Brokeback Mountain co-stars and Academy Award nominees Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams might be headed for a break-up in the near future. The New York Daily News is reporting that the two lovebirds, who share a child together–17 month old Matilda–had a huge argument after Heath was spotted around a hoard of women on Valentine's Day at a popular L.A. night club called Teddy's.

Reportedly, he wasn't doing anything too inappropriate but some say Michelle is still very angry with him for going out and partying on Valentine's Day while she sat home with the baby.It's possible things have cooled down between the two of them since they were spotted on the red carpet together this past Oscar weekend at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Ledger's next upcoming project is a film called I’m Not There where he, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, and Christian Bale will all be playing music legend Bob Dylan. The film is written and directed by the brilliant Todd Haynes, and Michelle Williams is also starring the project. After that he's playing The Joker in the next installment of the Batman franchise called The Dark Knight, where he will again co-star with Christian Bale, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Ever since I saw Fargo, Academy Award winner Frances McDormand has been one of my favorite actresses and I will loyally be the first one in the theater to see any film she’s ever in. I loved her in North Country for which she garnered another Oscar nomination and she was the best part of the Jennifer Aniston film Friends With Money.

And that brings me to the lovely piece of news that Frances has been nominated for a Spirit Award (this year they are no longer the Independent Spirit Awards…just Spirit Awards) for Best Supporting Female. She’s up against:

Amber Tamblyn - Stephanie Daley
Marcia Gay Harden - American Gun
Melonie Diaz - A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints
Mary Beth Hurt - The Dead Girl

The Spirit awards will be aired on IFC on February 24.

Go Frances!

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced that “Brokeback Mountain“, starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, will be available on DVD April 4. The film was directed by Ang Lee (”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“), who earned an Academy Award.

“As one of the most talked-about movies of the year, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ has not only established a new benchmark in filmmaking but it has also permeated the public consciousness to an unprecedented level,” commented Craig Kornblau, President, Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “We are confident that this DVD will profoundly resonate among consumers and that it will quickly become an integral part of every DVD collection.”

Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Director (Lee), Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana) and Best Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla), “Brokeback Mountain” tells the story of Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), two young men dispatched to work as sheepherders up on the majestic “Brokeback Mountain” in the summer of 1963. During their experience, Ennis and Jack are drawn into an unexpected life-long relationship, filled with love and loss.

The DVD is priced at $29.98 SRP.

In one word Transamerica is hilarious. In two words Transamerica is hilarious and moving. It’s interesting to see how the media takes certain movies and pigeonholes them, because if you have seen Transamerica and note the category that Felicity Huffman’s performance was put in the for the Golden Globes by the HFPA, you know Transamerica is not a drama. At most a dramedy, but this movie is too funny and lighthearted to be considered a straight drama. But of course, because it’s about a pre-op transsexual it’s gotta be one of those down and dirty gritty dramas, right? Wrong. But hey, at least it got Huffman a Golden Globe she other wise wouldn’t have won up against Reese Witherspoon in the Comedy & Musical category.

What Duncan Tucker does right in Transamerica is where many movies like this go wrong. It doesn’t try to preach or be socially aware. It simply just is. And that is the best kind of social commentary in film.

Transamerica is the story of a transgendered woman named Bree that has yet to have her operation. She is a middle-class conservative woman who is intelligent and intellectual, and seemingly her only friend is her therapist Margaret. Bree needs a doctor and Margaret to sign the consent form to allow her to have her operation. She gets the doctor and now all she needs is Margaret’s signature. But before Bree goes to visit Margaret, she gets a phone call from a New York police station asking for a Stanley Osbourne (Bree’s old name), saying they have his son. Bree goes to Margaret to tell her about it, laughing it off as she thinks it’s ludicrous she could have a son (or at least wants to think so seeing as how operation is very soon). But to Bree’s dismay, Margaret refuses to sign the consent form. She says Bree needs to acknowledge that Stanley is a part of her, and needs to tie up all loose ends with Stanley’s life before she can move on with Bree’s.

Bree must now drive to New York to bail out her “son” who she still thinks is lying and rush back to L.A. so that she can have her surgery. Seems pretty simple and not too funny either, right? When Bree gets to New York and bails out Toby (her son played by the very effective Kevin Zegers), he shows her a picture of his mom and dad. His dad being Stanley and his mom being Stanley’s one night stand.

Bree now knows that Toby really is her son, but poses as a Christian caseworker specializing in converting sex workers to Jesus. Toby agrees to drive back with Bree to L.A. because he wants to go there to pursue a career in film. Bree doesn’t yet know he means the pornographic kind.

This is where the bulk of the movie begins as it becomes an on-the-road film, and the dynamics of Toby’s crack-snorting New York hustler personality fizzes with Bree’s sophisticated conservatism.

