• Pedro Almodovar tells Pete Hammond that he isn’t down with Spain’s process for deciding its annual Oscar contender. Ya think? [Notes on a Season]
• “The Hurt Locker” tops Stephen King’s otherwise singular (and bizarre) top 10 list. [Entertainment Weekly]
• Steve Pond runs down eligibility numbers per category. [The Odds]
I never knew Army Archerd but I ran into him once or twice when I was at the Variety offices for this reason or that. I was certainly aware of the era he represented, the first daily movie columnist of his kind. He died Tuesday of mesothelioma at 87. Here’s a bit from Tim Gray’s Variety obit:
Mixing one-sentence items with lengthier pieces, Archerd insisted on exclusives and provided a community bulletin board, giving details of new deals, reporting from film sets and awards shows, as well as chronicling the births, deaths and hospitalizations of showbiz denizens. He was known for being fair, quoting people accurately and being generally upbeat — which, in the latter part of the 20th century, became increasingly rare for an entertainment reporter.