How could the talented group at Focus Features combine so many attractive elements into such a dud picture? The antic period Brit comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day shows that all it takes is the wrong director, in this case TV thriller director Bharat Nalluri (Spooks), to coax bad performances out of Oscar-winner Frances McDormand, miscast as a Brit governess-turned-social secretary, and Amy Adams, ditzily channeling Marilyn Monroe. Only the wily Ciaran Hinds manages to escape unscathed. Todd McCarthy likes it better than I do.

The movie opens limited on March 7. Here's the trailer:

Brit critic Ben Child has figured out the secret of Judd Apatow's success. On that basis, he figures, Forgetting Sarah Marshall supporting player Russell Brand will be Apatow's next likely star. For the moment, Apatow is producing another couples comedy from the Forgetting Sarah Marshall team of director Nick Stoller and writer-actor Jason Segal.

Despite achieving a miserable 23 % rotten ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, the R-rated sports spoof Semi-Pro, starring Will Ferrell, is expected to dominate the weekend boxoffice by drawing young males. Boasting femme appeal is the other Boleyn girl, which grabbed a 53% rotten rating. Unlikely to score much action this weekend is Summit Entertainment's freshman release Penelope, starring recent BAFTA nominee James McAvoy and Christina Ricci as a girl with a pig nose, which earned 56% rotten reviews.

BTW, for the still-Oscar-obsessed, Rotten Tomatoes compares the scores of all the films that have won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Here's the weekend forecast based on Fandango's advance ticket sales:

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Semi-Pro “Go” 21%

The Other Boleyn Girl “Go” 17%

Vantage Point “Go” 10%

The Spiderwick Chronicles “Go” 6%

U2 3D “Must Go” 5%

This week's Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 2/29/08 9:00 a.m. PT):

Will Ferrell's latest, Semi-Pro, opens this week. What's your favorite Ferrell comedy?

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy 24%

Old School 22%

Elf 21%

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 17%

Blades of Glory 10%

Zoolander 6%

Word is, Steven Spielberg and his cast will unveil the new Indy installment at the Cannes Palais four days before it opens worldwide.

The Oscar-nominated Canadian short Madame Tutli-Putli and 42 other short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival are available for download on the iTunes Store, Netflix and Xbox 360. Check sundanceshorts for more info on how to see the shorts, which cost $1.99 on iTunes and Xbox and can be streamed for free on Netflix.

The Sundance Institute is trying to build audiences for shorts by partnering first with iTunes in 2007 and this year, Netflix and Xbox. Short films at Sundance have helped break out such directors as Jason Reitman, Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Trey Park and Matt Stone, Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener and Alexander Payne.

The trailer for the latest Will Ferrell/Andy McKay comedy starring Ferrell and John C. Reilly as grown new step-brothers who act like idiot ten-year-olds is hilarious. Producer Judd Apatow is involved, natch. It opens July 25.

Here's the LAT's marketing tie-in story on Semi-Pro, the other Ferrell pic coming out that does not look as funny.
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly writer Ronald Harwood, who is an old hand at attending the Oscars, charmingly regales us with the details of his long Oscar night.

Well, we've been waiting for the details to emerge on New Line Cinema, and here they are: Warners is absorbing the studio, as a label, and company founder Bob Shaye, who can claim to be one of the longest surviving indie mavericks in Hollywood, and his co-chairman Michael Lynne, are gone. This was expected.

Here's Bewkes' memo to the Time Warner employees:

February 28, 2008
To: All Time Warner Employees
From: Jeff Bewkes
Subject: New Line to Become a Unit of Warner Bros.

This afternoon, we announced that New Line will be operated as a unit of Warner Bros. New Line will continue to retain its own brand identity and will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution, and business affairs operations, but it will now coordinate those functions with Warner Bros.

The combination should strengthen our company’s filmed entertainment business by combining New Line with Warner Bros.’ industry-leading position and global reach. New Line has a proud 40-year legacy of producing creative, cutting-edge entertainment. That will continue. But, given trends in the industry toward fewer movie releases, the importance of a coordinated strategy for the international and digital distribution of filmed entertainment, and the need to continue to make sure that we’re running our businesses as efficiently as possible, it made sense for us to combine our studios’ infrastructures.

Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, the Co-Chairs and Co-CEOs of New Line, have chosen to leave the company, but we’re in discussions about possible future business relationships. Bob and Michael have a unique partnership that is noteworthy not only for its longevity, but also for its record of innovation and success. They have guided New Line’s growth from a privately-held art film distributor to the world’s leading independent film studio – home to such popular films as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Mask, Austin Powers, Blade, Rush Hour, Elf, Wedding Crashers and Hairspray. I thank Bob and Michael for their enduring contributions to Time Warner and look forward to working with them in the future.

This consolidation will also result in changes, including the elimination of jobs at New Line. Warner Bros. is currently working through the details and will let people know how the changes affect them as soon as possible. Colleagues whose jobs are eliminated will be treated fairly and respectfully. These are very difficult decisions, but they’re important for the future success of our film studios and our company.

As always, thank you for your hard work and support as our company moves forward. I’ll continue to keep you updated on our progress.

It is confusing that Shaye and Lynne are supposedly staying on in some business relationship (it's probably a face-saving device); and that the company, which is being folded into Warners, will still do some distribution. (That likely means there are various output deals that can't be instantly severed.) Bewkes is saying that he wants to fold the New Line product into the global Warner distribution apparatus. This seems short-sighted to me--even Universal hangs on to Focus Features' flexibility to take its indie fare out territory-by-territory to just the right indie distribs.

Bewkes is still not addressing the fate of New Line/HBO's Picturehouse and the floundering Warner Independent. Warners' Jeff Bewkes knows HBO better than he does the film side. It may not be clear from looking at Picturehouse's recent boxoffice record--which involved trying to market HBO Films' output that was not geared toward competing in the Darwinish specialty marketplace--just how competent and respected inside the biz Picturehouse prexy Bob Berney is.

Fact is, Warners prexy Jeff Robinov let Mark Gill leave WIP, even after he was making a success of it, because he couldn't control Gill and was unwilling to give him the autonomy he needed. Gill wasn't playing corporate ball at the time. But Robinov replaced him with hotshot production exec Polly Cohen, who he trusted, but who has had to learn the indie biz at a time when it couldn't be more unforgiving. Robinov and Cohen see WIP as more of a production opportunity, to seek out exciting new filmmakers.

But running a specialty label is as much a marketing and distribution job as it is picking movies. And that's what Berney understands instinctively. This is the guy who discovered and took out Y Tu Mama Tambien, Whale Rider, Monster, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and handled the release for Mel Gibson of The Passion of the Christ. Most recently, Picturehouse just won two Oscars for one of the few foreign hits in recent memory, La Vie en Rose. So what if Picturehouse didn't market Rocket Science effectively? No one could.

[Here's the 40th anniversary New Line DVD.]

The full WB/New Line press release is on the jump:

Men's Vogue charts the impact international films and cinema icons, from Gene Kelly to Cary Grant, have had on men's fashion.

Veteran screenwriter and director Paul Schrader (Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Hardcore, Blue Collar, Light Sleeper, The Walker) has posted some of his critical writing online:

Dear friends, acquaintances and people I once met but now barely remember,

Years ago I wrote a number of articles and reviews for publications which were not archived by libraries. Not worthy of re-publication but not deserving of oblivion either. Someone suggested a website, so here it is:

paulschrader.org.

I've also included high res pix from the films for downloading.

Paul Schrader

This will cheer you up.

This Barack Obama is The Messiah video premieres tonight on Current at 11pm ET/PT and will also be available on current.com.

I'm so glad the Oscar season is over that the idea of professional Oscar watchers already predicting next year's awards makes me feel, well, tired. But this is their life, 24/7, while I move on to such mundane annual rituals as the ShoWest exhibitor convention in Las Vegas.

In Contention's Kris Tapley, whose Variety Oscar blog ends on Friday (applause on a job well done) has posted a list of probable 2008 Oscar contenders. And Awards Daily's Sasha Stone, who will keep on plugging, adds the year's first Oscar poll in response. My votes matched up pretty closely with the poll. Paramount Vantage will handle the honors on DreamWorks' adaptation of Richard Yates' portrait of a 50s marriage, Revolutionary Road, which reunites Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet under the direction of Sam Mendes. No Country for Old Men's Oscar-winner Scott Rudin produces. And Imagine's Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are looking to be back in the winner's circle with their screen version of The Queen writer Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon, starring Michael Sheen as TV host David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard M. Nixon.

