S "Born on the Fourth of July" is playing on North Campus. The
Oliver Stone film based on Ron Kovic's autobiography will be
shown for free at the Chrysler Center Auditorium at 7 p.m.
Wednesday
.8 February 10, 1999

r1,E

Tomorrow in Daily Arts:
9 So risque! Weekend, etc. Magazine features an entire
issue on sex and all its intriguing facts and fantasies.


m'

1HE BARD & THE "BEAU
i= Oscar spreads love to 'Shakespeare,''Life;' Spielberg's 'Private'

T I
goes

By Bryan lark
Daily Arts Writer
An award by any other name would most
likely not smell as sweet.
That's why Oscar sent nostrils aflutter
yesterday morning as the the Hollywood
community beginning sniffing around a
new class of Academy Award nominees.
Edging out early favorite "Saving Private
Ryan" which garnered 11 nominations, the
comedy "Shakespeare in Love" sprang eternal
at the announcement of the 71st Annual
Academy Award Nominations, with 13 nomi-
nations including Best Picture, Best Director
for John Madden and Best/ Actress for
Gwyneth Paltrow
Also making a surprisingly strong showing
was Roberto Benigni's tragic comedy "Life is
Beautiful," honored with seven nods including
the rare honor of being nominated for both
Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film.
But just because "Ryan"'s losing momen-
tum to the one-two Miramax punch of"Life"~
and"Love"don't expect Steven Spielberg and
company to be AWOL on Oscar night, which
will be held for the first time on a Sunday -
March 21, 1999.
Including predictable nods as a Best Picture
nominee and for director Spielberg, "Ryan"
was saved space in the Best Actor category for
two-time Academy Award winnerTom Hanks.
Oscar made room for many returning
favorites this year including perrennial con-
tender Meryl Streep for "One True Thing,"
Nick Nolte for "Affliction," Robert Duvall
for "A Civil Action" and the Best Actor of
two years ago Geoffrey Rush in
"Shakespeare"
Unfortunately, this list of repeat nominees
leaves no hope for much-touted Oscar :new-

public with 11 nods-Z
her own from "Misery;" while fellow con-
tenders Dench, Brenda Blethyn of "Little
Voice" and Lynn Redgrave of "Gods &
Monsters" have all uttered the words "It's an
honor just to be nominated."
Redgrave might be most grateful of this
field, as her only prior nomination, for
"Georgy Girl" was 36 years ago.
Also gaining long-overdue nods from the
Academy is tough-guy legend James Coburn,
who gains his first nomination for "Affliction,
among a crowd of past honorees that includes
Rush, Duvall, Ed Harris in "The Truman
Show" and Oscar-winning screenwriter Billy
Bob Thornton for "A Simple Plan."
Predicting this year's unexpected but +¢
deserving crop of nominees was anything but
simple, as performances by the likes of
Edward Norton in "American History X" and
Brazilian Femanda Montenegro in "Central
" Station" squeezed into the already crowded
leading actor and actress races.
Norton's competitors for the statue, in addi-
tion to Hanks and Nolte, includes distin-
guished first-timers Roberto Benigni for "Life
is Beautiful" and Ian McKellen for "Gods &
Monsters."
AP PHOTO Montenegro will face off next month with
terday. Blanchett, Paltrow, Streep and Emily Watson,
portrayal of who received her second Best Actress nomi-
g Actress as nation, this year for 'Hilary and Jackie.'
zabeth of And just like one can't have "Hilary" with-
out "Jackie" one can't have Oscar nomina-
the support- tions without controversy - controversy that
- left-field will be quelled on the very first "Sunday at the
Hilary and Oscars" hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
least Oscar- - For a complete list of nominees check out
wwwoscarcom, the official website of the
s year for Academy ofMotion Pictures Arts and
man to call Sciences.

Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and Academy president Robert Reh ey announce the nominees for Best Actor in Los Angeles yes

comers like Bill Murray in "Rushmore," Lisa
Kudrow in "The Opposite of Sex" and most
glaringly, Jim Carrey in 'The Truman Show"
But those three worthy nominees may have
fallen victim to another factor, the fact that
Oscar doesn't look kindly upon comedy.
Judging by this year's nominees, a sure way
to Oscar glory is to play 16th Century dress-up
and/or make like it's World War I.
Of the five Best Picture nominees, three
("Life is Beautiful,'"Saving Private Ryan"

and "The Thin Red Line") are WWII dramas
and two ("Elizabeth" and "Shakespeare in
Love") deal with 400-year-old sexual and
political landscapes- and both featureQueen
Elizabeth 1.
In fact, Elizabeth I marks a milestone for the
Academy Awards, as it is the first time two
actresses have been nominated for playing the
same role in the same year: Cate Blanchett is
nominated as Best Actress as the titular young
queen of "Elizabeth" and Dame Judi Dench,

nominated last year for a regalr
"Mrs. Brown," as Best Supporing
the elder, wisecracking Eli
"Shakespeare in Love."
All of Dench's competition in 1
ing category but one lucky lady -
nominee Rachel Griffiths ofI
Jackie" - have already been at,
nominated in their lifetimes.
Kathy Bates. nominated thi
"Primary Colors," has a little gold

j

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Musicia
crosses to
poetry
The Passionate Eye
Suzanne Vega
Avon Books
Suzanne Vega claims that she is
"first a songwriter, then a poet, then
finally a singer. Singing just happens
because (she) has to get the words
out." It only
makes sense,
then, that Vega
follows up the
Susan release of her
Vega fifth album with
the publication of
Borders "The Passionate
Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eye," the book
that holds the
thoughts that
have inspired her
past songs. This
book consists of
Vega's lyrics,
poetry and fic-
tion with random observations, inter-
views and remembrances riddled

