In 2008, honorary Oscar winner Robert Boyle, an art director responsible for many Hitchcock films including North by Northwest and The Birds, gave a fabulous over three minute acceptance speech thanking countless people. The guy was 98 years old at the time, so he deserved some time to say his peace. (I checked and he’s still kicking at 100.) Last year, “Hersholt Humanitarian Award” winner Jerry Lewis kept it really short in a revamped Academy Awards broadcast and just said thanks and that’s about it from what I remember. This year, the Academy decided to give out the honorary Oscars in a separate ceremony, and bestowed three honorary statutes at the Governors Awards over the weekend. That’s kind of a shame because 85 year-old former screen siren Lauren Bacall was one of the honorees and I would have loved to see her on stage at the Academy Awards.

Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, whose 30-film career spans more than six decades, has finally hit Oscar gold.

Bacall, 85, was given an Academy Award for lifetime achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at a star-studded ceremony over the weekend. The event marked the first time the honor had been awarded outside of the Oscars telecast.

“I can’t believe it — a man at last,” Bacall told those in attendance, which included fellow Oscar recipients Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Angelica Huston, Tom Hanks and Kirk Douglas.

Bacall also took the opportunity to recognize her husband, the late Humphrey Bogart, for his inspiration. “He gave me a life and he changed my life,” she said.

[From Parade]

Other honorary Oscars were given to director producer Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis. It’s about time that Bacall was recognized and even though her Oscar wasn’t part of the big event we hope to still see her there. The Academy Awards will air on March 7, 2010.

Photo credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN.com

Now that I’m a True Blood fan, Twilight is starting to seem pretty tame to me. I’ll still watch New Moon with interest, but I’d much rather see sex, violence, and nudity on a regular basis and imagine that my vampire lover is forceful and unpredictable, not some stalkerish guy who has willingly attended high school for centuries. Screen legend Lauren Bacall, 84, remembers when Hollywood vampires were so menacing you wanted to run from them, not f*ck them or try and get them to be your imaginary boyfriend. Bacall wrote on her Twitter account that one of her granddaughters convinced her to watch Twilight and she thought it was so lame she wanted to smack her. Bacall gave her granddaughter a copy of the silent 1922 German film Nosferatu, in which the vampire is a disfigured cruel creature, and told her that’s what vampires are about:

The actress commented that, “Yes, I saw Twilight – my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the ‘film’ was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a (tell-all) book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, ‘Now that’s a vampire film!’ And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead!”

[From Broadwayworld.com]

Yeah, Lauren Bacall is awesome. I love how blunt she is. She also shared a picture of her hot 19 year-old grandson on her Twitter account, writing that she was surprised to once see him sipping a scotch and hitting on a woman at a party. She writes “Darlins’ do not encourage him by calling him a young Brad Pitt.” There is a certain resemblance there.

Getting back to the vampires, I would rather watch bloodsuckers who are sexy but still dangerous. I saw Nosferatu years ago and it’s truly creepy and scary. There’s only so far you can go with that. You need some sex and intrigue added in for the drama. Twilight is kind of sweetly romantic, and there’s a call for that among the younger set, but it’s really a departure to have vampires who can go out during the day and who don’t bite humans even a little. I’ll still get kind of swoony the next time I see Robert Pattinson on screen, though.

Lauren Bacall is shown on 3/27/08. Credit: WENN.com. Still from Nosferatu from Wikipedia

Lauren Bacall does not like Tom Cruise. She’s never worked directly with Cruise, but she worked with his ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, in Dogville and Birth and feels she has some insight into Tom’s personality and personal life because of it. And when Lauren Bacall has something to say, she says it.

Screen legend Bacall worked with Cruise’s ex-wife Nicole Kidman on 2003 film ‘Dogville’, soon after her divorce from the ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor, and says she appeared “unhappy” during filming, before launching an astonishing and scathing attack on Cruise.

Bacall told Elle magazine: “Tom had taken off for Penelope Cruz or some goddamn thing – one of his more ridiculous moves. Tom Cruise is a maniac. I can’t understand the way he conducts his life.”
This is not the first time ‘The Big Sleep’ actress has hit out at Cruise.

In 2005, Bacall said: “When you talk about a great actor, you’re not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behaviour is so shocking. It’s inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but, I think, it’s kind of a sickness.”

[From FemaleFirst]

Rather ironic, in a way, from Bacall, who has been in some highly public and controversial relationships in her private life that were gossip fodder and pushed her own career to previously unknown heights. Her affair and subsequent marriage to Humphrey Bogart has become so commercial it’s been used in song lyrics. Her autobiography chronicles the relationship she had with Frank Sinatra and how disclosing personal information to renowned gossip columnist at the time, Louella Parsons, caused Sinatra to be so annoyed with Bacall that he recinded his marriage proposal and cut off all contact with her. And she’s been called shocking a time or two in her life.

