Live Wire

Jack Osbourne

knew the risks he was taking when he decided to produce a a documentary about his father,the notorious hard rocker Ozzy Osbourne. People either were going to say,“That’s a pile of crap!” or “That’s awesome!,” he says. God Bless Ozzy Osbourne,the 90-minute documentary debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and will come out on DVD in mid-November. It tells the story of a man,not the caricature that the former John Osbourne of Birmingham has become in the course of decades of publicly chronicled substance abuse,wild misbehaviour and celebrated incidents such as biting the heads off a dove and a live bat—the former on purpose,the latter by accident.

Steven Spielberg,

film rebel,sputtered at the lens in mock fury and disbelief. “I wasn’t nominated?” he howled,on learning that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had nominated Jaws for a best-picture Oscar,but had snubbed him as the film’s director. The year was 1976 and he was hurling outrage at the makers of a documentary about the year’s Oscar. Now,Spielberg the contender will try again,as he enters the awards race,once with an ambitious 3D,motion-capture animation film,The Adventures of Tintin,and again with a period drama,War Horse. He is also working on the production of Lincoln,a drama about leadership and turmoil in the last months of Abraham Lincoln.