Last year was the best opportunity to do the career retrospective thing with Jeff Bridges, right at the starting gun of an Oscar-winning steamroll through the film awards season. This time around, the actor is nominated for his sixth Academy Award, for his work in the Coen brothers’ “True Grit,” and it seemed a conversation about westerns might be novel.
So a little over a year after that hefty interview and roughly 10 months after he paid homage to his parents on the stage of the Kodak Theatre, we got together at the same restaurant to talk up the genre that sparks some of his earliest memories of the film business.
“I was always thrilled when my dad would be doing a western,” he says, “because I knew he’d be coming through that door after work, all dressed up like a cowboy. And I’d get to put all his stuff on and I’d be smelling the horses on his clothes, all of that stuff.”
Indeed, the actor remembers going to set and cracking up at the sight of actors sitting atop ladders and acting as if they were on horses for the camera, the veil of filmmaking totally lifted. But he also recalls an instance when his older brother and fellow actor, Beau, disrupted a take during the filming of “High Noon,” which starred their father, Lloyd Bridges.
I didn’t see the Grammys this weekend. In fact, I tend to avoid them like the plague. But it was nevertheless an impressive slate of winners, so that’s a unique start.
Hate to be an advocate, but last year’s Best Original Song winner Ryan Bingham hit the stage for a modest private showcase last night at The Mint in West L.A. and just nailed it.
I’ve been meaning to address this nearly two-week old press release since I got back, but last year’s Best Original Song winner has a new album coming at the end of the summer. “Junky Star” from Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses hits stores September 7. An added bonus: T Bone Burnett, music supervisor on 
Before we close the book on 2009, here’s one last rundown of our interviews with this year’s Oscar recipients. It was lovely to meet with them all as this was truly, for the most part, a season of camaraderie.
Tonight’s the big night, and as we close in on the final hours of the 2009-2010 film awards season, I thought I’d offer up this list (another one!), which reflects how you, the readership, would like the night’s festivities to go. These are the results of the 
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to 
Spot quiz: how many award mentions did Jeff Bridges receive for his inspired comic turn in
As I look over my final predictions for tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony, I notice that I’ve made only one change — in the Best Live Action Short category — since taking my 
Last night’s Independent Spirit Awards ceremony was quite the touching affair, I have to say. Early in the evening, tears were shed by Scott Cooper and Geoffrey Fletcher on stage as they accepted awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay respectively. As Cooper and Fletcher are two of the gentlemen I’ve gotten to know more than most this season, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t get a bit choked up as well.
Patrick Goldstein got Jeff Dowd 
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to 
Year after year, the original song category tends to prove that something is broken in the music branch of the Academy. But to be fair, that’s a bit of a half-truth overall, as the original score field has begun to loosen up a bit and allow for newbie talent to get a foot in the door as of late.
The final day of activities at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival was an all-day tribute to local Jeff Bridges, screenings of his past work and a packed Lobero Theatre screening of 
The Best Actor category solidified pretty early on this year. I imagine the eventual line-up had slid into place as early as November, and after the Screen Actors Guild made things more official, the predictable race unfolded from there. What we have now is a typical mixture of seasoned veterans, solid industry players and newcomers to the awards season.