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Of course, so did The Phantom Menace, but I'm trying to stay optimistic here.

Herewith, a rant about a visual gaffe in the current cinema.

On Friday's GuideLive cover, you'll see a large publicity photo of the stars of The Other Boleyn Girl (the same photo that's used in a movie ad inside the section). In the picture, Natalie Portman is at right, portraying Anne Boleyn.

Natalie herself looks great -- but what she's wearing made me cringe. The gown and hairstyle are OK. It's the jewelry that isn't working.

They have Anne Boleyn wearing a little pearl necklace with a big gold "B" hanging from it -- the like of which you might see in, say, a 21st-century Wal-mart. I seriously doubt you would have seen it anywhere in 16th-century England.

A little cross or crucifix hanging from the pearl necklace, or a pearl pendant, perhaps? Those styles would be historically acceptable. The big gold "B" is so not. You might as well have Eric Bana sporting a Rolodex as Henry VIII, and Scarlett Johanssen as Mary Boleyn with an iPod plugged into her ears.

It seems New Line is about to fall victim to the new economy of movies. Not even the Hobbits could save it.

This morning, the Today show aired a little clip from the Sex and the City movie, one that revealed a couple of new plot points. The biggest news seems to be that Charlotte is pregnant in the movie (or has somehow ingested a couple of basketballs). Also, the clip gives Mr. Big's full name (yippie). The footage made its way to YouTube and, of course, was promptly taken down, but if i see it anywhere on the Web in a more official capacity today, i'll get a link up.

I got an e-mail today from the governor's office of New Mexico bragging about the fact that the upcoming Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will be filmed in New Mexico from May through August this year before a theatrical release in May 2009.

I wonder if Texas was ever in the running for this project?

A few years ago, I wrote an article about how Texas was trying to get more competitive with New Mexico and other states to lure movie makers.

But there was a good bit of skepticism about whether Texas had the financial will to outbid other states, and I wonder if the Lone Star State was ever in the running for this film.

I also wonder, speaking as a fairly hardcore Terminator fan, whether this movie will suck.

The realist in me says yes, since Ahhnold will have, at best, a cameo appearance. But then again, Christian Bale is starring as John Conner, and I don't think he's made a bad action movie yet.

Wanna see Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis when she hits town Thursday to speak at the Nasher Salon? I've got your hookup. The first two people to e-mail me with OLYMPIA in the subject line will win a pair of tickets to the sold out event, which begins at 7 p.m. A screening of Moonstruck will follow. Shoot me that e-mail at sbecker@dallasnews.com.

Clear view from the top
Vantage Point, the political thriller about an assassination attempt viewed from multiple angles, found plenty of eyeballs over the weekend on the way to $22.9 million and the No. 1 spot. It proved to be the only real success of the four new movies with semi-wide distribution.

The AFI Dallas International Film Festival has announced a pair of new awards that come with hefty prizes. The winner of the MPS Studios Texas Filmmaker Award will get $20,000 in cash, goods and services. The winner of the Current Energy’s Earth Friendly Award, for films and filmmakers that communicate the importance of environmental sustainability through the art of film, will get $10,000.

The festival will run March 27 – April 6, with the awards ceremony taking place on Sunday, April 6 at the W Hotel. Other awards include the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary, the $10,000 HDNet Award for the best film shot in HD, and audience awards in the Narrative Feature, Documentary and Short Film categories. For more info on the fest visit www.afidallas.com.

Tell Us:

Who do you think got robbed Oscar night?

What was the most surprising moment during Sunday's show?

How did Jon Stewart fare as host of the big event?

From the Associated Press:
See behind-the-scenes video, slideshows and multimedia projects on the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

If you've seen There Will be Blood, well, there should be laughter while viewing this SNL skit.

That was a fairly uneventful Oscarcast, and I like that. Didn't have to make any last-second tweaks to to my lead except plug a few quotes in and crunch some single-digit numbers, then it was off to the capable hands of my editor (what up Becker).

Sorry if that's too much info on how the sausage is made. Here are Some random observations to close things out:

For anyone who might care (hi mom), it looks like I had a pretty solid night, going 11-for-13 on the categories I predicted. I'll take that any day...
Picture: No Country
Director: Coens
Actor: Day-Lewis
Actress: Cotillard
Sup. Actor: Bardem
Sup. Actress: Dee --- miss (Swinton)
Original Screenplay: Juno
Adapted screenplay: No Country
Animated film: Persepolis -- miss (Ratatouille)
Documentary: No End in Sight
Foreign Film: The Counterfeiters
Song: Falling Slowly from "Once"
Score: Atonement

With four awards, No Country for Old Men ends up the night's biggest winner, earning picture, director, supporting actor and adapted screenplay. The real surprise comes with the second most honored film, The Bourne Ultimatum. Who would have thought?

