Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

It's Friday, and you know what that means (it's time to quote Grace Helbig?)-everybody's linking for the weekend!

In Entertainment...

Blue is the Warmest Color, frontrunner for
the Louis Delluc, but not the Oscar?

In Contention: Guy Lodge wrote a fascinating piece about the Academy Awards rules for Best Foreign Language Film.  I partially agreed with him, and found the argument to be pretty interesting.  While I tend to side with the Academy on the one film per country rule (I really do think that an Oscar win or nomination can truly help a country like Iran or Chile with a burgeoning cinema scene), it is a tad bit ridiculous that the trophy doesn't go to the director but instead technically goes to the country, so people like Asghar Farhadi, Susanne Bier, and Michael Haneke don't technically have Oscars, even though we saw them clutching one during the ceremony.  Continue giving the awards, but let the directors receive the honor (not the producers or the country).

Hollywood Reporter: One of France's highest cinematic honors, the Louis Delluc Prize, listed its shortlist for the best films of the year.  As one might expect, the Palme d'Or winner and current buzz champion Blue is the Warmest Color (I'm going to attempt to catch it this weekend!) is amongst the contenders, as is Asghar Farhadi's The Past and Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake.  The film you're specifically noticed is missing?  Renoir, which was France's submission to the Academy Awards this year in an eyebrow-raising move (another film I will be checking out soon).

Also from Hollywood Reporter: Okay, this is a hot-off-the-presses sort of thing for me, as I haven't had a chance to watch the video, but huzzah-the first of this season's Hollywood Reporter round tables is now available!!!  Josh Brolin, Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal and my husband Michael B. Jordan are all in the video, and you know I will be watching this this weekend as well.  Cannot wait-these are not to be missed, though the Best Actress one is always the most interesting, admittedly.

Film Experience: It's the end of the month, so that means it's Supporting Actress Smackdown time!  The Film Experience this month tackled 1968, so there was a lot of gushing over Ruth Gordon's terrific horror turn (well-timed, Nathaniel) in Rosemary's Baby.  That's sadly the only one of these films I've seen (I swear-I clearly watch Oscar-nominated films, but for some reason they always land a year I'm missing most everyone), but it's always a delightful read and usually results in at least one Netflix list addition, so check it out.

Entertainment Weekly: Have y'all seen Todrick Hall's delicious, divatastic "Spell Block Tango?"  It's too funny if you love musicals or Disney, so head on over.  Also, there's even a Glee connection-one of our favorite stars of the show is in the video (no, it's not Chord Overstreet in a catsuit, but I'll be sure to link that if I find it).

In Politics...

Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), one of seven blue state Republican
senators up in 2016.

National Journal: Charlie Cook speaks a truth that the Republicans should heed in this article about the long term impact of the 2014 chances on the party taking back the Senate.  While a lot of the focus lately has been on the stranglehold the GOP has on the House, if the Republicans cannot take back the Senate in 2014, there's a good chance the Democrats will have the Senate for the foreseeable future.  The reason for this is that there's a potential gold mine of seats in 2016 for the Democrats to win.  The Republicans have seven senators up in states that Barack Obama won in 2012, plus a seat in North Carolina, which the President nearly won.  If the Democratic nominee in 2016 (likely Hillary Clinton) does remotely as well as the President, it is nearly impossible to imagine the kind of ticket-splitting that would result in the Republicans holding the majority of those seats (looking at Charlie Cook's PVI, you see that Democrats generally are less likely to split their ticket for congressional races).  This is something to keep in mind, especially with races like Kay Hagan's starting to look safer and safer for the Democrats and races like Michelle Nunn's looking more and more competitive.

Roll Call: With Alex Sink's entry into the Florida special election, Emily's List got into a bit of hot water when they rescinded their earlier endorsement of attorney Jessica Ehrlich in favor of former State CFO Alex Sink.  I have to admit this seems pretty cold, though clearly Sink is the candidate with the better shot at winning the election.

And we'll end with an entry from C-Span, where Cory Booker (your fake political boyfriend and mine) was sworn into the U.S. Senate and brought the number of Democrats to 55...and yes, Joe Biden called Bob Menendez 'Frank,' which is the name of the senator that Cory is replacing. I love Joe Biden so much (not in an ironic or sarcastic way, but in a true and absolute way)-I wish he would give up on the White House in 2016 and have a reality show that I would literally never miss.