Speaking of Morgan, I saw his adaptation of Philippa Gregory's bodice-ripper the other Boleyn girl last night. Here's Variety's review. Columbia and Focus Features would not be releasing it now if they thought the movie was an Oscar contender, and it's not. But it is great fun, as wily American actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson hold their own against an array of top-flight British thespians. It's an old-fashioned juicy period costume drama, if not as sexy as the lengthier Showtime version, The Tudors. I could see women flocking to this in droves.

UPDATE: Here's Rachel Abramowitz's feature on the pic in the LAT.

There's a bunch of post-Oscar stuff on the web today, including this classic shot of Diablo Cody on the morning after. (Other folks are dredging up dated old Cody photos she'd probably rather forget.) I too was moved by her honest emotion on Oscar night. There's also a video spoof of Cody which I decided not to post because I didn't think it was funny. UPDATE: The A.P. details the Cody backlash. I'm glad to hear she's lying low for the foreseeable future.

While the Oscar show played great to the folks in the Kodak Theatre and Hollywood insiders, it obviously didn't score across the board, as it reaped its lowest ratings ever. Here's one disgruntled review:

UPDATE: Patrick Goldstein wants the staid old Academy to hire a bunch of sports producers to overhaul the Oscars to appeal to younger viewers. As far as I'm concerned, there's the Oscars for grownups and the MTV and Nickelodeon Movie Awards for kids. I don't want the Oscars to be as big and loud and obnoxious as the Super Bowl. Do the Oscars have to win in that sense? I do like Goldstein's idea of opening up some of the action backstage and cutting out some of the awards. The Academy producers were so pleased with themselves that they came in at three hours, 20 minutes!

Here's Marc Malkin's coverage of the Madonna post-Oscar party.

[Photo courtesy Awards Daily and Fataculture.]

People's Oscar red carpet gallery.

At the Indie Spirits on Saturday, John Waters asked me if I knew who'd won the Razzies. I had to admit I didn't. Maholodot.com covered the Razzies so we wouldn't have to. (This video is hilarious.) The big winner was I Know Who Killed Me, starring Lindsay Lohan. I should have known.

In an LA Weekly cover story, Nancy Rommelmann gets close to Laura Albert, aka J.T. LeRoy. I never tire of this woman. She both fascinates and horrifies me.

Overture finally nabbed its second Sundance pic, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning, starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, a good month after the fest's conclusion. (The new distrib acquired Henry Poole is Here during the fest.) The plan is to release the relationship dramedy at year's end.

Sunshine Cleaning entered the fest as one of several highly anticipated movies with stars attached that were expected to make a big sale. It didn't happen, though, partly because the filmmakers behind the film, Big Beach, which had financed Little Miss Sunshine, were hoping to make back their $7-million investment in a quick sale. Other distribs were worried that Sunshine Cleaning was too similar to that film. (Both star Alan Arkin in a cranky grandfather role.) But Overture, which is beefing up its 2008 and 2009 release slates, was keen on the relationship pic, which should appeal to women, and may change the title.

I quite liked this film, which nabbed mixed fest reviews. Jeffs is a fine director who managed to tease both comedy and tragedy out of this story.

Here's EW's Q & A with Blunt, who is terrific in the film as Adam's sister and business partner.

In the remote case that you missed this ubiquitous video:

As usual the Brits give us what we really really want.

Times Online.

I came in third (along with some other folks) in my office pool, so I can hold my head up. I am out $5. How did the prognosticators at Gurus o' Gold do? Here's the answer.

After filing my various stories, I repaired to the Governor's Ball, where Pink Martini brought a welcome zest to the black-tie affair. At the tables decorated with cut-glass lamps and red roses, the winners and losers were chowing down on Wolfgang Puck's lobster, macaroni and cheese, and baked potatoes and caviar.

Academy executive director Bruce Davis was elated that the show ran only three hours, 20 minutes. The swift pace enabled Gil Cates to bring Once songwriter Marketa Irglova back for her acceptance speech. "That's when you know the producer is cocky about our time, it's never happened in the history of the Oscars," Davis said.

"The Once songwriters provided the best moment of the evening and spontaneity," declared Fox's Tom Rothman. "It's what the Oscars are supposed to be about."

"Jon had less angst," said writer Bruce Vilanch of host Stewart's second outing as host. "He was more relaxed about it and knew what he wanted to do."

Sony's Howard Stringer admired the acceptance speeches, which were "devoid of cliches," he said, "full of entertaining energy."

SPC's Tom Bernard agreed: "The speeches were about the movies," he said, "not kissing the ass of studios and agents. The Academy is trying to focus more attention on the movies and not the people outside the movies."

