'Dreamgirls' Will Sweep the Oscars: Go See It!

Preview audiences are showing nothing but love for 'Dreamgirls'. The screening last night in NY received 2 standing ovations and mucho cheers during the showing....


From Foxnews:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,234403,00.html

"Dreamgirls" premiered last night at the Ziegfeld in New York — and Jennifer Hudson got a standing ovation in the middle of the movie when she finished singing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going."

When the film was over, there was another standing O, and the entire audience stood still and watched the main end credits.

Co-star Beyonce was long gone by then. She worked the red carpet, did her publicity and then split with boyfriend Jay-Z. She told me she'd rented a private plane and was ferrying him off for a birthday surprise. Insiders were split on whether they went as far as St. Bart's or only Atlantic City.

But Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Hudson, writer-director Bill Condon and a huge number of Paramount-Viacom officials (starting with Brad Grey) were all in attendance. So were Queen Latifah and a lot of other guests who were bowled over by the film.

Yours truly was also pleasantly surprised, since "Dreamgirls" had been slightly edited and reworked since my initial review on Nov. 15. It's even better now, if that's possible.

After the movie, the crowd headed to Gotham Hall on Broadway, but Foxx and Latifah took a group farther downtown to Gin Lane on 14th Street to keep the celebration going past 1 a.m.

Jamie was in fine form and Queen La had praise for the whole cast, but if anything else happened, we'll have to read about it in the tabloids. Some people have jobs!

At the Gotham, Murphy — sure to be nominated for all the awards in his role as soul singer James "Thunder" Early — told me something interesting.

"That's not my singing voice you hear," he said. "I'm acting. My real voice is like it was on 'Party All the Time' [his hit record from the 1980s]." "It's up here," he said as he gave me a few notes. "But in this, I had to [do] all kinds of singing. That's my character."

Murphy's Early is part James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Marvin Gaye all rolled into one. It turns out Eddie used to live on the same street as Pickett in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. They never really met. But Pickett was such a character that everyone knew him. Legend has it he had to leave town after running his car across the mayor's lawn.

"We knew he was there," Eddie said.

I asked Murphy if he'd ever seen an audience react to a movie like this before.

"Never at a premiere," he said, a little stunned.

He told me he's not going to get excited until (or if) he's nominated for something. So stay tuned, because January should be a wild month for the ex-"Beverly Hills Cop."

 

I think it's Will Smith's movie that'd get the honors, not Dreamgirls. It'd be great if both did 8)

 

I look forward of seeing it. I wonder what would be the reaction in Detroit where Motown was located? No doubt it will exciting. Saw the trailers and loved it!!