Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress

I'm not going to bother with a complete list of Oscar nominations because by this time, you've probably already seen them. (In case you haven't, here you go). Instead, I figured I'd just take one category at a time, starting with Best Supporting Actress, since that's the only one for which I've seen every nominee.

Here are the nominees, followed by the number of awards each has won already this year, from various critics' societies (a breakdown of who won what from whom can be found here).

Adriana Barraza for Babel: 1
Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal: 6
Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine: 5 (2 for Supporting Actress, 3 for Performance by a Youth)
Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls: 18 (11 for Supporting Actress, 7 for Breakthrough Performance)
Rinko Kikuchi for Babel: 4 (3 for Supporting Actress, 1 for Breakthrough Performance)

Hudson is clearly the favorite to win, though her fellow nominees all delivered strong work. Effie is really a leading role in Dreamgirls, and Hudson gets as much screen time as Beyonce Knowles. But Knowles is a Big Star, so she got the above-the-title billing and the right to a (non-existent) Leading Actress nomination. And to be fair, she did make The Pink Panther and Goldmember.

Of all the nominees, Kikuchi impressed me most. Her character was the most heartbreaking in Babel and her story the most compelling, both because of her extraordinary performance. Barraza was just as good, but I didn't believe for one second that her son would dump her in the desert with two children in the middle of the night.

Cate Blanchett is one of my favorite actresses of our generation. In 2006, she turned in equally strong work in Babel, the little-seen (and even littler-appreciated) The Good German and Notes on a Scandal, for which she is nominated. Her versatility is reminiscent of Meryl Streep's. But, like Streep, Blanchett is so consistently good that she may never get another Oscar. We expect her to be great, and aren't surprised when she is. She'd have to have another perfect vehicle like Elizabeth to really wow the Academy.

Breslin is the heart and soul of Little Miss Sunshine and her performance showed remarkable range. Consider her reaction to the news that she qualified for the pageant, the silent way she comforts her brother along the side of the highway, and her joyfully oblivious striptease. This is a cute little girl who can also act - which is always a nice surprise. (As a totally random side note, I saw LMS at a preview screening that was followed by a Q&A with the film's directors. One guy raised his hand and compared Breslin with a "young Dakota Fanning." Please.)

Front-runner: Jennifer Hudson
Upset-that-wouldn't-surprise-me: Abigail Breslin
I would vote for: Rinko Kikuchi

The Overlooked:
Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration
Sharon Stone, Bobby

Anyone I've left out?

2006 Awards Season Round-Up: Golden Globes, Producers Guild and 8 other Film Critics Circle Awards

2006 Award Season Round-Up

Your one stop shop for winning the office Oscar pool

Below is a list of award-winners from those award-giving institutions that I feel merit mention. I'll update throughout the award-season.

(Not every film society gives every award, so some categories may seem a little thin.)

Critics' Societies Included:

• African-American Film Critics Association (A-A)
• Austin Film Critics Association (Au)
• Boston Society of Film Critics (Bo)
• Broadcast Film Critic Association (BFCA)
• Central Ohio Film Critics Association (OH)
• Chicago Film Critics Association (Chi)
• Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association (DFW)
• Florida Film Critics Circle (FL)
• Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Awards (GG)
• The International Press Academy Satellite Awards (IPA)
• Iowa Film Critics (IA)
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KC)
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LV)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LA)
• National Board of Review (NBR)
• National Society of Film Critics (NSFC)
• New York Film Critics Circle (NY)
• New York Film Critics Online (ny.com)
• Oklahoma Film Critics Circle (OK)
• Online Film Critics Society (OFCS)
• Phoenix Film Critics Society (Ph)
• Producers Guild of America (PGA)
• St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association (St.L)
• San Diego Film Critics Society (SD)
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SF)
• Southeastern Film Critics Association (SE)
• Toronto Film Critics Association (Tor)
• Utah Film Critics Society (UT)
• Vancouver Film Critics Circle
• Washington, DC Area Film Critics (DC)

