Russell and Others Donate to Haitian Schools

From USA Today:

"Stars pledge money to Haiti for the next five years"

Just in: The Artists for Peace and Justice organization is announcing support for Haiti in a different, more long-term, way from a roster of Hollywood stars.

Simon Baker, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Jackson Browne, Gerard Butler, Daniel Craig, Russell Crowe, Clint Eastwood, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Sean Penn and Olivia Wilde are among the celebs who plan to each contribute $50,000 annually for the next five years ($250,000 total). Each donation will go to sustaining a street school in Port-au-Prince, including providing clean water, meals, medical supplies and educational material to the children.

Buy Russell Stamps

Australian Legends of the Screen stamps, featuring Russell along with Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, and Nicole Kidman are available for purchase at the Australia Post Stamp Shop. Two different packages are available for each actor, as well as a package containing all four.

Russell Gets Stamped

Russell, along with Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, and Nicole Kidman have been named the 2009 Australia Post Australian Legends. All four will be featured on a series of eight stamps, with each having one portrait stamp and one stamp featuring a character for which they won, or were nominated for, an Academy Award.

"These four outstanding individuals have been honoured with this years Australian Legends award as representatives of the nations incredibly talented acting and theatrical community,'' said Australia Post managing director Graeme John who instigated the award in 1997.

"Cate, Russell, Nicole and Geoffrey are tremendous ambassadors for Australia on the world stage.

"They have touched people across Australia and around the world with their talent, their commitment to the arts and award-winning performances.''

Congratulations to all four!

Australia

Ok, for starters....YAWN!

This film is 2 hrs and 45 minutes which can fly by on a great film, but was agonizing for this film.

Most people who watch movies know the premise. Hugh Jackman plays a drover named "The Drover" and Nicole Kidman is a British aristocrat traveling to Australia to get her husband in line to sell their property in New South Wales to have some cash infusion into their British lands and holdings. She gets there and her supposedly cheating and ingoring husband is very dead.

I've seen plenty of films that build slowly that don't seem 'slow,' but this is NOT one of them. This is a beautiful film to look at that highlights the harsh land of this portion of (Darwin) of Australia, but I wasn't going to the theater for a travel film. And that was mostly what I did enjoy of the film.

Like another war film (though this is as much an Aussie cowboy movie with cattle drive and all) named Pearl Harbor it seems to have all look and little substance. Obviously I didn't like that film either.

I'd fit the blame for this lackluster film firmly in the lap of Baz Luhrmann. He was the director and cowrote the screenplay and that's where the problems are. Come on, Baz...EDIT! This film would have been better if at least 20 minutes were cut and tightened up. Seriously I didn't care about the characters either (very different from the previous film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). The half Aboriginal boy and his grandfather were the most interesting characters in the film. A much better film on the subject of what was done to the half Aboriginal and half white children of Australia is Rabbit Proof Fence.

Ack, enough said on this film. I don't recommend it. Average at best. C+ and only the plus because of the cinematography. Originally the buzz was this film would star Russell Crowe with Nicole Kidman. He'd have brought more gravitas to the role of the drover, but I think it was good for him that it didn't work out.

I'll try to get to some thoughts on the Golden Globe nominations later. I was pleased with the Slumdog Millionaire and In Bruges nominations, but was sad there was no nominations for Richard Jenkins from The Visitor. I want to see a few more of the films in the next few weeks like Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

imdb's got the nominations of course: imdb: Golden Globe nominations