Look who's invited to join the motion picture academy

I can't remember the last time I mentioned Beyonce, Wes Studi, Nastassja Kinski, Rooney Mara and Bradley Cooper in the same sentence. They are among the 178 actors, other artists and executives on today's list of newly invited members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I guess that means if they pay their dues they will get to vote on the Oscars and be in line to get seats for the annual show. How about some kudos for hanging in there for Studi and Kinski, you know what I'm saying. Here are the actors invited to join the academy:

Russell Brand, Gerard Butler, Vincent Cassel, Robbie Coltrane, Bradley Cooper, John Corbett, Rosemarie DeWitt, Peter Dinklage, David Duchovny, Jesse Eisenberg, Jennifer Garner, John Hawkes, Thomas Jane, Nastassja Kinski, Beyonce Knowles, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Lawrence, Tea Leoni, Anthony Mackie, Lesley Manville, Rooney Mara, Dominic Monaghan, Connie Nielsen, Ellen Page, Wes Studi, Mia Wasikowska, Jacki Weaver.

Also asked in the club were Aaron Sorkin (as a writer), directors Lisa Cholodenko and Tom Hooper, documentary makers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, and industry suits Christopher Dodd and Dawn Hudson. The posthumous invitation to Hetherington, the "Restrepo" director who was killed in Libya in April, was described as unprecedented for the academy.

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