A surprising number of movies had to make do with single nominations in the major categoriesViggo Mortensen picked up a best-actor nom as an icy Russian Gangster in David Cronenbergs brutal thriller Eastern Promises ditto Johnny Depp for Tim Burtons gothic adaptation of Stephen Sondheims musical Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sentimental favorite Hal Holbrook 82 hell be 83 by the time the ceremony takes place took a best supporting actor nomination for Sean Penns Into the Wild based on Jon Krakauers nonfiction account of a troubled young mans search for meaning that eventually takes him deep into the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness It was also ignored in all other major categories despite strong reviews for Penns direction and adapted screenplay as well as Emile Hirschs performance in the lead role Audiences failed to warm to the film Much-loved veteran character actress Ruby Dee 83 got the only nomination for best-supporting actress 15
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The SopranosNow here's a week when the whacking fans and the character-development fans can all play nice and agree. (Somebody has to, for crying out loud; god knows no one else is on this show.) For here we have an hour that's a fair mix of the stomach-turning violence the whackers so love, plus the more meditative stuff we character-loving guys yearn for. Representing the former, we have the garbage-hauling thugs beating that poor driver to death in front of his son, then we've got Paulie putting on his own one-man show as he tosses his ma/aunt's TV out the window, smashes Jason's knee and kicks him in the lower back for good measure. Oy.
But being a happy part of the latter group, I'll spend a little more time on the character stuff. We're
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Question: Anything juicy on The Sopranos?
Answer: Julianna Margulies and Hal Holbrook will be guest-starring this coming season, her as a real-estate agent and him as a former scientist at Bell Labs. And at press tour last week, series creator David Chase said the sixth and final season will revolve around Johnny Sack's arrest and upcoming RICO trial for murder. "People have the chance to see a possible future for themselves in that," he says, "and it has a ripple effect psychologically."
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Series creator David Chase has confirmed that the forthcoming sixth season of The Sopranos — to air in two batches — will be the HBO crime drama's last. "There will be these 12 [episodes, which start airing in March] and then another eight [premiering in January 2007], and that will be the end," he says. Among the guest stars announced for the final flurry are Hal Holbrook (as a scientist involved with the mob), Ben Kingsley (as himself) and ER alumna Julianna Margulies as a real-estate agent.
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