Feb 27 03. Hurray for Donald! :: Charlie and Donald (!) won the BAFTA (British Academy Film & Television Awards) for best adapted screenplay. The boys were unable to make it to the awards ceremony in London, so Meryl Streep stepped in and read a fax on their behalf, misreading it in saying "I would like to spank director Spike Jonze."

Word is that Kaufman also tried to spank George Clooney, director of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, for which Kaufman wrote the screenplay.

(Thanks Jen and Steve)

    Feb 27 03. Cage in Back Row :: A British radio program entitled Back Row recently interviewed Nicolas Cage about his role in Adaptation. An information page is here on which you can find the RealAudio stream of the broadcast. (Thanks Stu)     Feb 27 03. Much ado about screenplays :: The NY Times has a piece on the muddled screenplay situation at the Oscars this year:

"Some academy voters think at least two nominees for best original screenplay — Gangs of New York and My Big Fat Greek Wedding — are better described as adapted screenplays. And one of the adapted scripts — for Adaptation, of all things — strikes many as being more original than any of the original screenplays."

(Thanks Jen and Steve)

    Feb 27 03. Silver Bear :: Adaptation received A Silver Bear as the overall runner up at the Berlin Film Festival. (Thanks Susan)     Feb 14 03. Meryl interview in WSJ :: The Wall Street Journal has an interview with Meryl Streep about life, movies, and her Oscar nomination:

"What we do now is withhold films from most of America, which is shocking. And what do we withhold? The best films. If you live somewhere 30 miles out in mall-land, you can't see all the great movies. Same with the rest of the world: We export the crap. And then we wonder why everybody hates us and has a distorted picture of what Americans are. We should export the best movies we make."

Streep has been nominated for more Oscars than anyone else in history, a record 13. (Thx to Steve for the link.)

    Feb 11 03. Oscar nominations :: The Academy Award nominations have been announced. Adaptation received 4 nominations: Streep, Cooper, Cage, and Kaufman for Best Adpated Screenplay.     Feb 09 03. Academy Award nominations :: The nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday. Prediction: nominations for Cooper, Cage, and Kaufman, but no Streep and no Best Picture. (Just a gut feeling...no reason really.)