Best Film
United 93: 9 (Au, DC, DFW, KC, NY, OFCS, OK, Ph, UT)
The Departed: 8 (Bo, BFCA, Chi, FL, IPA: dr, LV, SE, St.L: dr) *
Dreamgirls: 3 (A-A, GG: com/mus, IPA: comedy)**
Letters From Iwo Jima: 3 (LA, NBR, SD)
Children of Men: 2 (OH, Van)
Little Children: 2 (IA, SF)
Little Miss Sunshine: 2 (PGA, St. L: com/mus)
The Queen: 2 (ny.com, Tor)
Babel: 1 (GG: drama)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: 1 (BFCA: mus/com)
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 1 (NSFC)

*dr = drama
**com/mus = comedy/musical

Best Director
Martin Scorsese, The Departed: 17 (Bo, BFCA, Chi, DC, DFW, FL, GG, IA, LV, NBR, NY, OFCS, OH, OK, Ph, SE, St. L)
Paul Greengrass, United 93: 4 (KC, LA, NSFC, SF)
Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men: 3 (Au, UT, Van)
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls: 2 (A-A, IPA (tie))
Stephen Frears, The Queen: 2 (ny.com, Tor (tie))
Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, L'Enfant: 1 (Tor (tie))
Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers: 1 (IPA (tie))
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima: 1 (SD)

Best First Film
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine: 3 (OK, ny.com, OSFC)
Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson: 2 (Bo, NY)
Rian Johnson, Brick: 2 (Au, Chi (Most Promising Director))
Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking: 2 (NBR, Tor)
Emilio Estevez, Bobby: 1 (Ph (Breakout Performance of the Year, Behind the Camera))

Best Original Screenplay
Peter Morgan, The Queen: 9 (Chi, GG, LA, IPA, NSFC, NY, ny.com, St. L, Tor)
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine, 6 (BFCA, DC, DFW, KC, Ph, SE)
Rian Johnson, Brick: 3 (OH, SF, UT)
Guillermo del Toro, El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 2 (Au, OFCS)
Zach Helm, Stranger Than Fiction: 1 (NBR)
Karen Moncrieff, The Dead Girl: 1 (SD)

Best Adapted Screenplay
William Monahan, The Departed: 8 (Bo. Chi, FL, IPA, KC, OH, Ph, SE)
Jason Reitman, Thank You for Smoking: 3 (DC, LV, SD)
Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men: 2 (Au, OFCS)
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, Little Children: 1 (SF)
Ron Nyswaner: The Painted Veil: 1 (NBR)

Best Animated Feature
Cars: 11 (Au, BFCA, GG, IA, NBR, OH, OK, PGA, SD, SE, St. L)
Happy Feet: 6 (DC, DFW, LA, NY, ny.com, Tor)
Monster House: 2 (FL, LV)
Flushed Away: 1 (Ph)
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 1 (IPA (Animated or Mixed Media))
Over the Hedge: 1 (KC)
A Scanner Darkly: 1(OFCS)

Best Documentary
An Inconvenient Truth: 19 (Chi, DC, DFW, FL, KC, LA, LV, NBR, NSFC, ny.com, OFCS, OH, OK, Ph, SE, SF, St. L, UT)
Deliver Us from Evil: 3 (Bo (tie), IPA, NY )
Shut Up & Sing: 2 (Bo (tie), SD)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated: 1 (Au)
Manufactured Landscapes: 1 (Tor)

Best Foreign (Language) Film
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 12 (Au, Bo, DC, FL, IA, ny.com, OFCS, OH, OK, SE, SF, St. L)
Letters From Iwo Jima: 7 (BFCA, Chi, DFW, GG, KC, Ph, UT)
Volver: 3 (IPA, NBR, Van)
L'armee des obres (Army of Shadows): 1 (NY)*
L'Enfant: 1 (Tor)
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others): 1 (LA)
Qian li zou qi (Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles): 1 (SD)
*Though it was made in 1969, L'armee des obres did not receive its US premiere until 2006.