But Lauren Bacall has never been one to hold back, and at 84 she’s reached that magical age. That crazy-old-lady age where she feels she’s doing the world a great service by telling her crabby opinions on everyone and everything and we should all be thankful for it. You gotta love her for it, and Lord knows I can’t wait to reach that age. Oh, the liberating glory!

Picture note by Celebitchy: Lauren Bacall is shown in the header at a fan screening of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in NY on 5/21/08. She is shown below at an adorable photo shoot at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, FL on 8/1/07. Credit: Jay Kravetz / PR Photos

Lauren Bacall threatens children, but at least they are her own. She’s told The Independent newspaper, in a great interview, what she plans to do if her children ever authorize a posthumous biopic of her life.

“I’ve told my children I’ll haunt them forever if they do that.” You can’t even get her to stop working: she’s currently in Norway shooting the black comedy Wide Blue Yonder, set in a retirement home – the last place you’ll find her. “I just have to keep going as long as I can,” she smiles.

Kristin Scott Thomas said recently that “everyone is terrified of her”, and obviously her children should be too. Although I would haunt my children if they put me in a nursing home!

82-year-old Bacall also has a great view of getting older, and her career status.

“I’m old and I don’t give a damn.”

“If I’m a legend, I’m dead,” she says. “Do you want me to be dead? Legends are of the past.”

And a good attitude about being a celebrity.

“I have no respect for celebrities,” she continues, “and I object to being called one, so don’t try it! I’m an actress, not a celebrity.”

I think what Bacall is getting at here is that celebrities sometimes wind up so exposed that we can’t separate what we see on screen from what we read about. Nicole Kidman’s film career took a dive around the time of her divorce from Tom Cruise, and Lindsay Lohan’s film roles seem to be getting lost in her media overexposure too.

Then again, if Bacall was living her life over again in the noughties, we might feel a little overexposed. What a life! She started out as a model for Harper’s Bazaar, before moving into film and marrying Humphrey Bogart, many years her senior. They had two children, but eleven years later Bogart died of cancer when she was only 31. She married again and had another child, but also divorced second husband Jason Robards.

She was also involved with Frank Sinatra and a few other notable men, and wrote her biography in 1978. No wonder she doesn’t give a damn about being old – she hasn’t had time to even notice the years go by.

Does Nicole Kidman have Peter Pan syndrome or what? She’s dressed like an 80s Barbie doll and she’s going to a UN dinner for God’s sake, not the premiere of children’s movie in which she stars as a benevolent fairy.

Her face is also, as usual, unnaturally smooth looking. I can see the appeal in eradicating wrinkles, but you don’t have to infantilize yourself in a warped attempt to look younger. She was out with her parents, though, so maybe she was feeling particularly childish.

I found these new pictures of Lauren Bacall today and that reminded me of the time she lashed out at a British interviewer for calling Kidman a legend when they were doing press for their movie “Birth” in late 2004. Bacall said:
”She’s a beginner. What is this ‘legend’? She can’t be a legend at whatever age she is. She can’t be a legend, you have to be older.” [Quote found at Entertainment Weekly]

Bacall has definitely had a facelift, but she didn’t go overboard and she’s not getting enough maintenance for it to be noticeable. She’s 83 and she looks incredible. My mom had a facelift and she’s settled into it and looks great, not cat-like or freakish. I’m sure I’ll go that route in 20 years too. I also like the way Bacall looks annoyed in some of these photos, like she’s warning people not to mess with her while she’s doing her PR bit. Bacall is currently film Wild Blue Yonder, a film about an old dude who goes to great lengths to make sure his friend is buried at sea, in which she stars with Brian Cox, the evil Senator mastermind from the Bourne series. I hope I live to be at least 90, and I know I’ll be one of those ornery old ladies who is a tough cookie but can be nice when its called for, kind of like Bacall must be.

How long do you think it will be before 40 year-old Kidman starts showing the effects of too much work? She’s teetering on the brink now, and given the way she dresses you know she’s not about to age gracefully.

Thanks to WENN for the pictures of Kidman at the UN Development Fund For Women’s Unifem White Tie Dinner in Sydney Australia last night, and PRPhotos for the pictures of Bacall at a photoshoot in Boca Raton, also on on 8/1.

Update: Just Jared points out that the event Kidman was at was in support of the White Ribbon Foundation, which “seeks to eliminate violence against women by promoting cultural change.” That still doesn’t excuse her dress.