Revised: Casting an imaginary Judd Apatow L.A. poetry comedy set in early 2000s.

 Meant to be whimsical-spirited: 

Brendan Constantine-Paul Rudd 

Rick Lupert-Will Forte

Peggy Dobreer-Leslie Mann 

Kate Gale-Amy Schumer 

G. Murray Thomas-Loudon Wainwright III 

Raindog-Nick Nolte 

Bowerbird-Zach Galifianakis

Jim Doane-Will Ferrell

Leigh White-Alison Brie 

Derrick Brown-Jim Parsons 

Laurel Ann Bogen-Kathy Bates 

Michael Datcher-Giancarlo Esposito 

Suzanne Lummis-Lynn Herring 

Feel free to add actors and poetry personae to this list, but try to include as many people from the Apatow repertory as possible.

THE NEW YORKER's Richard Brody on the Academy's lack of love for comedy.

Beyond the allegations of racism and rewarding Brand Names for Serious Intentions (Steven Spielberg's BRIDGE OF SPIES doesn't belong on the Best Picture Nominations list), there's the issue of comedy being largely ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Richard Brody discusses the "comedy doesn't show enough effort/gravitas/Serious Intentions" attitude of the Academy in his NEW YORKER article "The Baffling 2016 Oscar Nominees."

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-2016-oscar-nominees

Excerpt:
"The Best Director nominations go to three showy filmmakers (Adam McKay, George Miller, and Alejandro González Iñárritu) and two nearly invisible ones (Tom McCarthy and Lenny Abrahamson). McKay had the oddest inspiration of the five. He applied the freewheeling loopiness of his comedies (notably “Anchorman”) to a political subject, proving once more that comedy gets no respect—most significantly, in the absence of any nominations for “Trainwreck.” Outside of the oddball interpolations of star announcers in “The Big Short,” there’s hardly a giggle or a guffaw in any of the Best Picture nominees. (Leonardo DiCaprio gave one of the greatest comic performances in recent years in “The Wolf of Wall Street”; he’ll likely win an Oscar for his relentlessly grim grind through “The Revenant.”) Comedy that the Academy feels comfortable taking seriously, comedy that comes trademarked as topical—that’s what the members watch on TV or streaming. It’s exactly why the revitalization of big-screen comedy—a job that Judd Apatow took on a decade ago and is attempting all over again—is tougher than ever."

Casting an imaginary Judd Apatow SoCal poetry comedy.

Meant to be whimsical-spirited: Brendan Constantine-Paul Rudd Rick Lupert-Jay Baruchel Peggy Dobreer-Leslie Mann G. Murray Thomas-Loudon Wainwright III Raindog-Nick Nolte Bowerbird-Zach Galifianakis Larry Colker-Ron Rifkin Jim Doane-Will Ferrell Leigh White-Alison Brie Derrick Brown-Jim Parsons Laurel Ann Bogen-Kathy Bates Michael Datcher-Giancarlo Esposito Feel free to add actors and poetry personae to this list, but try to include as many people from the Apatow repertory as possible.

Patrick Goldstein on Judd Apatow's editphobia.

I've only just managed to read Patrick Goldstein's LOS ANGELES TIMES piece on Judd Apatow's apparently mule-ish determination to make the upcoming FUNNY PEOPLE two-and-a-half hours long (those familiar with Apatow's other self-directed comedies, THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP, may be aware that Apatow has a compulsion for including just about every bit of comic improv/scripted antics whether they work or not--and let's not forget the even-longer DVD versions):http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/05/memo-to-judd-apatow-your-movie-is-too-long.html

I don't always agree with Goldstein (first a rock-and-roll, now a film gossip columnist), but this time we're in perfect sync.
[UPDATE 6/12/09: Apparently, the running time for FUNNY PEOPLE has shrunk to a still-lengthy 2 1/4 hours.]

Post-Academy Awards comments, plus what Ebert had to say.

In past years, Roger Ebert was one of the hosts of the post-Oscar local telecast on KABC-TV Channel 7. Here's a link to Roger's recently-posted article on the 81st annual ceremony: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090222/OSCARS/902229997

I didn't see all of the telecast, but thought that Lawrence Mark and Bill Condon did a surprisingly not-bad job of production. Perhaps the only major debit was the decision to have Queen Latifah (again adopting her Dana Owens vocalist persona) sing "I'll Be Seeing You" over the In Memoriam segment. Let the clips speak for themselves, please.

A minor debit for the Judd Apatow PINEAPPLE EXPRESS-themed clipshow, which mostly existed for Apatow to extend a "my movies make a lot of money for the Industry and all I get is a Blackberry message to make a short film for the Oscar show" middle-finger to Hollywood. Note to Judd: with the sort-of exception of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, most of the films I saw that you had an active or passive hand in creating for release last year aren't going to be considered comedy classics (and that especially goes for STEP BROTHERS). Even the JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE commercial with Kimmel and Tom Cruise was funnier.

Otherwise, the awards were predictable, except for Foreign Film (thought it would go to THE CLASS or WALTZ WITH BASHIR), Feature Documentary (thought something intended as more conventionally ennobling such as TROUBLE THE WATER or THE GARDEN would win over the generally good, overly-adoring-of-performance-art MAN ON WIRE), costumes (glad to see THE DUCHESS shown a tiny amount of love) and Best Actor (equally happy with either Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke taking the prize home).

And congratulations to Kate Winslet and (posthumously) Heath Ledger for winning what can be partially considered Body-of-Work awards.