of “internal control weaknesses”. Meegan would have joined an illustrious list of humanitarian workers had he been given the award. Over six years the recipients have included Fr Peter McVerry, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy and Christina Noble, as well as Roche, Bono and Elton John.