Best Supporting Actor

The secret to scoring a supporting-actor nomination this year? Get ugly. Virtually all of this year's top competitors threw vanity to the wind before stealing their scenes. For starters, there's BILLY BOB THORNTON as an unrecognizable hillbilly in "A Simple Plan," a role that's already won him kudos from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Similarly, 1996 Best Actor victor GEOFFREY RUSH sports rotting teeth in "Shakespeare in Love," a much showier (and therefore more nominatable) performance than his vicious turn in "Elizabeth." BILL MURRAY's pallid, paunchy loser millionaire in "Rushmore" is a career-altering performance that's garnered L.A. and New York critics' awards. Even the usually knee-weakening ED HARRIS (a past nominee for "Apollo 13") hides under an unsightly beret as the godlike producer of "The Truman Show."

Other impressively unappealing contenders include DONALD SUTHERLAND as a crusty track coach in "Without Limits" (though its horrible box office hurts his chances), "Waking Ned Devine's" bony nude moped rider DAVID KELLY, DYLAN BAKER as "Happiness' " child molester, and shouting soldiers NICK NOLTE ("The Thin Red Line") and TOM SIZEMORE ("Saving Private Ryan"). Only "Pleasantville" dad WILLIAM H. MACY, who rode the dastardly thing to a nomination for "Fargo," has a shot in an upright role. But the edge goes to ROBERT DUVALL's ugly-on-the-inside lawyer in "A Civil Action;" he could earn his sixth nomination from voters who feel he was robbed of a statue for "The Apostle" last year (though he did win the Best Actor prize for 1983's "Tender Mercies").

According to our good friend Susan, at The Unofficial Tom Sizemore Page, NBC's viewing of 'Heat' on Sunday 3rd January left a lot to be desired. Her point is backed up with the following article:

Fans of Michael Mann, the catalyst behind such stylish NBC series as "Miami Vice" and "Crime Story," might have been surprised Sunday night to see the director's credit when NBC aired the 1995 heist film "Heat": Alan Smithee.

That's the DGA-assigned moniker used by helmers who don't want to be associated with a film. Use of the Smithee moniker for the TV version of feature films is unusual. But Mann said he was so appalled by network editing to fit a three-hour timeslot that he had little choice but to pull his name.

The film originally ran two hours and 52 minutes, and NBC wanted to cut it for a three-hour slot. Mann offered to lend new heat by adding footage cut from the original to fit a four-hour slot.

The helmer tried to get very involved, taking time from the Disney feature he's shooting to try and convince the network to air the film over two evenings to preserve most of its original content, saying, "I think it would have been a better selling point for them."
Mann said there was a lot of back and forth between himself and the network, and he was irate when NBC chose to edit the original.

"They cut so much out of the movie that they destroyed the narrative of the film along with its integrity," said Mann. "Artistically, I deplore what they did and I also criticize it as being piss-poor management of an asset they paid a lot of money for."

NBC did not comment.

The film, which drew critical acclaim and marked the first screen pairing of Oscar winners Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, was in its broadcast premiere on the Peacock web. When Mann pulled his name, the network attempted to compromise: "They came back and offered to put back 17 minutes, and I said, 'Fine, then you can call it a Michael Smithee or Alan Mann film.' "

Fitting a lengthy film into a three-hour timeslot makes hacking inevitable, since at least 48 minutes of that time goes into commercials and promos. Among the material cut from the original that Mann wanted to reinsert were scenes fleshing out the thief played by Tom Sizemore, and more sleuthing work by the detective (Pacino).

"The continuous narrative of cinema made those scenes unnecessary, but when you break into 11-minute periods, you need dynamic acts leading up to commercial breaks," said Mann. "I'm not opposed to films showing on TV, but the question is how do you make the network format work for you, how do you provide an act break that hooks the audience over the commercial breaks?"

Mann used his clout to retain character arcs to provide a complete look at the characters on both sides of the law and how they ended up in a final bank robbery conflict. "Too much time was taken out of the film that wasn't due to language or other content," said Mann.
" 'Heat' worked as a movie because you were personally involved in the world of all these people. You were engaged in their fortunes and what happened to them. To have that taken away by some amateur hacking away at the footage to make it fit a timeslot was unacceptable."

Mann is nearly finished shooting his Touchstone pic, which stars Russell Crowe as tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and Al Pacino as former "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman. He has not yet figured out what to call it. "There has been some movement," he said. "It has gone from 'Untitled Michael Mann' to 'Untitled Tobacco project.' "

Susan has suggested that we write to NBC in the hope that some of the extra Tom footage may see the light of day. You can E-mail them at movies@nbc.com. Even if you do not live in the US, please still write as the more people that write - the more chance there is that the unseen footage will be released in some format.

by Marcus Baram & K.C. Baker. Friday, December 04, 1998

It's not easy to tell when the cameras stop rolling on Martin Scorsese's intense new film, "Bringing Out the Dead." Stars Tom Sizemore and Marc Anthony kept acting like a couple of raging bulls after the end of a shoot early this week, say insiders on the set.

The theatrics followed a scene in which Anthony plays a suicidal man being wheeled into Bellevue Hospital, strapped to a gurney. "They already shot the scene and Sizemore [who plays a paramedic] throws the IV bag right at Marc's b---s," says a source. Marc started screaming, 'Who the f--- did that?' and Sizemore says, 'I did.' Marc then shouts, 'Somebody unstrap me. I'm gonna f--- you up.' In the end, security had to break it up, says a source.

Sizemore, who plays an out-of-control paramedic alongside Nicolas Cage in the movie, is said to be taking the role a little too seriously.

Sizemore's publicist claims that the movie is "intense," but said "Marc and Tom get along beautifully."