Author Archives: Kate Stanhope

A couple weeks ago while walking down Westwood Boulevard to avoid studying for finals, it was pretty hard to miss the huge, bright yellow “Store Closing!” sign in the window of Hollywood Video.

As they say in physics, what goes up must come down and it seems the time has come for writer, producer and director Judd Apatow to test Newton’s law first-hand. As high up on the Hollywood food chain as Apatow is, there’s only a long, bumpy ride down ahead.

This last Sunday while Marion Cotillard thanked the angels of the city and Daniel Day-Lewis didn’t surprise anyone, one particular revered actor from overseas didn’t nab an Oscar, let alone a nomination.

The other night, while rapidly absorbing Entertainment Weekly’s breakdown of the Oscars, the similarities between the races for best picture and for the next president of the United States suddenly dawned on me.

UCLA Class of 1999 graduate Rita Rani has seen her 2006 short film “Bombay Skies” travel across the country from Big Bear to Palm Beach, Fla., as well as across the globe from Canada to Germany to Italy. While it makes for a hectic travel itinerary, Rani’s across-the-globe trek with her film closely resembles the story of her 21-minute short.

Back in high school, there was nothing I loved more than coming back from a potato-taco lunch to one of my oh-so-boring general requirement classes to find out that it was movie day.