Sergio's Up for an Oscar!

Best Original Song nomination for Real in Rio, my hunch is he's an odds on favorite to win!

Knowing a little bit about the inner workings of the Academy, I'd be genuinely surprised if Sergio doesn't win this.

What's kind of interesting about this category, having seen all the primping and preening "For Your Consideration" ads in Variety over the past few months is the slew of omissions, like, oh, I don't know, Madonna for "Masterpiece."

The writer of the Muppets song is one of the guys from Flight Of The Conchords (ironically, the other guy from the group is one of the voices in RIO); so there might be some weird indie cred at work here. This category is totally unpredictable - why only two nominees, for Pete's sake?

That said, I hope he wins!

I was flabbergasted to see it listed - it's great news and quite an honor....very cool......

I was just thinking coming in to a gig they'll no doubt have Sergio & Co. on the Oscars, and it would be cool if they used a little archival footage of Bob Hope introducing Brasil '66 in 1968 as the lead-in. "Here's a band that's been so busy they haven't had time to update their name. . ."

Well leave it to the animators & cartoon people to bring Sergio into wide recognition such as this...

And congratulations, too, to Mr. Mendes...


-- Dave

Catching up on old VARIETYs this morning, and there's a really interesting article about the outrage in the Music Branch about only two noms. They changed the rule a few years ago and nominating members have to score songs, and only those with an average of 8.25 or above are eligible. If only one reaches that level, then one other nomination for the next highest score is included. So either one of these got an 8.25 and the other was stuck in by default, or these were the only two that achieved that score.

And this is evidently Seidah Garrett's second nom, I'll have to go back and see what her first was for.

Sergio's quite the trickster: in the February 7 issue of VARIETY there's a huge "class photo" of all of this year's Oscar nominees, and Sergio is holding up his fingers behind the head of the guy in front of him.

While "Real in Rio" will never place in the top 50 of my favorite Sérgio songs, it is leagues better than its sole competition.

Flashback to 1968. The Oscar telecast was delayed (I can't recall whether it was for days or weeks) due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 electrified the audience with their performance of "The Look of Love." Also nominated were "The Bare Necessities" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie." Ignored by the Oscars: "Mrs. Robinson" and "To Sir With Love." So what won? "Talk to the Animals."

"Talk to the Animals" was a "consolation Oscar" to 20th Century Fox for the financial debacle that was "Doctor Dolittle" (the studio was nearly ruined by the flop). Zanuck and company had gone overboard pushing the film for the Oscars that year in order to help generate box office, resulting in several probably undeserved noms (including Best Picture, believe it or not). It didn't help.

I have spoken with several of my friends who are in the Academy, and off the record, they've all told me they voted for Sergio. The voting bloc of the Academy tends to skew to an older demographic, which I think augurs well for Sergio tomorrow.

Re: "Thoroughly Modern Millie." This is a bone of contention with classic film score lovers, but Elmer Bernstein won the Best Original Score Oscar that year for "TMM." The only problem: he wrote nary a note of "original score," instead he adapted themes (including the Cahn-Van Heusen theme song) and really should have been lumped in with fellow nominee Andre Previn, who got an "Adapted Score" nom for "TMM". It was obviously a "career" Oscar for Bernstein, who had lost previously for such iconic scores as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Hawaii."