Exclusive! Oscar Picks based on links to Cloud 9!

With the 78th Academy Awards only hours away, it's time for Tabloid Baby to announce the Major Oscar Picks Based on Their Connections to Cloud 9.

Only weeks ago, all Hollywood was buzzing over their lattes about the uncanny, eerie similarities between Cloud 9, the hilarious beach volleyball comedy starring Burt Reynolds and written and produced by Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner (Million Dollar Baby), Albert S. Ruddy, and this year's Best Picture nominee, Crash.

This da Vinci Code-like revelation was followed by the amazing two or less degrees of separation between Cloud 9 and every single one of this year’s major Oscar nominees (and a nostalgic look back at the two-or-less degree links between the Fox DVD and every Academy Award Best Picture of the past ten years).

Well, time for the Big Night. The Tabloid Baby staff has taken its Two Degrees or Less of Separation chart and used it to forecast the winners of this year’s Oscars.

These predictions are based on their proximity to Cloud 9 (which missed out on Academy Award consideration only by a matter of days and format— it was released January 4th on DVD).

They're not necessarily the Tabloid Baby staff picks. Some go far afield of conventional wisdom. But that's what happen when you stir up an incomprehensible blend of science and Hollywood magic. Here goes:

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) worked with Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights; Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) co-starred in Four Feathers with Brett Hudson’s niece, Kate; Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) showed up at the West Coast party for Burt Kearns' book, Tabloid Baby; and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) worked with Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey in The Firm. BUT…

Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) appears in Crash with Cloud 9’s Ken Garito and Tony Danza!

CLOUD 9 BEST ACTOR PICK: TERRENCE HOWARD, HUSTLE & FLOW

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents) starred with Anthony Hopkins, who plays a key plot role in Cloud 9, in 84 Charing Cross Road; Felicity Huffman (Transamerica) is married to William H. Macy from Boogie Nights; Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice) played an ex-stripper and performs a lap dance—a la Cloud 9’s Angie Everhart-- in Domino; Charlize Theron (North Country) appears with Mel Gibson (whose ficus tree is a plot point in Cloud 9) and Anthony Hopkins in Cinema Mil, and was nominated for a Razzie the same year Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone were nominated as Worst Screen Couple. BUT…

Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) starred in Legally Blonde with the dog named Moonie, who appears as Gary Busey’s dog in Cloud 9!

CLOUD 9 BEST ACTRESS PICK: REESE WITHERSPOON, WALK THE LINE

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
George Clooney (Syriana) appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on the TV special, Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration and with Tony Danza in the TV series Baby Talk; Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) played Pig Vomit in Private Parts, starring Howard Stern, who dated Cloud 9 star Angie Everhart; Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) starred in Day After Tomorrow, which featured KTLA show biz correspondent Ross King, who was in the running for the Tommy Z role in Cloud 9; and William Hurt (A History of Violence) and Burt Reynolds were in the documentary, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second. BUT…

Matt Dillon (Crash) appeared in Crash with Tony Danza and Ken Garito from Cloud 9!

CLOUD 9 BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR PICK: MATT DILLON, CRASH

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Catherine Keener (Capote) starred in Death to Smoochy with Vincent Schiavelli, star of The 4th Tenor, directed by Cloud ‘s Hary Basil; Frances McDormand (North Country) appeared with Barbra Streisand (whose “home” and chair are featured in Cloud 9) and Mel Gibson at the 69th Academy Awards; Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) appeared with Cloud 9 star Tom Arnold on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 22, 2005; and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Cloud 9 actor Jeff Altman appeared on Baywatch. BUT…

Amy Adams (Junebug) has wrapped a new movie, Standing Still, which also stars Cloud 9 starlet Marne Patterson.

CLOUD 9 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS PICK: AMY ADAMS, JUNEBUG

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) co-wrote the screenplay for Tortilla Soup, which starred Paul Rodriguez ; Bennett Miller (Capote) attended NYU Film School, where Albert S. Ruddy thought “beach volleyball” upon seeing a Gabrielle Reece poster on his son’s dorm room wall; George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck) appeared with Gary Busey in the TV special, Inside The Playboy Mansion; and Steven Spielberg (Munich) directed Minority Report, which featured Cloud 9’s Paul Wesley, and 1941, featuring Cloud 9's executive producer Gray Frederickson as Lt. Bressler. BUT…

Paul Haggis (Crash) wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the film that won a second Best Picture Oscar for Albert S. Ruddy, and worked with Ruddy on the TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

CLOUD 9 BEST DIRECTOR PICK: PAUL HAGGIS, CRASH

And click here for the uncanny similarities between Crash and Cloud 9.

