A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: March 10. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, campus correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Jennifer Brooks, student correspondent; Mae Nguyen, special contributor; Siulan Thomas, special contributor; Amy Lenhart, special contributor; Nick Young, photographer; layout by public relations.
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Back to the future for Oscar nominees
By Jennifer Baker
Student Correspondent
Here we are half way through the spring semester and I’m already dreaming of summer.
Between school and everyday life, there is barely any time for fun ... if only if we could go back to those carefree days of childhood.
It seems like just yesterday that no one knew who Reese Witherspoon, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal was.
However, at the Oscars March 5, they will be competing for the most prestigious awards given to actors and actresses. So, in the spirit of the Oscars I have decided to treat you with these movie classics.
Nominated for Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon has been popular among the younger generation a long time before her role as June Carter in “Walk the Line.” In 1999 she starred in “Cruel Intentions” with Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Phillippe. In this film she plays Annette, a young woman who is saving herself for marriage when she meets Sebastian, played by Phillippe. Sebastian sees this as a challenge and dates her with the intention of seducing her, only to later fall in love with Annette. This movie is however rated R for strong sexual dialogue, sexual situations involving teens, language and drug use.
Another classic Witherspoon film is “Sweet Home Alabama.” Witherspoon plays Melanie Carmichael, an up-and-coming fashion designer in New York, who is dating the admired bachelor Andrew. After accepting his proposal, Melanie travels back to her hometown in Alabama to get a divorce from her childhood sweetheart Jake. However, her trip opens up some old wounds she had forgot existed; leaving her to decide between the life she had or the life she has. “Sweet Home Alabama” is rated PG-13 for sexual references and some language.
Nominated for Best Actor in “Brokeback Mountain”, Heath Ledger has come a long way. Before he played a cowboy, he was a high school outcast in the 1999 movie “Ten Things I Hate about You”. Joseph Gordan-Levitt plays Cameron a new student at a typical California school. He falls in love the most popular girl in school, Bianca, and finds out that the only way he can date her is if he finds a date for her sister, played by Julia Stiles. Only what seems to be a simple task turns sour when Cameron learns that Bianca’s sister is the meanest social outcast in the school, whom no one is willing to date. That’s until Cameron pays Heath Ledger’s character, Patrick, to date the sister. This movie will have you laughing till the very end. “Ten Things I Hate about You” is rated PG-13 for cruel sexual humor and dialogue, alcohol and drug related scenes.
Jake Gyllenhaal, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, is also popular among teens and young adults. In 2004 he starred along side Dennis Quaid in the thriller, “The Day After Tomorrow.” Gyllenhaal plays Sam, a young teenage boy who suffers from an estranged a strained relationship with his father, played by Quaid. On a school trip to New York there is a bizarre ice storm that covers the earth. Now Sam and his father must put their differences aside in order to survive. “The Day After Tomorrow” is rated PG-13 for intense situations of peril.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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