Real-Life 'Fighter' Mom Hospitalized, Director Honored

Sad and happy news related to "The Fighter" today. First, the sad: Alice Ward, the tough-as-nails mother of nine played to perfection by Melissa Leo in the movie went into cardiac arrest yesterday and is currently in the hospital on life support. Ward, 80, has a history of health problems--in my interview with Leo from December, she spoke about how their first meeting took place in a hospital, where Ward was recovering from pneumonia. Our best wishes to the Ward-Eklund family.

In happier news, "The Fighter" director David O. Russell will be the subject of a career retrospective at the newly-expanded Museum of the Moving Image. The event kicks off Wed., Jan. 18 with a screening of "The Fighter," followed by a Q&A with Russell and filmmaker Spike Jonze. The pair are good friends who also enjoy putting each other on camera; Russell cast Jonze in a pivotal role in 1999's "Three Kings," and Jonze featured Russell in a cameo in his 2002 film "Adaptation." Russell's other films--"Spanking the Monkey," "Flirting with Disaster," "Three Kings," and "I Heart Huckabees"--will be screened on other evenings. For more information, go here.

--Jenelle Riley