No doubt everyone has heard by now of the sad passing of, arguably, one of the greatest American film actors of the 20th century.  For me, the passing of Paul Newman just feels a little bit bigger.  Newman had an uncanny ability to create this “I’m the coolest guy in the room” persona in a completely unpretentious way.  He made you root for the questionable character, and he made you root for him hard, all because Newman was incredibly likable on screen.  When you watch him, you can feel yourself connect with his character.  The best example of this is undoubtedly Newman’s title role of Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  From the odd love triangle with Robert Redford and Katharine Ross, to his repeated exhortations that the next move would certainly lose the federal marshals hot on his trail, to the final stand of two over-matched outlaws against hundreds of gun-toting military, Newman has you in the palm of his hand.  Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter wrote an appreciation a couple days back in which he argued that Newman shined brightest when he played a schemer.  This is undoubtedly true.  But let there be no doubt that what made us root for Newman the schemer harder than all the rest was his absurdly developed cool factor.

But Newman’s renown goes beyond his work as an actor.  Can you name another person who founded a company and gives 100 percent of his profits to charity?  I didn’t even know that Newman owned Newman’s Own until I read his New York Times obituary.  It’s worth thinking about the next time you buy salad dressing or popcorn (what else do they make, by the way?).  So Newman has donated more than $200 million to charity.  Pretty damn cool.

And let us not forget perhaps his greatest feat: He came in at #19 on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.  That fact alone is worthy of our unceasing adulation.

So, Mr. Newman, thanks for eating 50 eggs in Cool Hand Luke.  Thanks for Fast Eddie Felson—twice.  Thanks for playing Butch better than anyone ever could.  Thanks for being a great philanthropist.  Thanks for defying the Hollywood stereotype of having a half-dozen marriages.  You will be missed.

The annual Columbia University National Undergraduate Film Festival kicked off last night with Gossip Girl actor Connor Paolo hosting the sold-out event. After a few technical difficulties that no campus event can seem to ever avoid, Paolo’s small stature and 1990 birth-year became irrelevant as he came out with some rather smooth hosting skills. (Did he get trained to do that?) Although, sometimes acting (pun intended) a little too old for his age, his jokes came across as a little too Billy-Crystal-hosting-the-Academy-Awards-esque for my liking.

As for the films, there was a good variety, although Harvard-Westlake entry Ticklish was somewhat questionable. Awards were given out rather liberally (and diplomatically) in the end and it seemed like “everyone’s a winner“ was the rule of the night. The coveted Best Picture Award went to Sweet Jesus, which I thought was the meatiest of the 10 films shown. Set at a Catholic school, the film dealt with different cultures in a rather cutesy way and the risk of using child actors was proven well worthwhile: the two lead actresses performed remarkably well. Sweet Jesus also took Best Directed and the audience-selected Concord Award–all of which were the only cash prizes given out.

In one of the films, Three Syllables, a certain Alex Mack (aka Larisa Oleynik) surprisingly starred as a behind-the-counter smoke shop lady who is regularly approached by a young guy who was a little too good-looking compared to Oleynik (who doesn’t really look like her prime anymore, but I still love her for inviting me to her Secret World every day after school).

The festival ended with an almost empty room (nobody cares about the winners these days) and a rather flustered host, trying to control the restless audience (who, come to think of it, probably wished they had left with the others). I later saw young Paolo at a fraternity-hosted party that night with his little entourage. I was generally impressed with his demeanour and I think he handled himself nicely at both the event and at the lackluster party last night. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Paolo himself plans to go to NYU.