The Oscar Pizza Guy Gets His Tip

The biggest question post-Oscar, besides what Matthew McConaughey or John Travolta were thinking, was what happened to all that money Ellen collected for the pizza guy? 

Well, after a flurry of social media concern, the answer came yesterday during Ellen's post-Oscar show. The lucky guy Edgar Martirosyan sat down for a chat and Ellen presented him, not just with the $600 she collected from folks like Brad Pitt and Harvey Weinstein but also an additional $400 she threw in herself for a cool 1K. In addition to that, Ellen ordered countless boxes of pizza for her audience, which was surely another boon to his family-owned Big Mama's and Papa Pizza in Hollywood. 

I was curious about the outcome of this and couldn't find much on the interwebs. But leave it to MTV News who knows there audience (pizza!!!) to report the story. The interview with Martirosyan is pretty cute too as he reveals that Julia Roberts was his biggest movie crush and he got to hand her a slice. Some people were critical of the pizza bit taking up too much time on a ceremony that is always overlong, but I thought it was fun and (as Ellen mentions) quite practical as all those actresses were hungry, having starved themselves for weeks to fit into their dresses. 

Doc Up For Oscar Was Shot (And Saved) By An iPhone App

The documentary SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN, which has been nominated for an Academy Award, was partially shot using a $1.99 iPhone app. The story of the film itself is remarkable, about an Detroit singer unknown in the U.S. but wildly popular in South Africa in the 1970s.  The filmmaker, Malik Benjeliou, was originally shooting his b-roll on Super-8 film to get that groovy, 70s vibe. But, like all indie filmmakers, he ran out of money.  Enter the iPhone app called iSuper8 (of course) that recreates the look of that classic stock by shooting with an iPhone. Voila--film saved.

Malik shows exactly how he did it on this piece that ran on CNN last night. It's a very clever move by a filmmaker whose efforts have been rewarded with a trip to the Oscars on Sunday night. Let's hope he shoots some vintage-style footage of the big night on his phone.

A Write-In Campaign For Ben Affleck? It's Happened Before

After winning the Golden Globe for Best Director on ARGO, Ben Affleck's absence from the Oscar nominations list is proving even more baffling in H'wood. I was talking with a friend during the Globes and we joked that maybe he could mount a write-in campaign. Today there is a think piece in the Hollywood Reporter on just that idea and how that could be possible, if highly improbable.

The big shock to me was that it's possible at all and, actually, had been done two times before. There was a campaign for Bette Davis's performance in OF HUMAN BONDAGE which was unsuccessful as she came in third. Even more shocking is the fact they used to release the voting tally!  The second campaign was a cinematographer of MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, Hal Mohr, who actually won an Oscar based on his write-in effort.

However, since then, the Academy has banned write-in votes so it would involve a huge revision of Academy rules to make it happen. Also, the simple fact that voting is online for the first time this year makes a write-in on an electronic ballot kind of impossible. So Ben might have to settle with his Globe win and maybe hope to slay the ZERO DARK THIRTY & LINCOLN dragons for Best Picture.

OSCARS SPECIAL! Billy Eichner Asks New Yorkers What Movie Is In Them

This year, the Oscars have a theme...."Celebrate the Movies in All of Us".  God knows what that means.  Fortunately, the Oscars actually seem to have a sense of humor about their own theming as they asked Billy Eichner to take to the streets of New York and, in his own unique way, try to find out what movies are "in" New Yorkers. The results are hilarious as usual.  And make sure you stay til the last guy at the end....amazing!!!