Stupidity lends a hand in the Australian Outback

This past Saturday night, l dreamed
that I took the red-eye to Sydney,
Australia, where I went on a wild hog
chase with Steve Irwin, the host of
Animal Planet's "The Crocodile
Hunter."
For those of you who've caught his
show, skip to the next paragraph.
Basically, the program stars an asinine
Australian wildlife conservationalist and

EUROPE:
$670 EUROPEANWONDER
$1045 EUROPEAN DISCOVERY
AUSTRALIA
$1055 BEACHES AND REEFS
AFRICA:
$1845 NAMiBIA CONTRASTS
These prices do not include taxes
and are land only.
Council on International
Educational Exchange
1218 South University Ave.
Ann Arbor, Ml 48104
Phone:734-998-0200

Courtesy oSpike e ooks
Suzanne Vega has compiled her most
poetic lyrics in "The Passionate Eye."
throughout.
An interesting aspect of the compi-
lation is Vega's inclusion of her young
poetry and thoughts written as early as
the age of nine. She then ties themes
from these childhood pieces to her
more recent work.
An example of such a theme that has
kept with Vega throughout her life is
the feeling of inferiority in size and
otherwise. The poem "Not Me,' for
example, begins with "I said, I am a
little girl." This feeling takes very
early roots, for Vega was born prema-
turely at a mere two-and-a-half
pounds, and this set the standard for
See VEGA, Page 9

his idiotic
American wife
who travel across
the Outback, risk-
ing their lives as
they piss off the
proverbial croco-
dile.
A recent
episode of
"South Park"
features a wily
crocodile hunter
who bears a
strong resem-
blance to Steve,
accent and all.
On this such

Christopher
Tkaczyk
Sate of
the Arts

sticks!"
I ignored him and began to sing
along with Men at Work, whose music
was blaring from the tinny speakers.
We set out down the dusty road, with
his wife and two cameramen lodged in
the backseat. The day was sunny and
hot, a sweltering 92 degrees.
"Yewah gonna boown," Steve told
me, indicating my pale complexion.
"Heah. Take this. Thie don't make this
in tha Stites," he said, throwing me a
blue tube.
It was a squeeze bottle of sunscreen
with an S.P.F. of 80. I unscrewed the
cap and started spreading the lotion
onto my arms, face and legs.
"Here, let me help you," Terri said,
reaching over the seat, and massaging
it into my skin. Ever since I stepped off
the plane and met Terri, she seemed to
take a liking to me. I don't know if it
was our mutual American identity, but
she kept close to me. I began to think
that her years in Australia had taught
her a bit of etiquette.
Suddenly, Steve slammed onto the
brakes, causing my seatbelt to tighten.
"Holy bajuganagels! Did yew sigh
that snike?"
Before I could open my door, Steve
had jumped out and disappeared in
front of the car.
I joined him and discovered that he'd
found a baby rattler, only 4 inches long,
wiggling its way through the sand.
The cameramen had already jumped
into action, recording every word he
uttered.
"The Austraylyin bye-bee kang ratt-
lah is quickly becawming en-dine-
, gered becawse fast-moovang vihicles
run ovah them in tha rowd." With that,

occasion, I'd been invited to spend the
day with Steve and his spouse, Terri. I
really hadn't come prepared, wearing
only a pair of shorts and a khaki t-shirt,
trying in my vain attempt to fit the
Outback fashion requirements. It
seems that Australians don't have a
Donna Karan or a Calvin Klein. I won-
der if J.C. Penney spent his winters
there.
Getting back to business: I climbed
into the passenger seat of his all-terrain
vehicle and turned on the radio. Steve
gave my spindly legs one look and said,
"Crikey! Yoof got yoaself soahm pasty

he started pushing the snake along,
helping it cross into the brush on the
other side.
We watched the baby snake dart into
a hole.
"Holy Migh-rey mothah a Cri' "
Steve shouted. He reached down NWto
the hole after the snake, his arm quick-
ly disappearing into the ground.
"What! What is it?" I asked, bending
over and peering at Steve, whose arm
was buried to the shoulder.
"He must've found a snake hole,"
Terri said.
I felt a hand on my ass, but tried to
ignore it.
"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked. *
"Nawt if yew knowah wot yew
doin,"' Steve said over his shouldet
While his arm was completely sub-
merged below ground, Steve turned to
the camera and spoke directly to the
viewers at home.
"Thie Austraylyin kang rattlah is the
seventh most-poysonus snike een de
entie-ah whorled. Ahm going tew trie
to get tha mothah snike ayout oof thah
hell becawus eets too dine-geroose
fowah a snike tew leeve sow ckcOe
tew dah rowd."
And with that, Steve withdrew his
arm from the hole, or, at least tried to.
It took quite an effort because he had to
supplant his feet firmly onto the
ground while tugging profusely on
something inside the hole. Terri got
behind him and threw her arms around
his waist, helping to pull him from the
snake hole.
Within a second, Steve was stan..
next to me, out of breath, holding a five
foot snake by it's posterior.
"Ah need a bushy stick! Terri, find
me a bushy stick?" As Terri ran off to
find the stick, Steve explained to the
camera, "Ah need a bushy stick so ah
can distract the snike."
Unfortunately, Terri wasn't too hasty
in her quest. The snake reared up and
glared at Steve before it struck him in
the chest with its venomous bites
A minute later, Terri returned, d -
ging a large branch.
"Is this bushy enough?" she asked.
I don't think they'll air this episode.
- Have fun down undah, Curtaz.
Chris can be reached over e-mail at
tkaczykc@umich. edu.



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