Best Actor
Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland: 23 (A-A, Bo, BFCA, Chi, DC, DFW, FL, GG: dr, IA, IPA: dr, KC, LA (tie), LV, NBR, NSFC, NY, ny.com, OFCS, OK, Ph, SE, St. L, Van)
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: 5 (GG: com/mus, LA (tie), SF, Tor, UT)
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed: 2 (Au, OH)
Joseph Cross: Running with Scissors: 1 (IPA: com/mus)
Ken Takakura, Qian li zou qi (Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles): 1 (SD)

Best Actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen: 28 (A-A, Bo, BFCA, Chi, DC, DFW, FL, GG: dr, IA, IPA: dr, KC, LA, LV, NBR, NSFC, NY, ny.com, OFCS, OH, OK, Ph, SD, SE, SF, St. L, Tor, UT, Van)
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada: 2 (GG: com/mus, IPA: com/mus)
Ellen Page, Hard Candy: 1 (Au)

Best Supporting Actor
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children: 8 (Chi, DFW, IA, NY, OFCS, OK, SE, SF)
Michael Sheen, The Queen: 5 (KC, LA, ny.com, Tor, UT)
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond: 4 (DC, LV, NBR, St. L)
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls: 4 (A-A, BFCA, GG, OH)
Jack Nicholson, The Departed: 3 (Au, FL, Ph)
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed: 2 (Bo, NSFC)
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine: 1 (Van)
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed: 1 (IPA)
Ray Winstone, The Proposition: 1 (SD)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls: 11 (A-A, BFCA, DC, GG, IPA, LV, NY, ny.com (tie), OH, SE, St. L)
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal: 6 (DFW, FL, OK, Ph, Tor, Van)
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel: 3 (Au, Chi, UT)
Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration: 3 (KC, NBR, ny.com (tie))
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine: 2 (IA, OSFC)
Adriana Barraza, Babel: 1 (SF)
Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson: 1 (Bo)
Luminita Gheorghiu, Moartea domnului Lazarescu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu): 1 (LA)
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada: 1 (NSFC)
Meryl Streep, A Prairie Home Companion: 1 (NSFC)
Lili Taylor, Factotum: 1 (SD)

Breakthrough Performance: Male
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat... and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: 2 (Chi, OSFC)
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson: 1 (NBR)

Breakthrough Performance: Female
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls: 7 (Au, FL, NBR (tie), ny.com, OH, OK, Ph)
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel: 1 (NBR (tie))

Best Performance by a Youth, Male
Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine: 1 (BFCA)
Jaden Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness: 1 (Ph)

Best Performance by a Youth, Female
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine: 3 (BFCA, LV, Ph)

Best Acting By An Ensemble
Little Miss Sunshine: 4 (BFCA, DC, ny.com, Ph)
The Departed: 3 (IPA, NBR, OH)
Babel: 1 (SD)
United 93: 1 (Bo)

Best Art Direction and Production Design
K.K. Barrett (PD) & Anne Seibel (AD), Marie Antionette: 3 (DC, LV, Ph)
Henry Bumstead (PD), Jack G. Taylor Jr. & Richard Goddard (AD), Flags of Our Fathers: 1 (IPA)
Eugenio Caballero (PD/AD), El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 1 (LA )
Owen Paterson, V for Vendetta: 1 (SD)

Costume Design
Milena Canonero, Marie Antionette: 1 (Ph)
Patricia Field, The Devil Wears Prada: 1 (IPA)

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, Children of Men: 6 (Au, Chi, LA, LV, NSFC, OSFC)
Guillermo Navarro, El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth): 3 (Bo, FL, NY)
Dean Semler, Apocalypto: 3 (DFW, OH, Ph)
Dick Pope, The Illusionist: 2 (ny.com, SD)
Tom Stern, Flags of Our Fathers: 1 (IPA)

