Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning movie Milk has been voted the best gay film of the last decade.  Penn won an Academy Award in 2008 for his role as gay activist and politician Harvey Milk in the biopic, which topped the poll of the most important movies depicting gay people in the last 10 years.  Officials at U.K. charity Stonewall, who conducted the survey, commended director Gus Van Sant's drama for its realistic portrayal of the homosexual community.

Milk's gay activist friend Cleve Jones, portrayed in the movie by Emile Hirsch, says, "This is a fantastic achievement for Milk. As someone who was depicted in the film, I feel very proud that gay people are saying it's the most significant film for them in the last decade - it shows that the campaign for full gay equality has reached a whole new generation of people, which gives me real hope."

Family drama The Kids Are All Right, starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as lesbian mothers, was in second place, while cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain came third. A Single Man, starring Colin Firth as a gay university professor, and The Hours rounded out the top five.

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Nicole Kidman has joked people are welcome to visit her parents' house and touch her Oscar. The Australian actress won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours and has described the experience as magical.

The Hollywood star was raised in Sydney, Australia, for much of her childhood, and it has a special place in her heart. For that reason she decided the iconic golden statue should remain at her parents' home in the city.

"It's on the mantle of my parents' house in Sydney. People in the neighbourhood can come touch that gold Oscar," she told the British edition of InStyle. Remembering her childhood, the 43-year-old also explained that as a little girl, Hollywood seemed like a fairy-tale place to her.

Nicole recalled watching the Academy Awards on TV and likened the American movie industry to a magical, yet surreal, place. Her childhood memories made winning an Oscar even more special.

"As a little girl in Australia, I watched the American film industry from afar. I remember being six or seven and watching the Oscars in my pyjamas, drinking hot chocolate, in this tiny little suburb of Sydney; it seemed like a faraway land, like Oz," she said. "There's a bit of magic involved in winning an Academy Award."

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This week's new DVD releases include an animated film that picked up an Oscar nomination and the concert film of a young music superstar. The Illusionist, Grade A: This is a brilliant effort from director Sylvain Chomet, whose past work includes the equally magnificent The Triplets of Belleville.

The story of the discovery and loss of magic through the relationship of a veteran magician and a young girl is hypnotic. It's made even more spellbinding by the crisp animation used to bring the world to life.

Chomet's film is both a sad commentary and a bold embrace of how life is always changing in magical ways. No Strings Attached, Grade D: This is Ivan Reitman's first attempt at directing a pure romantic comedy. No Strings Attached misses so badly he should take it as a sign and stick to films about ghost busting.

This romantic comedy is a disaster. What should have been an explosion of love and laughter ends up a total dud because the movie was miscast, has inane writing, and is too predictable.

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Grade B-: This concert/documentary film is the story of the rise of Justin Bieber from street performer to singing superstar. It's an interesting mix of performance and behind-the scenes material. Even if you don't have Bieber Fever it's an interesting and entertaining offering.

Also new on DVD this week: My First Collection Featuring Splat the Cat: The three-DVD set includes 14 stories adapted from children's books.

Cougars, Inc.: A young man starts an escort service that features mature women. Denise Richards and Kyle Gallner star. Blue Valentine: A young couple deal with the highs and lows of their relationship. Ryan Gosling stars. Black Death: Sean Bean stars in this story of a quest to find a haven from the the black plague in 1348.

I Saw The Devil: The violent tale of murder and revenge comes from Ji-Woon Kim. Dahmer vs. Gacy: Horror story about a doctor trying to create the ultimate killer by combining the DNA of Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy.

Webster: Season 2: The four-DVD set includes 26 episodes from the series about a retired football player (Alex Karras) who becomes the guardian for a former teammate's son. I Love Toy Trains: All Aboard!: Features a look at toy and real trains.

