Incredible! Oscar®'s Best Picture nominees once again have direct connections to Cloud 9!

This morning brings another list of Academy Award® Best Picture nominees and, once again, another list of incredible, amazing connections to Cloud 9, the hilarious 2006 beach volleyball stripper comedy-social commentary starring screen icon Burt Reynolds and written and produced by our pals (and editor) Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures along with Academy Award®-winning producer (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy.

In this bleak, depressing strike-ridden movie season, many in Hollywood have wiled away the time playing the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, linking the intense actor to any other actor in the industry through six steps or less. But when it comes to the influential Cloud 9 (with a phenomenal cast also includes Paul Rodriguez, D.L. Hughley, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Paul Garito, Gary Busey, Tony Danza and Tom Arnold) the connection to the great ones can be made in one link—or less-- and the phenomenon has brightened up a dreary list of Best Picture noms!

ATONEMENT

Atonement director Joe Wright made his debut with the short called The End. That was also the name of the classic 1978 black comedy that starred and was directed by Burt Reynolds. Atonement star Vanessa Redgrave appeared in the 1992 Merchant-Ivory classic, Howards End with Anthony Hopkins, whose name, clothing and alleged beach house play key plot points in Cloud 9.

JUNO

Star Rainn Wilson starred with Paul Rodriguez in Mario van Peebles’ 2003 documentary/homage to his father, BAADASSSSS! How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass.

MICHAEL CLAYTON

Michael Clayton star (and Best Actor nominee) George Clooney appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on the 2003 TV special, Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. He also appeared as “Joe” in the 1991 TV series Baby Talk, in which Tony Danza, who appears in Cloud 9, supplied the voice of a baby.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Costar Barry Corbin appeared in 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which starred Cloud 9’s Burt Reynolds. On March 7, 2003, Star Woody Harrelson and Cloud 9 star D.L. Hughley shared the panel in the third episode of Season 1 of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Ten years ago, Cloud 9 star Burt Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for his role in Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough film, Boogie Nights.

Cloud 9 stars Burt Reynolds as Billy Cole, a down-and-out conman living in Malibu who hits on the idea of starting a beach volleyball team comprised entirely of strippers! Hilarity most definitely ensues. (See the trailer here.)