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l.a. is in the house

So now the second major critics group, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, has put their two cents into the best of the year fray. Don’t love their choices, but they do runners-up, which is cool.

BEST PICTURE: The Insider (Runner up: American Beauty)

BEST ACTOR: Russell Crowe (Runner up: Richard Farnsworth. The Straight Story.)

BEST ACTRESS: Hilary Swank. Boys Don’t Cry. (Runner up: Reese Witherspoon. Election.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer. The Insider. (Runner up: John Malkovich. Being John Malkovich.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Chloe Sevigny. Boys Don’t Cry. (Runner up: Samantha Morton. Sweet and Lowdown.)

BEST DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes. American Beauty. (Runner up: Michael Mann. The Insider.)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Charlie Kaufman. Being John Malkovich. (Runner up: Alan Ball. American Beauty.)

BEST FOREIGN FILM: All About My Mother. (Runner up: The Dreamlife of Angels.)

What do y'all think? Not as nuts about The Insider as L.A. is. Love the Reese Witherspoon action. Plummer did rock. But the American Beauty screenplay is the best I’ve read in a long time. (Folks, Sam Mendes did great work, but EVERYTHING is in the screenplay. All the cool stuff. The images. Everything. Alan Ball wrote for Cybill. Go figure.)

Finally…

…Loving the Amazon Wishlist thing. I suck. I know. I freely admit it.

The Larry King Happy Song Corner

I got a room down in Hollywood, rent was cheap. It was this rooming house, there was an old man who lived in the room next to me. We shared a bathroom in the hall. Stare at me through a crack in the door. Day I moved in I was playin' my guitar. Started bangin' on the wall with a boot. Then he came out, started banging on my door. Kicked it open. Watch out son, I got a tasergun. Watch out son, I got a tasergun… speaking of which. Don’t you hate when they raise the rent on your Upper East Side Penthouse apartment with three stories overlooking Central Park? God, I hate that.

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