Jean Dujardin of The Artist and Michelle Williams from My Week With Marilyn walked away with the top acting honors at the 27th Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. The Seth Rogen-hosted indie film kudosfest — which took place this afternoon in Santa Monica, Calif. — will be broadcast tonight at 10 p.m. on IFC. If you wish to watch the show and don’t want the experience ruined any further: SPOILER ALERT! READ FULL STORY »
Chris Matthews has Election Day. Rich Eisen has the Super Bowl. And a movie dork like me has Oscar Sunday. I’m excited to be returning as the Academy’s official red-carpet greeter this year; you’ll be able to see me introduce and welcome all the nominees and presenters (like that pretty lady to the left) here on EW.com as well as on Oscar.com starting at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific on Sunday.
And as the Academy has just announced, once the ceremony starts, I’ll be stationed backstage for Oscar.com where I’ll be the first person to interview all the winners as soon as they finish their speeches. The Oscar.com “Backstage Pass” show will be hosted by the always unpredictable Sherri Shepherd and the ridiculously charming Cameron Mathison; they’ll toss to me throughout the evening for all the scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes.
In the meantime, check out my 10-part Oscar.com series, “Nominated,” which looks at all the Best Picture nominees and gives you tips on how to win your Oscar pool. See you all Sunday!
Dave on Twitter: @davekarger
The winners of the 14th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards were announced last night. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Oscar-nominated W.E. took home the big awards for film. TV honors went to Glee, Boardwalk Empire, and Downton Abbey. Swiffer’s “Country Dirt Cowgirl” took home the sole commercial prize.
Four honorary awards were also presented to Kate Beckinsale, costume designer Marlene Stewart (Real Steel, Tropic Thunder), Glee designer Lou Eyrich, and longtime collaborators Deborah Hooper and Clint Eastwood. Jane Lynch hosted the event. Glee creator Ryan Murphy, actor Columbus Short, Marcia Gay Harden, Ken Watanabe, and supermodel-turned-Revenge star Amber Valletta were on hand to present a few of the night’s awards. See the full winners list below. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Vito Amati/Getty Images
Will they sing? Will they dance? Will something get bleeped?!
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis will be presenting at the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today. This marks the first Oscar appearance for Galifianakis and the not-quite-first appearance for Ferrell.
The comedians join a line-up of presenters that includes Halle Berry, Rose Byrne, Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Michael Douglas, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Ellie Kemper, Jennifer Lopez, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covery, the Muppets, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, Emma Stone and Kristen Wiig.
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The Help will likely add to its bevvy of Hollywood honors at Friday night’sImage Awards.
The film about black maids who speak out against their white employers during the civil rights era leads all nominees with eight bids, including best picture. Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Cicely Tyson, and Bryce Dallas Howard are up for acting awards, and Tate Taylor is nominated for outstanding writing and directing.
The medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and football sitcom The Game dominate the TV categories with six nominations each. Beyoncé and Jill Scott rule the recording category with four nods apiece.
Sanaa Lathan and Anthony Mackie are set to host this year’s Image Awards, presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Image Awards to honor diversity in the arts. The ceremony will be broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on NBC.
Read more:
Inside the Best Picture Nominees: A deep dive into ‘The Help’
Image Credit: Janet Mayer/PR Photos
The Academy continues to round up Hollywood’s most buzzworthy names to add to its list of presenters for the 84th Oscar telecast on February 26th (which will feature noticeably more circus stunts than past ceremonies).
Today, Tina Fey joined the growing line-up of presenters, which includes recent additions the Muppets and Ben Stiller, according to an announcement from producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer. Fey and company join a list which so far includes: Halle Berry, Rose Byrne, Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Ellie Kemper, Jennifer Lopez, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covery, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, Emma Stone and Kristen Wiig.
Did I mention the Muppets? Because there will be Muppets (even if it’s not to showcase their movie’s nominated song), and Kermit and Miss Piggy definitely know how to bring the classy.
Read more:
No Best Original Song Performances at the Oscars?
Dave Karger’s latest Oscar predictions
Full EW.com Oscars coverage
The first round of presenters has been confirmed for Jan. 25′s Film Independent Spirit Awards. Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, and Rashida Jones will take part in the Seth Rogen-hosted ceremony held on Oscars Eve. It airs that night at 10 p.m. ET on IFC. The Artist and Take Shelter lead the nominations.
Update: Meryl Streep had been announced as a presenter, but a scheduling conflict has arisen, and she will not attend.
Read more:
‘The Artist’ and ‘Take Shelter’ lead Spirit Award nominations
Oscars 2012: EW’s Special Coverage
Image Credit: Michael Tran/FilmMagic.com
Slowly but surely, the Academy is beginning to build its star-studded list of Oscar presenters for this year’s ceremony. The telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer have so far announced that Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez, and the cast of Bridesmaids – Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig — will be presenting. It will be the first Oscar show appearance for all six of the Bridesmaids actresses, and one can only hope they’ll still be playing the Scorsese drinking game.
The 84th Academy Awards airs Feb. 26 on ABC.
Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
In each of the last eight years, the winner of the Directors Guild of America Award went on to win the Best Director trophy at the Oscars. And in nine of the last 10 years, the DGA-winning film ended up taking Best Picture. So all eyes will be on tomorrow night’s DGA Awards, where The Artist‘s Michel Hazanavicius, Hugo‘s Martin Scorsese, Midnight in Paris‘ Woody Allen, The Descendants‘ Alexander Payne, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s David Fincher will compete for the evening’s biggest prize.
After dominating this week’s Oscar nominations, clearly The Artist and Hugo are the two top contenders for the DGA as well. Though both films share an affection for a bygone age of cinema, their directors couldn’t be more different: Hazanavicius, 44, is a relative newcomer with only three goofy French-language films under his belt, while Scorsese, 69, is a nine-time DGA nominee (and two-time winner, for 2006′s The Departed and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire). Hazanavicius is helped by the fact that Scorsese took the feature prize only five years ago. Either man could win, but my hunch is that just as rookie Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) bested Fincher (The Social Network) last year, the less-experienced Hazanavicius will pull out the victory tomorrow.
Check back here tomorrow night for the results. And my colleague Adam B. Vary will have a complete on-the-scene report as well.
Dave on Twitter: @davekarger
Image Credit: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com
The Writers Guild of America, West has enlisted Joel McHale and Zooey Deschanel to cohost its Feb. 19 awards show (which, unfortunately, is not televised). “I’m deeply excited to co-host the WGA Awards with Zooey Deschanel. She has that rare combination in that she’s beautiful, funny, and smells good. Without writers, movies and TV would be worse than untreated syphilis, so I’m thrilled to hand these fine people awards for their great work,” McHale said in the announcement. Who says the Golden Globes are the most fun?
Read more:
‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Breaking Bad’ top WGA nominees
‘Bridesmaids,’ ‘The Descendants’ lead WGA nominees
