Going For The Hollywood Gold

The Oscars® air Sunday, March 4th.  They'll be on earlier, by the way.  If you're in the New York area, they'll start at 8pm (Eastern).  That's 7pm if you're in the Midwest and 5pm if you're on the West Coast where the awards action is. ABC has the Oscars telecast.  ABC late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, returns to host the Oscars again.  My friend, Keith Price, and I recorded a new podcast for Oscar weekend.  Check to see if it's posted at www.MOCHAA.podomatic.com.  For Hollywood's Big Weekend, I'm reposting some Oscar-related interviews I've done.  Let me start with a short clip from my VH1 days.  Shirley MacLaine was a fabulous guest on my talk show.  The veteran Hollywood actress and star of such classics as Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT, Vincente Minnelli's SOME CAME RUNNING, Hitchcock's THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE TURNING POINT with Anne Bancroft and BEING THERE was an Oscar winner when she sat with me.

Shirley MacLaine has received 5 Oscar nominations for Best Actress.  She won for 1983's poignant mother/daughter comedy, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT written and directed by James L. Brooks.

To me, Shirley should've also been nominated for POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990) and BERNIE (2011).

The accent Shirley used in STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) was the one she intended to use in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT.  Here's the story.

Nick Nolte got Best Actor Oscar nominations for THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991) and AFFLICTION (1997).  He didn't get a nomination for 1998's THE THIN RED LINE. But it was nominated for Best Picture and the reclusive Terrence Malick was nominated for Best Director.

I talked to Nolte about his military character role and I asked for an Oscar-related prediction about his director, Terrence Malick.

Actor Michael Shannon fascinates me.  I love talking to him.  He's such a unique, versatile and forthcoming actor.  I first interviewed him after he'd played the father of a little boy with supernatural powers who's being pursued by government and religious forces.  2016's MIDNIGHT SPECIAL was like a Bible story.  Shannon is now in Best Picture Oscar nominee, THE SHAPE OF WATER.

I first noticed Michael Shannon in 2006's WORLD TRADE CENTER.  He and another future Oscar nominee had bit parts in that movie.  I asked him about his first Oscar nomination.  It came in the Best Supporting Actor category for 2008's REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.

I will end with a montage reel that has Oscar winners (Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks) and a legendary recipient of a lifetime achievement Oscar (Kirk Douglas).  Enjoy.
The phone number at the beginning of this video has long been out of service.

Happy Oscars weekend.