Picturehouse prexy Bob Berney, celebrating two wins for "La Vie en Rose," credited Marion Cotillard for spending several months in L.A. improving her English as well as the efforts of her CAA agent, Hylda Queally. Cotillard returns to work on Michael Mann's John Dillinger movie "Public Enemies," opposite Johnny Depp, on Tuesday.

The Warners table--complete with heavyweight execs Jeff Bewkes, Barry Meyer and Alan Horn--boasted Michael Clayton winner Tilda Swinton, sitting with her three-year boyfriend Sandro Kopp and agent Brian Swardstrom, who she had thanked in her acceptance speech. "Tilda kept us from getting skunked," said George Clooney, heading out into the night with girlfriend Sarah Larson.

As Swinton left the Ball, some 30 people cheered her as she held up her Oscar. She turned to her boyfriend and cracked, "That's more people than I think have seen Michael Clayton!"

At the end of the night, the Disney/Miramax contingent and many others repaired to the Bar Marmont on Sunset for a loud, raucous party dominated by infectious 80s dance music. Ben Affleck was consoling his brother Casey. Javier Bardem and his pals took over one end of the bar. John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Kathy Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Scott Rudin, Julian Schnabel, Tamara Jenkins and Jim Taylor, Bart Walker, John Sloss, Daniel Battsek, Mark Urman and others had a fine time.

Frances McDormand and husband Joel Coen were hanging with their 13-year-old son, who was experiencing his first Oscars. "They didn't buy it," she said of the Coens' Oscar wins. "They work hard. And will keep working hard."

[Photo: Ratatouille director Brad Bird with his wife and his Oscar on the way out of the Governor's Ball and heading toward the Miramax post-Oscar party at Bar Marmont.]

Well, you win some, you lose some. I did pretty well on my various Oscar pools, but I missed a lot. I failed to change to the Marion Cotillard horse when it was seemingly catching up to Julie Christie. Tilda Swinton put it very well backstage when the news broke. "Why are you glad she won?" one reporter asked. Swinton replied, "She's great, she's new, she's new blood in the gene pool." Here are the winners. And Variety's story. And my Coens sidebar.

Supporting actress was a total mystery, but I should have gone with the Tilda Swinton Michael Clayton allocation theory. The voters wanted a popular movie to win something.

Many people told me that Elizabeth would win costume. I refused to listen because I didn't think the Academy would vote for such a bad movie. Of course the costumes were wonderful. Lesson learned.

Also, I thought that having voted for Blanchett twice for two nominations in one year, they'd give her the supporting win. In that case the fact that it was a film that nobody liked was the issue, as well as her prior win for The Aviator.

The biggest surprise of the night was the win for The Golden Compass for visual effects. My colleague David Cohen says that no one liked any of these films. Well, okay.

Dante Ferretti's win for Sweeney Todd was a surprise. I had thought the Sweeney Todd prize would go to costume designer Colleen Atwood. I had picked There Will Be Blood's Jack Fisk, who was nominated for the first time for There Will be Blood. I did pick TWBB's Robert Elswit for cinematography, and he thanked Fisk, and PTA.

I'm thrilled that Taxi to the Dark Side won the doc award. I thought the Academy would go with an insider who is respected in his profession who made a beautiful movie. All the films had strong POVs, but this one was cinematic. Michael Moore had won before, and No End in Sight's Charles Ferguson was a newcomer. In campaign parlance, Taxi had momentum.

Otherwise the wins went just the way I thought they would. No Country for Old Men won four Oscars, not eight. And producer Scott Rudin finally won his first Best Picture Oscar. He's wanted to win one for a long time. My Variety colleagues and I wondered if he will remain as friendly and accessible as he was this year on the Oscar campaign trail. He'll just have to keep producing Oscar movies--now that he's on the Oscar-friendly indie side, I would be surprised if he didn't keep doing it.

Imagine a room full of people not watching the Oscars. They're listening to them on headsets. They're laughing when Jon Stewart cracks wise. They're also watching and listening to the people coming through, depending on who it is. Some they ignore.

There are nine rows of tables here in the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, more rows of chairs at the front where Jeanne Wolf sits, with some 300 journalists filing different kinds of reports from the interview room. They hold up a card with a number and they get to ask a question. We aren't allowed to take pictures in here. (There's another photo room, and even a photo editing room, where people sit in front of computers full of little pictures, and a TV media room.)