Hugh Jackman v. Shane Warne ... ah! Now, that's cricket!

A great treat for anyone who's into cricket, and following Hugh Jackman ... or into Hugh Jackman and following the cricket...



...and boy, can Hugh handle a cricket bat! In fact, given the absolute collapse of the Aussie batting side in this Boxing Day Test match, one wants to say the selectors need to bribe Shane Warne to come out of retirement and save the day, and also hire Hugh Jackman to replace one of the pretty useless Aussie batsmen.

Merry Christmas, cricket fans!

Oscar and Hugh: not such an odd couple

With the Oscars 2009 show being a piece of history now (in other words, it was yesterday...) folks downunder are wondering what response was gleaned by Hugh Jackman -- who's only the second Aussie ever invited to host the show.

Turns out, Hugh's been gathering mixed reviews -- and I shouldn't think it bothers him one jot, because while critics appear to have NOT likes him, audiences loved him. And that's what a performer cares about. (Which is probably also how he's feeling about Australia, which has been, and still is, absolutely delighting home-grown viewers all over our rural zones, even though city slicker crictics in the hearts of major metropolises like New York, London and so forth didn't reckon it was worth the celluloid it was printed on! Go figure. Me? I reckon it's audiences that count. God knows, they're the ones who didn't get free bloody tickets!)

Here's some interesting reading on the topic:

Will Hugh Jackman get Oscars call back? Was he Billy Crystal?
Liveblogging the Oscars: Stopping the Show
Kudos!!!!

Kewl, eh, what?!

So let's have some pictures while we're here!





Now, that's what I call candy for the visual cortex.

And the winner is ... hey, KOOEE! That's Hugh Jackman!

The news hit the wires just one hour ago: Kooee!!! It's Hugh Jackman to host the Academy Awards show! That'll make for a pleasant evening, even if you think (as most of us usually do) that the awards all wandered off home with the wrong people!


So, who's going to win what? I'm not the one to ask, but I did read a really excellent roundup:
Who Will Take Home the Oscar? 2009 Academy Award Predictions -- that post is well worth a read, on Blog Critics.

And now, a tiny bit of Oscar trivia ... do I miss my guess, or was Sidney Poitier the first black actor to win the academy award?


And then it was 40 years before Denzel Washington won one, is that right? Woah. That's a long time between dinners.

Best of luck to Heath Ledger: here's hoping!

"Australia" rakes in the big bucks after all

You've probably heard that the recent movie Australia was Hugh Jackman's and Nicole Kidman's all-time flop. Right? The pundits could have spoken way too soon!

Here's a choice quote from the feature article on The Australian:

"Luhrmann's romantic epic starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman has been pilloried since its November premiere, with Kidman particularly enduring vituperative reviews from columnists and commentators for what is a solid performance.

Yet despite the slings and arrows, Australia is set to become the second highest grossing Australian film in history (in unadjusted figures) in this country, second to Crocodile Dundee, and the fifth highest grossing Australian film worldwide (behind Happy Feet, Crocodile Dundee I and II and Babe).

"If the industry sees this as a failure, send us more failures," says Peter Howard, who runs cinemas in the NSW towns of Taree and Tuncurry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25004481-15803,00.html

Read the whole thing -- go on! Turns out, the movie did poorly in North America, and frankly there's no surprise there: there's no Americans in it, and American audiences are so focused on American actors and accents, this alone would do in the movie.

(D'you know, whe Mad Max was released over there, they overdubbed Mel Gibson ... with an American voice speaking US slang! He was an Aussie at the time, if you remember. 21 years old. And still sane. I know about the Mad Max soundtrack for a fact. I've seen it -- or do I meant heard it?)

Anyway -- down here in Aus, Australia still screening in the rural communities, and doing, uh, quite nicely. The problem is that if a movie "fails" in the continental USA, it's said to be a failure per se ... which (like the old song sez) ain't necessarily so.

Cool news, this!

Emails from Wolverine country

After posting about Hugh Jackman just three hours ago, here I am again, on the same delicious subject!

Got a quickie update for the Hugh-Jackman-aholics out there (and in here, come to that). You gotta see this: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39807 ... Hugh actually emailed Aint It Cool News's Harry Knowles ... and the mail system ate the message. Doesn't it always, when it's something of a life and death nature, such as a personal email from Hugh Jackman?

Good lord. Hugh emails you, and you appear to, uh, ignore him?? (Actually, you'd fainted, passed out cold on the deck, cracked your head down there, and have been counting pixies for the last six hours...)

Check it out, people!

Hugh Jackman: in costume ... and out!

Got to drool just a little bit over the story running on Now today:

"Hugh Jackman has revealed that he takes part in role play with his wife in the bedroom.
The actor, 40, says Deborra-Lee Furness often falls for the characters in his movies. ‘She loves me in costume because it makes her feel like she’s having an affair — in a good way,’ he says, reports The Sun. ‘I played a prisoner with tattoos and she’d say, “Don’t take your tattoos off tonight!”’Deborra-Lee, 53, met Hugh on an Australian TV series in 1995.
http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/celebrity-news/298933/hugh-jackman-my-wife-loves-me-to-dress-up-in-the-bedroom/1/

Come to think of it, I'll bet she gets him to take the claws off, though --

It's Happy Anniversary for Hugh and Deborra-Lee this month -- their thirteenth! And I think they just proved it's "lucky thirteen."


He beat Brad Pitt, George Clooney and a the rest of the Hollywood regiment and a couple of months ago put on the crown of the world's sexiest man ... some folks are apparently disgruntled, but -- guys, I put it to you:



You may cast your votes now. What's that I hear? I'm sorry, dear, I can't make out a word you're saying through the drool ... let me get you a tissue.

Wolverine's Day Off ... or, Logan at the beach

All work and no play makes even the Wolverine a dull boy. So every now and then ... and especially when the sun's shining and the weather's fine ... Logan takes the day off and pops down to the beach, there masquerading as an ordinary human being who enjoys a dip and doesn't have retractable claws. Don't believe me? Check this out:





There you are -- you probably believe me now! While we're here -- have you see the Wolverine trailer yet? No? Then stick around:



This is a movie I am definitely going to see in the theaters. Is it just my imagination, or has Hugh Jackman put on a lot more muscles for this prequel? Looking forward to this -- it opens in Australia in about five months, along with the new Star Trek movie and a swag of others.