oscars (80 posts)

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Hugh Jackman's out. Ricky Gervais is taken. Neil Patrick Harris is moving up the Academy Awards' invite list.

Not so fast on that last one.

On Friday, we asked Las Vegas' own Oscar handicapper Johnny Avello for his take on who'll be the awards show's next host. Avello, director of sports race and sports operations for the Wynn and Encore hotels, kindly complied with a hot-off-the-presses line.

When we first took a look, we were surprised. And not because the favorite of favorites is a dark horse. Because it—or rather, he—isn't. At all. Let's just say if Avello's right, your next Oscars telecast is going to be a blast from the past.

And not a blast from the Emmys by way of the Tonys. (Sorry, NPH.)

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Hugh Jackman would like to thank the Academy, but no thanks.

Despite his critically (the gig garnered several Emmy nominations) and publicly (he breathed new life and viewers into the ratings sinkhole) acclaimed Oscars hosting stint last spring, the Aussie actor will not be returning to the podium for the 2010 telecast.

Jackman's quiet exit doesn't mean he won't one day become this generation's Billy Crystal. His rep confirmed to E! News that he has not ruled out a return to the Oscar stage, but just didn't want to emcee for two consecutive years.

Fair enough. After all, how are we supposed to realize how good this is until we spend a year without it?

No frontrunner has emerged to fill Jackman's sizable song-and-dance shoes, but with one obvious fill-in, Ricky Gervais, suddenly bringing new buzz to the Golden Globes, the Academy better bring out the big guns.

So…Stephen Colbert, Neil Patrick Harris, Conan O'Brien, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, uh, Robert Pattinson…who would you like to see host the 82nd Annual Academy Awards when they return March 7?

________

You know what movie's already getting Oscar buzz? You do now.

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And the Oscar goes to...November.

In the latest effort to shake up tradition and make the Oscar show more viewer-friendly, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced it will hand out this year's honorary Oscars months ahead of time, at an inaugural Governors Ball on Nov. 14.

Recipients include producer-turned-studio head John Calley, who will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award; legendary actress Lauren Bacall; B-movie master Roger Corman; and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

Let the scramble for broadcasting rights begin!

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Jeff Vespa/Getty Images; Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images; Todd Williamson/Getty Images; George Pimental/Getty Images; Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Seth Rogen and James Franco have taken the pineapple express to Oscar credibility.

As if expanding the Best Picture nominee pool and potentially nixing the Best Song category wasn't enough to modernize the usually staid Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, surely its welcoming of cinema's preeminent bong jokesters is.

Rogen and Franco are two of 134 new artists and movie industry executives who have been extended invitations to join the Academy and, in doing so, secure voting rights for all future Oscar ceremonies beginning in 2010.

The smokin' Pineapple Express duo are joined by fellow Judd Apatow repertory players Michael Cera, Paul Rudd and Jane Lynch, along with Casey Affleck, Viola Davis, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Taraji P. Henson, James McAvoy, Tyler Perry, Danny Boyle, Emile Hirsch, Michelle Williams, Amy Ryan, Slumdog soundtracker A.R. Rahman, Peter Gabriel, Tom Cruise's producing partner-in-crime, Paula Wagner, Milk man Dustin Lance Black and Mr. Oscar himself, Hugh Jackman.

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Fame Pictures,Ken Katz/startraksphoto.com

•  It was only a matter of time. Suri Cruise and Cruz Beckham are, like, totally getting married! Word is Cruz asked her to hit the swingset with him after one of her dance shows. They celebrated over cupcakes. Parents Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, David and Victoria Beckham are so proud.

•  Angels & Demons star Stellan Skarsgård thinks Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown sucks. Oy.

•  It's totally on the D-L, but Jessica Alba may join a secret society at Yale.

•  Hugh Jackman's washboard abs may drive you crazy, but at least now he can drive himself there to meet you. Wolverine got his license!

•  Vanessa Hudgens' Zac Efron is not altar-bound.

•  Kevin Spacey supposedly wants to host the Oscars. What do you think?

•  Dear Chris Pine: Hello, lovah! These pics from GQ have our jaws on the floor. Love, Rise 'n' Shine

Jennifer Aniston brings quizzical (and, thus, fun vocabulary) to the Big Picture gallery.

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Kelsey Mcneal / Fox; Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images

Who wants to be a 24 series regular? At least one star of Slumdog Millionaire.

Continuing the cast's post-Oscars domination of Hollywood (see: Freida Pinto's endless array of job offers), Bollywood heavyweight Anil Kapoor has signed on as a full-time cast member for the forthcoming eighth season of 24.

Kapoor, who made his mark on Western screens as the suspicious, outsized game show host in Danny Boyle's acclaimed film, will star as a Middle Eastern leader who comes to the U.S. on a peacekeeping mission—and, one assumes, crosses paths with Jack Bauer somewhere along the way.

As it is, Kapoor is the first major casting announcement for the next world-saving day of 24. Kiefer Sutherland & Co.'s current seventh season will conclude with a two-hour finale on May 18.

While no premiere date has been set, 24's eighth season, which will mark Kapoor's first American TV role in his nearly three-decade career, will likely kick off, as usual, in January of next year.

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The Oscars are moving to March. The Golden Globes are moving to, well, live.

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast by NBC at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Jan. 17, 2010, the Hollywood Foreign Press announced today.

The bottom line for West Coast viewers: Say goodbye to tape-delayed cuss words from your favorite champagne-quaffing winner. (Although, sorry, if the network can help it, the cuss words will still be bleeped.)

The move was billed as a first for the Globes, although the star-deficient, Globes press conference of 2008 also was carried live. The latter event, though, wasn't exactly what you'd call a ceremony. Or maybe even an event.

The move also positions the Globes on the third weekend in January for the first time since 2006. (Of late, it had been held on the second weekend.) The new schedule mimics that of the Oscars, which is moving to the first weekend in March for the first time since 2006.

Universal Pictures

So, if Johnny Depp finally wins his Oscar next year, is he going to thank the Academy for pushing the ceremony to March? If Leonardo DiCaprio loses, is he going wish the shot clock had run out faster? 

Let's put it this way, either star wouldn't be the first to think the calendar saved him—or sunk him.

"That happens all the time," says Tony Angelotti, an Oscar consultant who works with Universal Pictures and Disney/Pixar.

Oscar's move to the first Sunday in March for the 2010 ceremony, however, may add some new wrinkles to Hollywood's conspicuously smooth brow.

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Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

As excited as she was about her big Best Actress win at the Oscars last night, Kate Winslet surely saw it coming. In fact, she predicted only a few years ago that participating in a Holocaust film not unlike The Reader might bring her a little gold man!

In 2005, the much-lauded actress appeared on the comedy series Extras playing herself. When Ricky Gervais' character commends the actress for doing a Holocaust movie, she tells him it has nothing to do with spreading the message.

"I don't think we need another film about the Holocaust, do we?" her character version of herself says. "It's like, how many have there been? We get it. It was grim. Move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust, [you're] guaranteed an Oscar. I've been nominated four times—never won. The whole world is going, 'Why hasn't Winslet won one?' That's it. That's why I'm doing it. Schindler's bloody List. The Pianist. Oscars coming out of their ass!"

Something tells us the statuette wasn't the main reason Winslet signed on to play Nazi guard Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. But perhaps her moment on Extras left a minor impression...