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The Flea Theater presents Black Moon Theatre Company's production of Oscar Wilde's erotic and decadent 1891 classic SALOME. Directed by Rene Migliaccio, previews begin July 8 at The Flea. Opening night is slated for Wednesday, July 13.

SALOME tells the Biblical story of the step-daughter of King Herod Antipas. Much to the dismay of her step-father, but to the delight of her mother Herodias, Salome requests the head of Iokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils, for revenge on Iokanaan who refused to yield to her desires.

In this new multi-media adaptation of SALOME, Rene Migliaccio's staging illustrates the never-ending struggle between eroticism and death, love and destruction, passion and restraint. The production looks at the young virgin Salome as the by-product of the moral ills of a society that has created such a psychotic persona.

SALOME stars Alessio Bordoni, Karina Fernicola-Ikezoe, Tatyana Kot, John Graham and Martin Meccouri. Additional casting will be announced shortly. The production team includes Jason Sturm (lighting), Natasa Trifan (choreography), India Evans (mixed-media collages set design), Brenda Cooney (dramaturg/assistant director), Amaury Groc (music), and Hope Governali (costumes).

New York City's Black Moon Theatre Company was founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Rene Migliaccio and Lori Vincent as an offshoot of Black Moon Productions, which Migilaccio founded in L.A. in 1990. Black Moon's New York productions include Dante's Divinia Commedia -Inferno (FringeNYC, Prague Festival Praha), Kafka's The Metamorphosis (FringeNYC, Phily Fringe, La MaMa, Prague Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe), The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni (Lincoln Center, Meet The Artist Series), The Bakkhai by Euripides (HERE), and Internationally, the company has been seen in Germany, the UK, Canada, and the Czech Republic.

Rene Migliaccio received a Best Director Award from Los Angeles' Dramalogue in 1987 for Armaggedon Outta Here. His production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing was named Best Theatre of 1989 by the Los Angeles Times. His directing credits include Fear and Misery of the Third Reich with L.A.'s Open Fist Theatre Company, an adaptation of the film Nosferatu at the Prithvi InterNational Theatre Festival in India, Medea by Euripides with the Telluride Repertory Theatre Company, Deathwatch by Jean Genet at The Powerhouse in Santa Monica, The Cenci by Antonin Artaud at UCLA, and Don Juan by Moliere for Stages of Learning Company, among many others. In September 2011, he will direct The Maids by Jean Genet in Norway.

The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement, Obie Awards and an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented nearly 100 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys; six plays by A.R. Gurney (Post
Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, Mrs. Farnsworth, A Light Lunch and Office Hours); Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September; Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore... and The Oldsmobiles; Elizabeth Swados' JABU and Kaspar Hauser; Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman; Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians; Will Eno'sOh, The Humanity and other exclamations; Thomas Bradshaw's Dawn; The Great Recession; Jonathan Reynolds' Girls in Trouble; Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening; American Sexy by Trista Baldwin; Future Anxiety by Laurel Haines, and Just Cause by Zack Russell.

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Simply put, this would be a better world if there were more films like "In a Better World."Not that this year's Oscar winner for best foreign language film is all butterflies and jellybeans. It's decidedly not. It  challenges the viewer, eschews easy answers, raises ugly questions and faces tragic situations head-on. But director Susanne Bier, working again with scriptwriter Anders Thomas Jensen (they previously did the masterful "Brothers" and "After the Wedding"), manages to bring great reality and emotion to eerily believable moments in this film.

She never gives in to sensation, she never loses control of her often out-of-control characters, and she guides the film's roiling emotions toward a properly imperfect end. The setup is a bit complicated, but then life is.

Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is a Danish surgeon working in African refugee camps. The need there is overwhelming, but he's professional and carries on. Still, he's rocked to the core when someone brings in a woman who has had her living fetus cut out of her. It turns out this was the work of someone called "The Big Man." The Big Man likes to make bets on what gender baby a woman is carrying, and then he cuts the child out to prove if he's wrong or right. Meanwhile, back in Denmark, Anton's oldest son, pre-teen Elias (Markus Rygaard) is being bullied mercilessly at school. Enter new student Christian (William John Nielsen), a boy whose mother has just died and is in no mood for bullies.