CLOUD 9 BEST PICTURE PICK: CRASH

There you have it.

Direct from Cloud 9’s Magic 9 Ball:

ACTOR: Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
ACTRESS: Reese Witherspoon, Walk The Line
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Matt Dillon, Crash
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams, Junebug
DIRECTOR: Paul Haggis, Crash
PICTURE: Crash

(And let's throw in:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Crash
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Munich (cowriter Eric Roth is Brett Hudson's pal-- he also wrote Ali, which starred Cloud 9's Paul Rodriguez.)

Exclusive! Oscar’s Two Degrees of Cloud 9

Slide over, Kevin Bacon! Cloud 9 is the new hub of Hollywood connections. And who needs Six Degrees? With Cloud 9, it’s two degrees— at the most!

Hollywood has been buzzing this week about the eerie similarities between Cloud 9 and Oscar-nominated picture, Crash. But there are even closer connections to each nominated director and every actor and actress nominated for starring and supporting roles!

When it comes to Cloud 9 and the 78th Annual Academy Awards Nominations, the links go far beyond The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the popular parlor game in which the actor is connected to other actors he worked with in six steps or less.

Kevin is left in the dust by Cloud 9, the ensemble comedy motion picture written and produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures and Oscar winner Albert S. Ruddy (for Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood, director of Mystic River, which starred—Kevin Bacon).

Take any of nominee. Take two steps or less—and you land on Cloud 9!

The smart, raucous comedy premiered on Fox Home Entertainment DVD in January, thereby missing the Oscar qualification by only days and format. But a quick look at this year's crop of talented nominees shows that Cloud 9, its actors and producers, had a great influence on getting them there!

And by the way, Oscar host Jon Stewart is in the book, Tabloid Baby!

What follows is a quick run through of the more obvious Cloud 9 connections:

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) worked with Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights.

Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) worked with Cloud 9’s Ken Garito and Tony Danza in Crash.

Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) co-starred in Four Feathers with Kate Hudson, the niece of Cloud 9 co-writer and producer Brett Hudson.

Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) showed up at the publication party for the book, Tabloid Baby (written by Cloud 9 writer and producer Burt Kearns), at the Diaghilev Bar in the Bel Age Hotel in November 1999.

David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) worked with Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey in The Firm.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents) starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road. Hopkins is not actually in Cloud 9, but plays a pivotal role, as Burt Reynolds’ character breaks into “Anthony Hopkins’ house” and borrows his clothes for a wild Cabo Wabo party after DL Hughley, playing a chauffeur, drives Hopkins to the airport.

Felicity Huffman (Transamerica) is married to William H. Macy, who appeared in Boogie Nights with Burt Reynolds.

Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice) played a former stripper and performs a lap dance in Domino. Cloud 9 features strippers and a lap dance by Angie Everhart as a stripper who becomes a beach volleyball star.

Charlize Theron (North Country) appears with Mel Gibson (whose ficus tree is a key element in Cloud 9) and Anthony Hopkins in the documentary, Cinema Mil. In 2002, she was nominated for a Razzie award for her performance in Sweet November, the same year Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone were nominated as Worst Screen Couple in Driven.

Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) starred in Legally Blonde with a small dog named Moonie. Moonie appears as Gary Busey’s dog in Cloud 9.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

George Clooney (Syriana) appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on the 2003 TV special, Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. He also appeared in the TV series Baby Talk, in which Tony Danza supplied the voice of a baby.

Matt Dillon (Crash) appeared in Crash with Tony Danza and Ken Garito from Cloud 9.

Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) played Pig Vomit in the Howard Stern movie, Private Parts. Cloud 9 star Angie Everhart dated Howard Stern.

Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) starred in Day After Tomorrow, which featured Ross King in the role of a TV reporter. Ross, now a weatherman and show biz correspondent for KTLA News in LA, was in the running for the role of Tommy Z in Cloud 9.

William Hurt (A History of Violence) was featured along with Burt Reynolds in the video documentary, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second, The Ultimate Journey Through Sex in Cinema.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams (Junebug) has wrapped a new movie, Standing Still, which also stars Cloud 9 starlet Marne Patterson.

Catherine Keener (Capote) starred with the late Vincent Schiavelli in Death To Smoochy. Schiavelli, of course, starred in Cloud 9 director Harry Basil’s notorious Rodney Dangerfield flick, The 4th Tenor.

Frances McDormand (North Country) appeared with Barbra Streisand and Mel Gibson at the 69th Academy Awards, when she won an Oscar for Fargo. Streisand and Gibson are referred to and the subject of important plot points in Cloud 9.

Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) appeared with Cloud 9 star Tom Arnold on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 22, 2005.

Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Cloud 9 actor Jeff Altman, appeared as guest stars on the series Baywatch in the early 1990s.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) co-wrote the screenplay for Tortilla Soup, which starred Paul Rodriguez, who coincidentally plays an Asian character, Wong, in Cloud 9.

Bennett Miller (Capote) attended NYU Film School. It was at NYU, where he became captivated by a poster of Gabrielle Reece on the wall of his son’s dorm room, that Albert S. Ruddy got the idea of a movie about beach volleyball. His partners Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns added the stripper element when they developed the treatment.

Paul Haggis (Crash) wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the film that won Albert S. Ruddy his second Best Picture Oscar. He also worked with Ruddy on the TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck) appeared with Gary Busey in the 2002 television special, Inside The Playboy Mansion.

Steven Spielberg (Munich) directed Minority Report, which featured Paul Wesley, who plays Jackson Fargo in Cloud 9, in an uncredited role as “Nathan with bicycle.” And Cloud 9's Oscar-winning executive producer Gray Frederickson appeared as Lt. Bressler in Spielberg's 1941.

Amazed? Stunned at the power and influence of a small ensemble comedy about beach volleyball strippers? So are we.

Send in your own Cloud 9 Oscar connections, and get the chance to win a copy of Cloud 9!

Cloud 9 could forecast Oscar's Best Picture

Oscar controversy abounds. Our Man Elli in Israel reports from Jerusalem that most everyone in Israel hates Spielberg’s Munich and that “The Revoke the ‘Paradise Now’ Oscar Nomination Petition is red hot, averaging well over a thousand signatures a day, and increasing speed. The revulsion being felt around the world over Hollywood's nomination of Paradise Now, a movie glorifying PLO suicide bombers, is palpable….”

And with Heath Ledger doing public anti-gay whinging and the Associated Press reporting that “while the cowboy love story ‘Brokeback Mountain’ has been established as a solid favorite for the best-picture Oscar, the ensemble drama ‘Crash’ has an ardent following and some late-season momentum that could make it a surprise winner…” We look to the Cloud 9 crystal ball and agree that Crash could be a winner… if only by default.

This site has already pointed out the uncanny similarities between Cloud 9, the surprise motion picture sports comedy hit of the 2006 DVD crop (written and produced by Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy) and Best Picture nominee Crash-- and even more outrageously, the two-degrees-or-less-of-separation between Cloud 9 and every single major 2005 Academy Award nominee.

Now, research by the Tabloid Baby staff has revealed an even scarier, more wondrous connection: two degrees of separation --or less-- between Cloud 9 and every Oscar Best Picture winner of the last 10 years.

The research went back more than 30 years. There was the 1972 Best Picture Oscar, given to The Godfather and its producer Albert S. Ruddy, who’d go on to write and produce Cloud 9 with Hudson and Kearns.

In 1974, the Best Picture Oscar went to Cloud 9’s executive producer, Gray Frederickson, for The Godfather: Part II.

But we skip forward to the past ten years, and look at only the most obvious connections between these lauded films, and Cloud 9, the hilarious motion picture comedy now out on Fox DVD:

1995: Braveheart
Braveheart star, director and producer Mel Gibson is an important presence in Cloud 9's script. Billy Cole, played by Burt Reynolds, is supposed to deliver a ficus tree to Gibson's estate, and is constantly berated by Wong, the nursery owner played by Paul Rodriguez, for failing to do so.

