Academy Enlists Aniston, Carell, Craig & Co.
The Oscar brain trust is looking to a 40-year-old virgin, James Bond, a former Friend and a dreamy American Idol also-ran to plump its ranks.
Steve Carell, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Aniston and reigning Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson are among the 115 industry types who have been tapped to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which only extends such invitations once a year.
In fact, the Academy instituted new rules four years ago intended to slow down its growing list of members eligible to vote every year on who gets to take home the little golden man, the most prestigious trophy in Hollywood. Only 150 new members are allowed every year, with actual invites going out to far fewer candidates.
The Academy currently has just under 6,000 members, with the annual influx countered by retirements and deaths.
Invites are extended to actors, yes, but also to directors, writers, cinematographers, sound and visual effects artists, producers, animators, editors, costume designers, makeup artists and P.R. gurus, among others.
Joining the aforementioned A-listers this year are a directory of performers and visionaries whose big-screen presence has ranged from stadium-style multiplex to art house, studio showboat to indie charmer.
Actors asked to join the ranks include Hudson's DreamGirls costar Eddie Murphy, independent film faves Aaron Eckhart and Ryan Gosling, Bad News Bear turned Little Children Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, stage and screen star Christopher Plummer and international stars Adriana Barraza (Babel) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things). Aside from Haley, Murphy, Gosling and Barraza were all nominated for Academy Awards last year.
Another recent Oscar nominee topped the list of invited filmmakers: United 93's Paul Greengrass. Training Day's Antoine Fuqua, Disturbia's D.J. Caruso and Friday Night Lights' Peter Berg are also among the six directors being asked to join up, while jack-of-all-trades (Alias and Lost creator, Mission: Impossible III scribe and director) J.J. Abrams has been classified as a writer.
Joining Abrams in the writers category are some of the past year's most bandied-about names—Little Miss Sunshine Best Original Screenplay winner Michael Arndt; William Monahan, Best Adapted Screenplay victor for The Departed; Oscar-nominated The Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose The Lives of Others won Best Foreign Language Film; and Guillermo Arriaga, who penned Babel.
"The numbers are stabilizing nicely," said Academy executive director Bruce Davis, "but at the same time some interesting changes are occurring. Like the recent list of Oscar nominees, our last few membership invitation lists have been increasingly international."
Just out of those mentioned here, there are three Brits (Morgan, Greengrass, Ejiofor), two Mexicans (Barraza, Arriaga), a German (von Donnersmarck) and a Canadian (Plummer).
The 80th Annual Academy Awards will be held Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008.
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