When he emphatically puts Elias' attackers in their place, a bond grows between the two boys.
After all, Christian is down to one parent, the too-understanding Claus (Ulrich Thomsen), and Elias' parents have separated because of Anton's long leaves of absence and an apparent indiscretion.
When Anton returns home on a break, he and his physician wife Marianne (Trine Dyrholm, playing brilliantly beneath the character) share custody of Elias and meet Christian. Soon however, it becomes apparent to Elias that something has snapped inside of Christian. This occurs to him around the time Christian begins building bombs. This tension comes to a head when Anton, trying to break up a tussle between his younger son and another boy, is accosted by the other boy's father and challenged to a fight.

Anton attempts to explain to his children how fighting is never the best method to resolve problems. But Christian will have none of it. And suddenly Elias finds himself crushed within the argument. Then Anton is sent back to Africa, where he finds the notorious Big Man requesting/demanding medical help.
What can Anton do? He's a doctor. Moral pitfalls and dark choices litter this film; they are ugly situations that press in on the characters — socially, psychically, emotionally. And they each have consequences, often grim, always fraught with uneasiness or danger.

Yet somehow Bier and screenwriter Jensen keep it clear that these are real, breathing people enduring life's trials. Using beautiful Danish sunrises and sets, Bier constantly reminds that all these intense problems co-exist with intense beauty. "In a Better World" doesn't so much dream as it does discover the decency down deep. It is heartbreaking and at times harrowing, yet it also manages to never be without wonder. This isn't simply a film worth seeing; this is a film to treasure.

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The Oscars and Tony Awards did not properly honor Arthur Laurents before his death Thursday at age 93. At the Academy Awards, Laurents was nominated twice — as a producer and writer of "The Turning Point" (1977), which is tied with "The Color Purple" (1985) as the biggest loser in Oscar history. Both films went down to defeat 11 times without a win.

Laurents was not nominated for his screenplay for "The Way We Were" (1973), but he did win a Writers Guild of America Award for it.

Laurents created some of Broadway's greatest musicals, but he won Tonys for the wrong shows. "West Side Story" lost best musical to "The Music Man" in 1958 and "Gypsy" lost to "Fiorello" and "The Sound of Music" in 1960. When he was nominated for directing revivals of "Gypsy," he lost again and again — in 1975 to Geoffrey Holder ("The Wiz") and in 2008 to Bartlett Sher ("South Pacific").

Laurents did win best musical for "Hallelujah Baby," but 1968 was a weak year. Its competition was "The Happy Time," "How Now, Dow Jones" and "Illya, Darling."He finally won the Tony for directing when he helmed "La Cage aux Folles." He beat James Lapine ("Sunday in the Park With George").

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The performance Jackie Cooper gave in his Oscar-nominated role in "Skippy" was largely forced out of him. The film was directed by Cooper's uncle, Norman Taurog, who was so desperate to get the 9-year-old boy to cry on cue for a scene that he pulled a cruel trick on the youngster: Taurog threatened to shoot the boy's dog.

Nonetheless, the film industry was impressed enough with Cooper's performance to nominate him for lead actor at the Academy Awards opposite Lionel Barrymore ("A Free Soul"), Richard Dix ("Cimarron"), Fredric March ("The Royal Family of Broadway") and Adolphe Menjou ("The Front Page").

On Oscar night, Nov. 10, 1931, the awards weren't doled out till after midnight. Taurog won best director, but Cooper didn't see his acceptance speech, which included a tribute to his nephew. That was because the boy had fallen asleep on Marie Dressler's arm and no one dared to wake him, not even when his own category finally came up. That turned out to be for the best, since the boy may have cried again when he heard the result. He lost to Barrymore, who accepted the trophy and gave shout-outs to his competitors, including Cooper.