1996: The English Patient
Harvey Weinstein of Miramax took home the statuette. Cloud 9 writers and producers Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures worked with--and for-- Harvey when they produced and wrote Miramax’s first reality television project, The Best Money Can Buy (executive produced by ‘Crocodile’ Dundee director Peter Faiman).

1997: Titanic
Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio was the leading contender to star as the boy who masquerades as a girl soccer player in the 1992 comedy Ladybugs, produced by Cloud 9 producers Albert S. Ruddy and Gray Frederickson (Harry Basil, who directed Cloud 9, was associate producer on the project). Leonardo was rejected after it was decided that he was too pretty.

1998: Shakespeare in Love
See “The English Patient.” Cloud 9 writers-producers Kearns & Hudson produced the Miramax TV project while Weinsten bought-- uh, campaigned for-- the Best Picture Oscar that beat Private Ryan. Meanwhile, Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey and Ben Affleck starred in the 2003 "World Poker Tour" Hollywood Home Game. Ben was featured with Cloud 9 costar D.L. Hughley in Comedy Central’s Last Laugh ’04.

1999: American Beauty
Star Kevin Spacey appeared with Gary Busey in the 2002 television special, Inside the Playboy Mansion and 1999’s Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary.

2000: Gladiator
Star Russell Crowe appeared with Burt Reynolds in the film Mystery, Alaska. Costar Joaquin Phoenix showed up at the book party for Tabloid Baby, written by Cloud 9 writer-producer Burt Kearns, at the Bel Age Hotel on the Sunset Strip in 1999.

2001: A Beautiful Mind
See Gladiator for the Reynolds-Crowe connection. Also, Cloud 9 actor Rick Overton appeared in The Rocketeer with A Beautiful Mind’s Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Connelly.

2002: Chicago
Star and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly starred in Boogie Nights with Burt Reynolds (who received an Oscar nomination for his role).

2003: The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King
Cloud 9 star Burt Reynolds directed and starred in the film, The Last Producer, featuring Rings hobbit Sean Astin. Gary Busey’s son, Jake, starred in Rings director Peter Jackson’s film, The Frighteners.

2004: Million Dollar Baby
Cloud 9 writer and producer Albert S. Ruddy won his second Best Picture Oscar for this film. Ruddy signed the Million Dollar Baby deal with director Clint Eastwood on the Cloud 9 set in Pacific Palisades. Cloud 9 actors Ken Garito and Tony Danza appear in Crash, co-written and directed by Ruddy protégé and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis.

As for 2005? Now of course, there are connections between Cloud 9 and Brokeback Mountain, which were pointed out on this site (as well as the new screenplay by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures that has its own place in the Brokeback trend), so anything goes when it comes to Oscar voting.

But for now, the Cloud 9 Magic Volleyball is pointing toward Crash.

Can you find more Cloud 9 Oscar connections? Send them here!

And see clips from Cloud 9 here!

Exclusive! Cloud 9 links lead to Oscar upset!

This morning, Oscar’s on Cloud 9!

They called it a stretch. They accused us of satire!

But in the end, the two degrees or less of separation to the beach volleyball-stripper motion picture comedy, Cloud 9, was the common link to every major winner of the 78th Annual Academy Awards.

This morning, Hollywood is arguing whether Crash’s surprise Best Picture win over favorite Brokeback Mountain was the result of an expert campaign (they sent us the DVD months ago) or a reflection of Hollywood’s hidden homophobia.

The answer, quite clearly, is actually one we’ve trumpeted loud and clear for a month now—Crash would win because of its uncanny connections to Cloud 9!

We’ve shown you, and the Internet has crackled with the Kevinbaconbusting connections between all the major nominees and Cloud 9, the hilarious comedy starring Burt Reynolds and written and produced by Burt Kearns & Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and last year’s Best Picture winner (Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy.

On Friday, the Tabloid Baby staff shook the Cloud 9 Magic Nine Ball to predict which connections were closest.

