Academy invites new members
Jennifer Hudson, the former “American Idol” contestant who won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in the musical “Dreamgirls,” has joined her costar and Oscar-nominee Eddie Murphy among the list of actors invited to become Oscar voters, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday.
Also selected were Jennifer Aniston, new James Bond Daniel Craig and Steve Carell, star of “The 40 Year-Old Virgin.”
The actors are among an eclectic list 115 of artists, studio executives and others who work behind the cameras who have been invited to become voting members, the academy said.
Among the new members are those nominated for Oscars this year. They included Adriana Barraza (“Babel”), Ryan Gosling (“Half Nelson”) and Jackie Earle Haley (“Little Children”); directors Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) and James Longley (the documentary “Iraq in Fragments”); screenwriters Guillermo Arriaga (“Babel”); Patrick Marber (“Notes on a Scandal”) and Peter Morgan (“The Queen”); and costume designer Consolata Boyle (“The Queen”). Other actors invited to join the academy were Christopher Plummer, Aaron Eckhart, Chiwetel Ejiofor, James Rebhorn, Michael Sheen and Maribel Verdu.
Director Monte Hellman, known for counterculture films, such as “Two-Lane Blacktop,” was on the list, as were directors Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights”), D.J. Caruso (“Disturbia”), Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) and Simon West (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”).