Best Editing
Christopher Rouse, Richard Pearson and Clare Douglas, United 93: 2 (OSFC, SD)
Thelma Schoonmaker, The Departed: 2 (LV, Ph) Mark Helfrich, Mark Goldblatt, Julia Wong: X-Men: The Last Stand: 1 (IPA)

Best Music Score
Gustavo Santolalla, Babel: 3 (IPA, OH, SD)
Alexandre Desplat, The Painted Veil: 2 (GG, LA)
Philip Glass, The Illusionist: 2 (BFCA, ny.com)
Clint Mansell, The Fountain: 2 (Chi, OSFC)
Alexandre Desplat, The Queen: 1 (LA)
Thomas Newman, The Good German: 1 (LV)

Best Original Song
"Listen,"Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler, Beyoncé Knowles, and Anne Preven, Dreamgirls: 1 (BFCA)
"Ordinary Miracle," David Stewart & Glen Ballard, Charlotte's Web: 1 (LV)
"The Song of My Heart," Prince Rogers Nelson, Happy Feet: 1 (GG)
"You Know My Name," Chris Cornell, David Arnold, Casino Royale: 1 (IPA)

Sound (Editing & Mixing)
Willie Burton, Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, Richard E. Yawn, Dreamgirls: 1 (IPA)

Best Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: 2 (IPA, St. L)
Superman Returns: 1 (Ph)
X-Men: The Last Stand: 1 (LV)

On DVD This Tuesday...

I'm posting the DVD updates more sporadically than I had planned at first. December 12th saw the releases of Bugsy, a Dean Martin double-feature of Who Was That Lady and How to Save a Marriage (and Ruin Your Life), two James Bond sets and many others. But since I haven't seen any of those movies, I couldln't recommend them. At least, that was my logic at the time. In retrospect, it does seem rather flawed.

December 26th brought us Brian DePalma's flawed-but-fascinating (and severely underrated) The Black Dahlia. Nothing else that week really interested me. And come to think of it, I missed a golden opportunity to write about boxing movies or boxed sets. Damn.

Now on to today...

Okay, there's nothing of much interest today, either.

A lower-priced, single-disc non-Special Edition of Ridley Scott's Alien (and doesn't that description set your heart a-racin'?)

And Sparkle, undoubtedly getting released thanks to Dreamgirls.

More Reasons to Hate the American Film Institute (AFI's Ten Best of 2006)

The American Film Institute aggravates me more and more every year. Their "100 Years..." series names the same movies over and over and the accompanying TV specials are painful to watch. I used to give them (both the AFI and their lists/specials) credit for encouraging people to talk about movies. Their first list, in 1998, which trumpeted the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time, provided me with a handy starter course in US film history. I know that the only reason I ever saw Yankee Doodle Dandy was because of its inclusion on the list and I loved it. But the more I learned about film, the more I came to disrespect the AFI

For starters, they rank the movies. How is Citizen Kane (#1 on the 100 Greatest Films list, which I'll continue to use for consistency's sake) better or worse than Annie Hall (#31)? How can the two even be compared? Why not just list the films alphabetically? And what the hell is GoodFellas doing at #94? And where is Sullivan's Travels? And what is Forest Gump (#71) doing on the list? And how exactly are The Third Man (#57) and A Clockwork Orange (#46) American films?

I could go on and on. In fact, I just deleted three more paragraphs on the subject. But that list is eight years old. I finally had it with the AFI earlier this year with the release of their 25 Greatest Movie Musicals. No Gigi. No Love Me Tonight. But Grease is there. At #20. Just ahead of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

The AFI has just announced its 2006 "Movies of the Year: Offical Selections."
Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles)
The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel)
Dreamgirls (Bill Condon)
Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)
Happy Feet (George Miller)
Inside Man (Spike Lee)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
United 93 (Paul Greengrass)

I can't comment on the quality of the individual films, as I've only seen four of them. What I can say is that both The Departed (Martin Scorsese) and Little Children (Todd Field) are better than Babel, which is ambitious, but ultimately unfulfilling.