The dunderheads did indeed calculate that Crash would take top honors and win for Best Original Screenplay, and that Reese Witherspoon would snag Best Actress.

They were off by a degree on the other “closest links” to Cloud 9, which missed out on Oscar contention only by a few days—and format (it was released January 4th on DVD—rent or buy it today!).

Is there really a Cloud 9 connection? Here are the final results. We’ll let them speak for themselves:

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) worked with Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights.

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) starred in Legally Blonde with the small dog, Moonie. Moonie appears as Gary Busey’s dog in Cloud 9.

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney (Syriana) appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration TV special. He also appeared in the TV series Baby Talk, with Cloud 9 actor Tony Danza supplying the voice of a baby.

Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) appeared with Cloud 9 star Tom Arnold on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 22, 2005.

Best Director: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) co-wrote the screenplay for Tortilla Soup, which starred Paul Rodriguez, who coincidentally plays an Asian character, Wong, in Cloud 9.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain .
Co-writer Larry McMurtry wrote the film, Terms of Endearment. The starring role of Garrett Breedlove, played by Jack Nicholson, was written for, and supposed to be played by, Cloud 9 star Burt Reynolds.

Best Original Screenplay: Crash. Co-writer Paul Haggis (Crash) wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the film that won a second Best Picture Oscar for Albert S. Ruddy, and worked with Ruddy on the TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

Best Picture: Crash.

Frozen Pictures' Cloud 9 reigns o'er India!

Our pals at Frozen Pictures, deep into the world of Bonzos, Rutles and Flying Circuses as they wrap production on their upcoming feature film musical, The Seventh Python, have surfaced with some exotic news about their first feature film project: Cloud 9, Frozen’s wild and wildly influential sports comedy starring Burt Reynolds, DL Hughley and Gary Busey, has become a big hit in India!

Bollywood giants Shemaroo Entertainment released deluxe DVD and VCD versions of the hilarious beach volleyball comedy a few weeks ago. The launch was accompanied by high-profile giveaways, contests and other promotions, and the movie was praised as a sexy, funny and insightful comedy that stands up for women.

It’s also been compared favorably to a recent Bollywood hit starring one of the biggest stars in Indian cinema, Shahrukh Khan (also known as “King Khan”), as a disgraced captain of the Indian hockey team who decides to coach a female hockey team:

"The story is much akin to our Bollywood ‘Chak De’. A washed out former star, who is in need of money and an ambition to be fulfilled works towards a get rich plan and starts a volleyball team whose players consist of a group of beautiful athletic strippers. Burt Reynolds efforts in forming the world’s sexiest beach volleyball team with the strippers, is seen as a rib tickling comedy. Eventually though as the girls’ popularity swells, they want to win the crowds with their abilities, and not their bodies where these girls team up and play a match against actual volley ball players."

Cloud 9, of course, was written and produced by Frozen Pictures' Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, along with Albert S. Ruddy, Oscar®-winning producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby.

"We were talking about doing a sequel in Australia called 'Cloud 9 Down Under,'" says producer-writer Kearns. "Maybe we'll take the team to India and do 'Bolly-ball'!"

“I love Indian food,” adds Hudson, trying to curry favor with the new audience.

Sez Shemaroo:

"Shemaroo Entertainment has had a superb experience with their first English title release. The wonderful packaging of Cloud 9 drew a lot of attention from the retail shops. Further, Cloud 9 went ahead with exciting activities that were conducted for the first time in Shemaroo. The movie was released on the Friendship Day wherein Café Coffee Day had a special Cloud 9 Combo in their menu card. Anybody on the friendship day who would order a Cloud 9 Combo would get the exclusive movie Merchandise. On that special day all the Coffee Day outlets had a Cloud 9 Table Mat which contained a SMS contest with Phoney Tunes and the winner would stand a chance a win a Gift hamper.


"The movie Cloud 9 has Burt Reynolds as the lead cast and along with other stars like Ex-Miss USA, Kenya Moore and the internationally acclaimed volleyball star–turned-supermodel Gabrielle Reece and supermodel and the former Playboy Playmate, Angie Everhart, the movie Cloud 9 is worth keeping your eyes glued onto."