Felicity Huffman’s performance in this movie is absolutely phenomenal. For a woman to play a man who is becoming a woman in itself is incredible. She has to completely strip herself of her own mannerisms and even her own voice, to completely re-learn femininity. But beyond showmanship, every line delivery, every quip, every joke, every emotion, every reaction, every facial expression is truly wonderful. She carries this splendid film like Goliath making us laugh and cry all at once.

I went to see this film twice, first at the IFC theatre in Chelsea and then at AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, and both times the entire theater was erupting in laughter from beginning to end. The interesting thing was…the second time I went with a few friends of mine…afterwards my friend asked us on the Subway “Okay…was it just me..or did that actor really look like Lynette? (Huffman’s character on Desperate Housewives)” She didn’t even know Felicity Huffman was playing the lead! How incredible is that?

This is the kind of movie that makes you remember why art is sacred and beautiful. Once this story gets rolling you completely forget that you’re watching a movie about a transgendered person or even that you’re even really watching a movie. The story is so human and so natural that it just transcends the cinematic fourth wall.

Transamerica is a beautiful film with some wonderful comic writing and performances that touches you without being manipulative or contrived. Even if simple road movies aren’t your thing, this movie is worth seeing if for nothing else to see Felicity Huffman’s brilliant Oscar-nominated performance.

Oscar gold became real gold for best-picture winner “Crash” - its DVD sales spiked after Sunday’s Academy Awards. On Monday, Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, sold 17,500 copies of “Crash,” more than half the previous week’s entire total of 33,000.

The DVD was No. 19 on Amazon.com’s top-sellers list on Wednesday, up more than 80 places from last week.

“Crash,” which was released on DVD on Sept. 6, 2005, has sold about 4 million copies to date, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Sales also spiked after the Oscar nominations were announced on Jan. 31.

A two-disc “director’s cut” edition of the film will be released on April 4.

“Crash” opened in theaters in May 2005

The cowboy love story “Brokeback Mountain” won best picture and its creator Ang Lee was named best director Saturday at the Independent Spirit Awards, which played out as a potential prelude to the Academy Awards.

Honoring the best in lower-budgeted, edgy filmmaking, the Spirit Awards honored many key contenders for Sunday’s Oscars, where “Brokeback Mountain” is the best-picture favorite.

“In a year when the Oscars have such an independent spirit, I really treasure this encouragement,” Lee said.

Top Oscar nominees “Capote,” “Crash” and “Transamerica” also earned two honors at the Spirit Awards, and virtually every winner in the ceremony’s top 12 categories also is competing at the Oscars.

“Capote” took the best-actor award for Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is the favorite to win the same prize at the Oscars for his role as author Truman Capote. The film also earned writer Dan Futterman the best-screenplay award.

Hoffman, who has won most other key best-actor honors this award season, cheered his fellow nominees: Jeff Daniels for “The Squid and the Whale,” Terrence Howard for “Hustle & Flow,” Heath Ledger for “Brokeback Mountain,” and David Strathairn for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

“It’s ludicrous and I’ve been given enough,” Hoffman said. “And I want to share this so badly with all the nominees. I can’t tell you how fantastic these gentlemen are.”

Felicity Huffman, also an Oscar nominee, was named best actress for “Transamerica,” in which she delivers a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery. The film’s director, Duncan Tucker, received the award for best first screenplay.

The ensemble drama “Crash” won for best first feature by a director (Paul Haggis) and best supporting actor for Matt Dillon, who also has an Oscar nomination for his performance as a racist cop.

The supporting-actress prize went to Amy Adams for “Junebug,” who is nominated for an Oscar for her role as a sparkling Southern waif.

There usually is some overlap between the Oscars and Spirit Awards, such as last year’s “Sideways,” which dominated the independent prizes and was a contender in top Oscar categories.

But this year, the Oscar nominations mainly singled out the same dark, daring low-budgeted films that ruled the Spirit Awards.

“Brokeback Mountain” is the story of two sheepherders who carry on a torrid gay love affair that they conceal from their families for years.

It would be the first explicit gay theme film to win the best-picture Oscar.

“Mostly ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is about sheep,” said one of the film’s producers, Diana Ossana.

“So we want to thank our shepherd, Ang Lee,” said the film’s other producer, James Schamus.

Along with “Brokeback Mountain,” “Crash” and “Capote” are nominated for best picture at the Oscars. A fourth best-picture Oscar nominee, the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” earned the cinematography honor at the Spirit Awards for Robert Elswit, who also is nominated at the Oscars.

The Spirit Awards’ other top two prizes also went to Oscar nominees: The Palestinian terrorist tale “Paradise Now” was picked as best foreign film, while “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” was honored as best documentary.

Presented by the nonprofit group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards honor movies showcasing original, provocative subject matter shot on relatively modest budgets, with financing at least partly from outside the Hollywood studio system. Winners were chosen by the group’s 6,000 members, who include actors, directors, writers and other film professionals.