5 Musicals with Afro-American Casts

There was a time when Dreamgirls would have been marketed as an "All-Black" musical. Here are five that were:*

Cabin in the Sky (1943, Vincente Minnelli)

Carmen Jones (1954, Otto Preminger)

Hallelujah! (1929, King Vidor)

Porgy and Bess (1959, Otto Preminger)*

Stormy Weather (1943, Andrew L. Stone)

• Andrew L. Stone is the least well-known of the four directors above, but don't worry. He's just as white as the rest of them.
  
  
• For further reading, I highly recommend Donald Bogle's excellent Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood.

*To be fair, Porgy and Bess would technically be an "All-Black Plus Claude Akins Musical," but you try fitting that into a marketing campaign.

'Dreamgirls' taps into the '60s girl-group zeitgeist

Pic's music is conjured through a filter of Broadway-styled show tunes

By Ken Kubernik, Variety, 30 November 2006

In her memoir, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, Mary Wilson recalled the transformative experience of seeing a "new Broadway musical called Dreamgirls.

"By the second act I was crying because while many of the incidents depicted in the play could have happened to any number of female singing groups, I knew in my heart that this story rang far truer than the producers could have imagined. There were bits and pieces of my life -- and the lives of my two best friends -- up there."

If Wilson saw her life and career unfold before her eyes, the Dreamgirls story follows a dramatic arc that has proved surprisingly universal in reflecting the girl-group craze of the '60s and the common linkage throughout: the controlling Svengali, the ego clashes, the breakout diva, the struggles with personal demons and the changing nature of a music business that left many out in the cold.

The Effie White and Deena Jones characters in Dreamgirls were inspired by the Supremes' Florence Ballard and Diana Ross, respectively, and the saga's impresario, Curtis Taylor Jr., might be viewed as an amalgam of Motown chief Berry Gordy Jr., record producer Phil Spector and other key '60s music kingpins. But the Broadway musical-turned-Paramount/DreamWorks release also, in a larger sense, reflects the enduring appeal of a moment in pop when comets, crickets and duck walks gave way to chiffon, crystal and the promise of Shangri-la.

Pop music has always had an address as well as an attitude. In the Jazz Age it was Tin Pan Alley. By 1960, it was 1619 Broadway in Manhattan -- the Brill Building -- and 2648 Grand Ave., Detroit, the home of Motown. They were song factories rolling out top-40 staples like Chevy Novas.

The birth of the teen girl market sent the post-Elvis-in-the-Army boy crooners into exile. With their first chart topper, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," the Shirelles set the template in motion. "It had a profound, spiritual effect on me; it transcended sex, it had ... a sound," exclaims Steven Van Zandt, longtime guitarist for Bruce Springsteen, whose Sirius Satellite Network radio show "Little Steven's Underground Garage" spins a wealth of classic girl group A and B sides. "It was the arrangement, the production, the fact that great musicians were backing these graceful vocals. And it was one hit right after another; 'Soldier Boy,' c'mon, where do I sign up?"

This explosion of sentimentality and sass not only liberated its Revlon-eyed listeners, it was a get-out-of-hell card for young black women. In her liner notes to the Rhino box set "Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found," writer Gerri Hirshey has Mary Wells of "My Guy" fame reveal the stark reality: "Until Motown in Detroit, there were three big careers for a black girl: babies, factories or day work. Period."

Soon, every church social, every bedroom, every high school bathroom resonated with girls harmonizing, searching for that felicitous marriage of pitch, blend and range. Even the Supremes, the most successful girl group ever, struggled mightily to find that winning combination. "Everyone at Motown was calling us the no-hit Supremes," Wilson says in the "Girl Group" liner notes. "We were the first girl group to sign with the label, but the last to get a hit record."