Oscar Trivia! Crash & Cloud 9

Cloud 9, the new ensemble motion picture comedy written and produced by Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy, has lots in common with the ensemble drama, Crash, nominated today for the Best Picture Oscar.

Crash’s director and co-writer is Paul Haggis, who wrote Million Dollar Baby, which gave Ruddy his second Best Picture Oscar (The Godfather was the first). Ruddy signed the Million Dollar Baby deal with director Clint Eastwood on the Cloud 9 set in Pacific Palisades. (Before Eastwood came on board, Crash star Sandra Bullock was the original choice for the Hilary Swank role in Baby. She lost out because the studio wouldn’t accept her demand that Haggis to direct. Though she denied the story, her role in Crash supports it).

Ken Garito, who has a role in Crash, stars as bartender Tommy Z in Cloud 9.

Tony Danza has cameo roles in Crash and Cloud 9.





Both Crash and Cloud 9 are set in Los Angeles.

Crash tackles racism and classism.

Cloud 9 satirizes racism and classism.

Crash and Cloud 9 both have fight scenes.

Crash actor Daniel Dae Kim and Cloud 9 writer/producer Burt Kearns had kids in the same preschool class.

Both films were shot in 2004.

Cloud 9 was released by 20th Century Fox on DVD January 3rd, hitting the Top 5 of premiere releases, but skipping domestic theatres and missing out on Oscar consideration.

Tale of the Tape:
Cloud 9 vs Crash Cast Comparisons
Burt Reynolds... Matt Dillon
DL Hughley... Don Cheadle
Paul Rodriguez... Daniel Dae Kim
Paul Wesley... Ryan Philippe
Angie Everhart... Sandra Bullock
Gabrielle Reese... Jennifer Esposito
Kenya Moore... Thandie Newton
Rick Overton... Brendan Fraser
Pat Finn... Terrence Howard
Ken Garito... Ken Garito
Tony Danza... Tony Danza
Tom Arnold... Keith David
Bruce Bruce... Larenz Tate
Gary Busey... Ludacris

Cloud 9 fleshing out to be a movie comedy classic!

Pop culture phenomenon alert: with a MySpace tribute page, constant exposure on pay cable television and a slobbering Internet-ogler fanbase Cloud 9, the beach volleyball sex comedy written and produced by our pals at Frozen Pictures along with Academy-Award winning producer Albert S. Ruddy is becoming a modern-day comedy classic.

Seriously.

The movie starring Burt Reynolds and featuring an all-star ensemble cast including D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Gary Busey, Bruce Bruce, former Miss USA Kenya Moore, prime time TV star Katheryn Winnick, Tom Arnold and current Maxim en Espanol covergirl Patrica de Leon, among others, made a splash when it was released on DVD two years by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (a release held up by Ruddy’s successful Oscar® campaign for Million Dollar Baby), but its longevity and sleeper status is a surprise to everyone but its creators.

We stumbled upon the “Mr.Skin” factor to Cloud 9 when researching de Leon earlier this week. A Google search leads to a screen grab from Cloud 9 and a CelebVid site featuring sexy and naked stills of famous actresses. The Cloud 9 posting focuses on bikini’ed butts!

Other sites like SuperiorPics Celebrity Forums, Celebrity Movie Archive and HotFlick.net freeze the action from the flick, download the stills, polish and color them up and fetishize the beautiful actresses and, and we’re embarrassed to say—their individual body parts!

But even wilder is the new MySpace page that pays tribute to the film!


”Cloud 9 Movie Tribute” pays respects to "the sexiest, most hilarious and socially insightful beach volleyball motion picture comedy ever!" It includes video, stills and reviews, good and bad—including one that reads:

"...The definition of the phrase, "cloud nine", means a state of elation or happiness, but that's obviously a bad title for this movie. There's no one that should be happy about seeing Burt Reynolds and company at the nadir of their careers doing what they can to peddle T&A for not-even-worthy-of-Skinemax straight-to-video entertainment..."