We now have 16 films that have taken home awards, the same number of films that won Oscars last year. If you picked The Bourne Ultimatum as the night's big winner, you're looking good, as it leads the pack with three. Close behind are La Vie en Rose and No Country for Old Men with 2. Look for No Country to take over the lead shortly...

Taxi beat out the Iraq overview No End in Sight, which, in hindsight, makes sense. Taxi puts a more human face on what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Powerful film. It's also still at the Angelika, so you can check it out pretty easily.

It wasn't an upset - the Enchanted songs canceled each other out, and they simply weren't as good. But Falling Slowly is still the best underdog story of the night. Once was made for next to nothing, and it is about the power of music. Great line by Stewart after Hansard's humble acceptance: "Man is that guy arrogant." And very nice touch letting Irglova come back out to say her piece after the commercials.

With 13 of the 24 awards given out, the leaders, all tied with TWO, are No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum and La Vie en Rose. Seven other films are tied with one. Not hearing their names called yet: best picture nominees Atonement, Juno and There Will be Blood.

Cotillard was considered a possibility by many, but I'm pretty shocked. I didn't think enough people had seen the film. Shows what I know. Kudos to the Academy for making a surprising and cosmopolitan move. (And, yes, to Becker for calling it).

Good to see Bourne pick up a couple, even if they were in the un-glamorous sound categories. I still say it was one of the best films of the year. And yes, it did sound good.

She deserves it, too. I kinda like the Goth/funereal look, set off by the shock of red hair. The Oscars could use a little punking up. Nice crisp speech too, with props for Clooney. More for Michael Clayton ahead?

Nice to see Dallas' Owen Wilson presenting the best short animated film Oscar. He's been through a rough couple of months, but at least for a few minutes out there onstage, he looked pretty good. Here's hoping for more of the same.

If you're scoring, with the best short film Oscar now handed out, that marks 7 Oscars tonight won by 7 different films.

Botched haircut victims the world over rejoice. Seriously, he's a great actor, and that was a terrifying performance.

Among the presenters tonight, we have Katherine Heigl, The Rock and Miley Cyrus. Now you might ask: Why them and not other people who have no real ties to this year's ceremony. The answer may lie in the fact that the show is being broadcast on ABC (home of Heigl's Grey's Anatomy), which is owned by Disney (the studio behind The Game Plan featuring The Rock and Hannah Montana featuring Miley Cyrus). Could all be a coincidence, but on a show this big, you can bet everything is thought out.

So with the strike did Jon Stewart and company have only two weeks to prepare or did he/they have more than two months? Based on the quality of the jokes, it could go either way. An opening bit on the strike fell flat but then he gained a little traction when talking about "the slate of Oscar-nominated, psychopathic-killer movies." He summed up the year's movies by asking "Does this town need a hug? thank god for teen pregnancy?" -- a reference to the lone comedy, Juno.

Shouldn't we have given out a little supporting sumthin-sumthin by now? Some of us have deadlines over here. Growl. Now we get an Enchanted song.

Ratatouille wins for animated feature, and as much as I loved Persepolis, I can't front on the rat. Brad Bird is genius; his two major Pixar films, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, form a passionate, high-flying defense of high standards.

Elizabeth wins for costumes...which, at this point, are the only parts of the movie I can remember. Sorry Cate.

Just to be on the record, here are my predictions:
Picture: No Country
Director: Coens
Actor: Day-Lewis
Actress: Cotillard
Sup. Actor: Bardem
Sup. Actress: Dee
Original Screenplay: Juno
Adapted screenplay: No Country
Animated film: Persepolis
Documentary: No End in Sight
Foreign Film: The Counterfeiters
Song: Falling Slowly from "Once"
Score: Atonement
I think I will skip the other categories. Feel free to slap me around when I miss one and tell me how awesome I am when I get 'em right.

George Clooney just showed why he's George Clooney, making Regis feel like a million bucks and an old drinking buddy all at once. Talking the usual Oscar stuff, he casually mentioned the rising fortunes of Notre Dame's basketball team. He knows where Rege's passions lie, and he was quick to make ever-casual small talk over sports. Check out Joel Stein's highly entertaining "I had Clooney over for dinner" story in the new issue of Time, which ends with this nugget: "George Clooney is a movie star because he's happiest when he controls how everyone around him feels. Because that's what movies do."