Oscar Overview

Critic's Choice

Joel Siegel talks about covering the Academy Awards.

r

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER

Special to the Jewish News

TUGEND
ewish Tekom•hic Auenc

roi n ises is a beautiful docunlentary and, in
light of the daily body count of Israeli and
Palestinian victims, a heartbreaking film.
Nominated for an Academy Award for best docu-
mentary feature, Promises follows in the footsteps of
the Jewish and/or Holocaust-themed

The Long lVay Home, The Last Days, One Day in
September and Into the Arn2s of Strangers: Stories of the
ladertransport, all of which captured the Academy
Award for best documentary feature in the past four
Oscar races.
Promises was filmed in and around Jerusalem
between 1997 and 2000iwhile the Oslo hopes for
peace were still flickerin .
seven.
Its "stars"

or the past two decades veteran film critic
Joel Siegel has been covering the Academy
Awards.
Once again, as millions of cinema lovers
prepare to watch the most glamorous televised event
of the year, Siegel will be in the forefront revealing his
predictions on ABC's Good Morning America (GMA),
where he is resident entertainment reporter.
And, of course, he wouldn't miss giving his annual
GMA post-Oscar scoop on what went on behind-the-
scenes at the annual awards ceremony.
What he won't be doing, however, is nabbing the
stars for a few questions as they stroll down the
paparazzi-laden red carpet.
"It has gotten to be a huge media event," says Siegel.
"Every TV station sends its own reporter, so instead of
competing with a few reporters, I have to compete
with 1,000 worldwide.
"The last time I covered the red carpet I was placed
between Good Morning South Africa and Good
Morning Brazil. When the actors went by, I didn't
even call them over because there would have been
dozens of microphones in their face."
Siegel remembers better times, when the climate
wasn't so frenetic.
"In the beginning it was terrific," he recalls. "I was

Joel Siegel: "Critics have an impact. 'In the Bedroom'
and Monster's Ball' are perfect examples. They received
rave reviews and audiences went to see them."

the first person to interview Sally Field after her
famous, 'You like me, you really like me' acceptance
speech. I was also the first person to interview Denzel
Washington after he won for Glory.
"He told me he was starved and hadn't eaten all day.
I had steak dinners for my crew and offered him one.
The plastic knife couldn't cut the meat, so there he
was holding an Oscar in one hand while eating a T-
■
bone with the other."
For the 74th Academy Award show this Sunday,
Siegel doesn't expect any of those special moments. He

Behind The Music

Former Detroiter contributed orchestrations to an Oscar-nominated score.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

td

3/22
2002

76

of the
to
"enemies" onthe other side.
With Goldberg as the facilitator, Israeli twins
Yarko and Daniel visit Famj, a Palestinian, and,
speaking in halting English, the boys soon find a
more common language in their shared enthusiasm
for soccer and volleyball.
This scene was shot in 1997 and durine- a revisit
two years later, the small spark of tentative friend
ship had all but atrophied, more by neglect than
animosity.
Now the precarious moment when the teenagers
saw each other as human beings rather than enemies
has passed.
It may well take another generation to rekindle
the spark, but Promises is a needed reminder that
there can be an alternative in the Middle East to
hatred and bloodshed. El

,:iiikediatroa%4a- •

wb,;5;;

ra Hearshen is not personally up for an Oscar
this year, but he has played a very strong role
in the presentation of Oscar-nominated
music.
Hearshen, raised in Livonia, was one of two
orchestrators for Monsters, Inc., which is competing
for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, "If I
Didn't Have You."
"I worked directly for the composer, [Oscar-nomi-
nated] Randy Newman," for that film, explains
Hearshen, 54, a Wayne State University music grad-
uate and one of the school's Arts Achievement
Award winners last year.
"What I like about the score is that it's a mix of all
kinds of styles, including jazz, 1930s pop and classi-
cal motion picture scoring. Randy can do all that,
and it's great to be around somebody who has that
much talent.
"Randy divided the orchestrations between

Jonathan Sacks and me, and we did our arrange-
ments separately. Jonathan's forte is symphonic
orchestras so he did a lot of the symphonic material.
I did the jazz segments although I did some of the
symphonic music as well."
Hearshen has shown musical talent and interest