Cloud 9’s script, that has Reynolds in a familiar rascal role, as a conman who strikes gold with a scheme to sell a beach volleyball team comprised of strippers, does have its “social insights,” with its Malibu location and characters like Tenspot the limo driver and Juan Gonzalez, a Chicano nursery owner who masquerades as Asian because "In this town, you're Mexican, you’re just an ordinary gardener-- you're Asian, you’re a landscape designer."

And it's clear that for a number of reasons (not the least being Reynolds’ charming central performance), the movie has struck a chord among moviegoers. It's become a staple on pay cable television in the States (it’s running on a number of systems this month), and has struck gold internationally. Cloud 9 is a hit in India, thanks to its kinship to a popular field hockey film starring Bollywood legend Shahrukh “King” Khan.

In an interview with journalist Yasmin Brennan coinciding with the film’s release by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, writer-producers Hudson and Kearns seemed to realize their film's potential as a sleeper hit:

HUDSON: Early on, we had this budgeted and scheduled to get Cloud 9 out for the Olympics. This was going to be a real 21st Century production. We were going to shoot this on Hi Def. We had a top DP who knew Hi Def in and out, and we had Panavision ready to do tests. But (Director) Harry (Basil) and his crew wouldn’t hear of it. They pleaded for film. And Al’s old school instincts won out.

KEARNS: Of course, it’s the best of the old school. In the end, all our experience and styles produced one hilarious, exciting picture. Harry goes for straight, lowbrow comedy. Al has the classic Hollywood sensibility. He knows how to tug at the heartstrings. (Executive producer) Gray (Frederickson) is from the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era. He was in Big Wednesday! Burt Reynolds, what can you say? He’s an all-out legend and a true artist. And us?

HUDSON: Well, we made it happen. And we brought the contemporary vibe.

KEARNS: We kept reminding these guys to keep it more Ben Stiller and less Jerry Stiller.

HUDSON: More Vince Vaughn and less Robert Vaughn.

KEARNS: More Dodgeball, less bocci ball--

HUDSON: We get the picture.

KEARNS: Because of all that, because of the mix, Cloud 9 works.

HUDSON: We’re going straight to DVD, of course... But Harry is a direct-to-DVD director. That’s the kind of picture he makes and everyone knew that going in. And that’s not negative. It’s a whole new business and DVD and direct demand are the way of the future. Cloud 9 is going to be a great seller and a perennial rental.

At least check out that MySpace page.

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.)

Yes, Cloud 9 is linked to Oscar®'s Best Picture!

Hey, we almost let the Oscars® slip away without mentioning the incredible connection between this year's Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, and Cloud 9, the hilarious 2006 sports comedy written and produced by our pals at Frozen Pictures. For a couple of years now, we've had an annual list of the eerie one-degree-of-separation between the beach volleyball sex comedy and social satire starring Burt Reynolds and the nominees and eventual holders of the golden statuette ("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...").

And with our Tabloid Baby research staff has been let loose on other subjects this season, it's been left to our readers to point out the the link between Cloud 9 and Slumdog Millionaire: mainly that Cloud 9 remains a big hit in India! Bollywood giants Shemaroo Entertainment released deluxe DVD and VCD versions of the movie in 2007. Its popularity spread because of favorable comparisons to a Bollywood hit starring Indian superstar Shahrukh Khan (also known as “King Khan”), as a disgraced captain of the Indian hockey team who decides to coach a female hockey team. Wrote Shemaroo:


"The story is much akin to our Bollywood ‘Chak De’. A washed out former star, who is in need of money and an ambition to be fulfilled works towards a get rich plan and starts a volleyball team whose players consist of a group of beautiful athletic strippers. Burt Reynolds efforts in forming the world’s sexiest beach volleyball team with the strippers, is seen as a rib tickling comedy. Eventually though as the girls’ popularity swells, they want to win the crowds with their abilities, and not their bodies where these girls team up and play a match against actual volley ball players."

Cloud 9, of course, was written and produced by Frozen Pictures' Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, along with Albert S. Ruddy, Oscar®-winning producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby.

And get this: Shahrukh Khan introduced Slumdog at the Golden Globe Awards (where Burt Reynolds took home a Best Actor trophy in 1998) and starred with Amil Kapoor, the Bollywood star who played the TV host in Slumdog, in the 1995 Bollywood classic Trimurti.

We don't make this stuff up...