At age 9, Cooper was the youngest person ever nominated for an Oscar. That record still stands in the lead category, but Justin Henry holds the over all record when he was nominated at age 8 for "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). Cooper died Tuesday at the age of 88.

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Good genetics undeniable play a major part in Nicole Kidman's enviable physique. But nobody looks movie star perfect without a serious amount of hard work. The 43-year-old actress put herself through her paces yesterday as she pounded the pavement around San Francisco Bay. Dressed in an all black work out ensemble the star huffed and puffed throughout the run as she listened to songs on an iPod.

The black leggings and tight black zip-up athletic jacket highlighted the Moulin Rouge star's slender and toned physique. She kept her face covered with over-sized black sunglasses and a black cap. Nicole has been staying in San Francisco while filming her next project Hemingway And Gellhorn, and HBO film about the famous writer alongside Clive Owen.

The drama is centered around the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn, the second of his four wives, played by Kidman. Their tumultuous relationship and five-year marriage began when they met at a local Key West bar in 1936. They married in 1940 after romancing in Europe while Hemingway wrote his famous novel For Whom The Bell Tolls for which she was the inspiration.

Due to their busy careers - Martha was a World War II correspondent - the couple spent extended periods of time apart and they ended up getting divorced in 1945. Years later, both tragically ended their own lives - Hemingway in 1961, after struggling with psychological issues and Gellhorn years later in 1998 after a cancer battle and losing her sight. The all star cast also includes David Strathairn, Parker Posey, Rodrigo Santoro, Molly Parker, Santiago Cabrera, Peter Coyote, Saverio Guerra, Diane Baker, Tony Shalhoub and Lars Ulrich.


 

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Australian costume designing duo Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel won an Oscar 16 years ago for their dazzling work on the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; now they are favourites to claim a Tony Award.

Gardiner and Chappel were nominated yesterday for Broadway's highest honour for their costume work in the elaborate New York stage version of Priscilla. Joining the duo with a Tony nomination was the star of the production, Australian actor Tony Sheldon, nominated in the best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical category.Sheldon plays Bernadette, the role played by Terence Stamp in the 1994 film.

The Tony Award nominations for the $US15 million stage production follows mixed reviews from US critics since the show began previews in February. "The 1994 movie about Australian drag queens in the outback becomes a hyperactively splashy karaoke musical so desperate to show the audience a gaudy good time that the results are mostly enervating," The New York Times told its readers.

"Tony Sheldon brings some warmth as the transsexual Bernadette, but the show is mostly a riot of spangles, sequins and silly costumes."The controversial, profane-filled play The Book of Mormon, by the creators of the satirical animated TV series South Park, was the big winner from the Tony nomination ceremony, scoring 14 nods, including best musical.

Plenty of Hollywood stars were nominated, including Al Pacino, who played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy, Sopranos star Edie Falco for The House of Blue Leaves and Ellen Barkin in The Normal Heart.

Some big names were also snubbed, including James Earl Jones for Driving Miss Daisy and Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The winners will be announced at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre on June 12.

The big questions is: What will Gardiner wear to the awards? Gardiner became front page news around the world when she accepted her Oscar in 1995 while wearing a dress made from American Express Gold Cards.

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Kate Middleton, Alexander McQueen’s most famous customer, did not make it to New York for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute gala Monday night, but many other fashion insiders and global celebrities made the scene. Among the many luminaries included such names as Anna Wintour, Colin Firth and Kanye West.

Hosted by Vouge and held, as it has been for many years, on the first Monday in may, the benefit marks the opening of  Savage Beauty, an exhibit of the late McQueen’s iconic designs. The exhibit, which opens to the public on Wednesday, features roughly 100 ensembles and 70 accessories from McQueen’s 19-year career.

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