Heavenly singers & glittery gowns

Bill Condon, writer-director of the bigscreen Dreamgirls, was one of those adolescents struck by the Supremes' alchemy of longing and heartbreak. "I was 8 years old, glued to my transistor radio, and I heard 'Where Did Our Love Go,'" he enthuses. "It changed me forever. I begged my father to take me to the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn to see the Supremes, around '63 or early '64. Anybody, black or white, could dance to it. And it sounded great on an AM radio."

If Motown coveted a suave, polished sound that appealed to crossover audiences -- a recurring motif in Dreamgirls -- with its roster of heavenly singers resplendent in glittering gowns, New York City countered with a one-two punch of edginess and insolence. "The Tycoon of Teen," Phil Spector, headed an all-star lineup of producer-writers who concocted "mini-operas for the kiddies." They embraced the innocence and anguish of the wonder years and served them up in three-minute passion plays, replete with character, conflict and setting.

Under the stewardship of George "Shadow" Morton, the Shangri-las, four looking-for-trouble teens from Queens, ran the table in 1965 with "Leader of the Pack," "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" and "Out in the Streets."

Miriam Linna, co-owner of Norton Records, a Brooklyn-based label long associated with artists of the '50s and '60s, recalls the period with a girlish glee. "The early rock 'n' rollers all wore their hearts on their sleeves; and that made them great boyfriend material," she says. "But they didn't sing about me, my loneliness, my sense that no one understood me. And then came the girls, and they're singing about what I'm feelin' right now! And it was fashion, it was style. A group like the Shangri-las was way ahead of their time. They were finally in control."

If just a few years earlier the Shirelles lovingly cooed "Dedicated to the One I Love," Lesley Gore was now announcing that "You Don't Own Me." With the likes of Quincy Jones behind the board, arranger extraordinaire Jack Nitzsche and a minyan of precocious tunesmiths lurking in the rabbit warrens of the Brill on Broadway, it was "a renaissance period that will never be repeated again," according to Van Zandt. "The best music being made was also the most popular. It was a convergence of opposing disciplines -- hustlers who knew how to make great records."

Motown in spirit

In Dreamgirls, the music is conjured through a filter of Broadway-styled show tunes -- originally penned by composer Henry Krieger and lyricist Tom Eyen, with additional songs written for the movie -- that not only attempt to capture the zeitgeist of girl-group glory but, in a sense, the whole spectrum of black music in the '60s as it hurtles headlong into the disco era. Beyond the Supremes, Dreamgirls the movie offers, at least in spirit, flashes of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and the Jackson 5.

Krieger will be the first to admit that the music for Dreamgirls is more Motown in spirit than style. "I defy anyone to find anything that sounds like Motown in my show," says the composer. "They're theatrical, character-driven songs. (The music) makes you think of a Motown song -- the technicality of the music. It evokes the period."

Looking back, it is surprising how uninterested Hollywood has been in exploring the cherishable girl-group legacy as fodder for films. Just one title, a mid-'70s release, Sparkle, starring Irene Cara and featuring the music of Curtis Mayfield, authentically captured the milieu. Something of a cult favorite today, Sparkle also provided the storyboard for an En Vogue video.

With the arrival of Dreamgirls, however, the prospect of renewed interest in this fabled past looms tantalizingly near. But, like the songs themselves, it may well be a bittersweet symphony. The artists rarely heard the cha-ching of royalties or enjoyed the respect of their peers. According to Hirshey, "Martha Reeves told me that the Marvelettes name was lost one night in a poker game between Motown founder Berry Gordy and his staffers. 'That's how easily your life can get tossed from one place to another,' she said."

Andrew Loog Oldham, legendary record producer, author, and host of his own program on satellite radio, was there at the beginning and offers this rueful benediction:

"The memories of our time period remain great and the audio recalls of what our life was about: Dusty Springfield, Lesley Gore, the Shangri-las, the Ronettes, the Crystals, Darlene Love. It's a shame that their collective royalties might just cover a Paris Hilton shopping spree. But if the aforementioned ladies had fun getting the job done, they got the only blessing that's secure."