A few Bafta things...

Firstly, I haven't watched it all yet, so I don't know any of the winners, so I shan't spoil anyone...

But Richard Attenborough looks like his age has finally caught up with him. I'm sure he's been dealt some blows by losing some of his family in the tsunami... but it's rather strange and sad to watch him, looking and sounding like a frail old professorial sort of fellow with a theatrical style.

He's giving David Puttnam the Fellowship of the BAFTA caper... a man I, and emony have met when we received our MAs. A man I have made laugh. A man I was able to say "Dude, your films rock." Also, I'm sure I walked past him just the other day on the street I live, which is itself not great but next to some VERY swish apartments and stuff.

His films do rock. Chariots of Fire, Memphis Belle, Bugsy Malone, The Mission, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields

Put it this way: when you say to me 'Sean Astin' I do not think 'Sam', I think 'Rascal' and then I think of the feeling I had the first time I heard Harry Connick, Jr sing my beloved Danny Boy for a moment in a big band style and the moment I realised Danny was ripping off Yeats... and the feeling I had when I realised that they were going to live.

I know a lot of people don't quite get the point of producers... and when you stick 'executive' in front of that, I say you're right. But producers, great ones, are the people who get films made. Sure, directors have visions and actors have motivation... but producers are the guys who get all that stuff made.

He just gave a shoutout to George Clooney, who I have sworn to stop hating after seeing the trailer for Good Night and Good Luck.

The passion of men like David Puttnam not only gets great films made... he inspires other people to do the same. His speech has re-ignited the long-dead flames in my heart for films... the flames that had me get a portfolio of photographs made and the godawful screenplays I've either lost or destroyed...

Most of the people infecting Hollywood and the British film industry right now are vapid morons, power-hungry fame whores and, like Jude Law, phenomenally untalented. They are not the people who love films so passionately and they have been slowly strangling the industry and art I love.

David Puttnam is not one of those people. He, I rather suspect, is one of those people in the industry who actually knows why fools like me spend money on DVDs and rentals and wile our lives away in the pursuit of film perfection. For the first time in a long time, I actually want to go to the video store and get interesting films. Lately, I've hardly watched anything, you may have noticed, and when I have, it's been the kind of bubblegum confectionery I watch to scoff at.

I don't know what the future has in store for me. I like to think that somehow, I shall pull my finger out and become a rock star. Then I shall do a Bowie and movie into films. Except I'll be more like Cher and actually be successful. I should very much like to be in a Bond film, I think... but not with Blond Big Girl's Blouse Daniel Craig, who had a bunch of teeth knocked out in the first fight they've filmed for Casino Royale.

Some vapidity now: Thandie Newton is ridiculously beautiful. Jude Law is not. Also, I have yet to read a good review of the new Casanova film... big fucking surprise... but people seem split between thinking Sienna Miller is a no-mark talentless clotheshorse of questionable taste or wasted in it. I know which I side I come down on... perhaps she can replaced the section of my soul marked 'Annoying Waste Of Time' that George Clooney has, I am pleased to say, vacated.

A few Bafta things...

Firstly, I haven't watched it all yet, so I don't know any of the winners, so I shan't spoil anyone...

But Richard Attenborough looks like his age has finally caught up with him. I'm sure he's been dealt some blows by losing some of his family in the tsunami... but it's rather strange and sad to watch him, looking and sounding like a frail old professorial sort of fellow with a theatrical style.

He's giving David Puttnam the Fellowship of the BAFTA caper... a man I, and emony have met when we received our MAs. A man I have made laugh. A man I was able to say "Dude, your films rock." Also, I'm sure I walked past him just the other day on the street I live, which is itself not great but next to some VERY swish apartments and stuff.

His films do rock. Chariots of Fire, Memphis Belle, Bugsy Malone, The Mission, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields

Put it this way: when you say to me 'Sean Astin' I do not think 'Sam', I think 'Rascal' and then I think of the feeling I had the first time I heard Harry Connick, Jr sing my beloved Danny Boy for a moment in a big band style and the moment I realised Danny was ripping off Yeats... and the feeling I had when I realised that they were going to live.

I know a lot of people don't quite get the point of producers... and when you stick 'executive' in front of that, I say you're right. But producers, great ones, are the people who get films made. Sure, directors have visions and actors have motivation... but producers are the guys who get all that stuff made.

He just gave a shoutout to George Clooney, who I have sworn to stop hating after seeing the trailer for Good Night and Good Luck.

The passion of men like David Puttnam not only gets great films made... he inspires other people to do the same. His speech has re-ignited the long-dead flames in my heart for films... the flames that had me get a portfolio of photographs made and the godawful screenplays I've either lost or destroyed...

Most of the people infecting Hollywood and the British film industry right now are vapid morons, power-hungry fame whores and, like Jude Law, phenomenally untalented. They are not the people who love films so passionately and they have been slowly strangling the industry and art I love.

David Puttnam is not one of those people. He, I rather suspect, is one of those people in the industry who actually knows why fools like me spend money on DVDs and rentals and wile our lives away in the pursuit of film perfection. For the first time in a long time, I actually want to go to the video store and get interesting films. Lately, I've hardly watched anything, you may have noticed, and when I have, it's been the kind of bubblegum confectionery I watch to scoff at.

I don't know what the future has in store for me. I like to think that somehow, I shall pull my finger out and become a rock star. Then I shall do a Bowie and movie into films. Except I'll be more like Cher and actually be successful. I should very much like to be in a Bond film, I think... but not with Blond Big Girl's Blouse Daniel Craig, who had a bunch of teeth knocked out in the first fight they've filmed for Casino Royale.

Some vapidity now: Thandie Newton is ridiculously beautiful. Jude Law is not. Also, I have yet to read a good review of the new Casanova film... big fucking surprise... but people seem split between thinking Sienna Miller is a no-mark talentless clotheshorse of questionable taste or wasted in it. I know which I side I come down on... perhaps she can replaced the section of my soul marked 'Annoying Waste Of Time' that George Clooney has, I am pleased to say, vacated.