TV channel awards 'Oscar'!

The organiser of prestigious Oscar Awards, Academy of Motion Picture and Arts and Sciences, today approached the Delhi High Court seeking an injunction against an Indian television channel for presenting the trophy similar to that of Oscar statuette to artists.

Filing a petition through advocate Praveen Anand, the Academy also sought damages of Rs two crore from the South based-Star Vijaya television channel, which organise Vijay
Awards for artists of Tamil film industry, for allegedly infringing its registered trade mark.

After hearing the parties, Justice G P Mittal referred the matter to the mediation centre and asked them to explore the possibility of necessary changes in the Vijaya Award
statuette.

Justice Mittal in his order made it clear that in case the parties failed to resolve the issue, the Academy would produce the prototype of the Oscar statuette before the court
which would then pass an appropriate order.

Appearing for the Academy, senior counsel Sanjay Jain submitted that there are striking similarities between the Oscar statuette and the statuette for the Vijaya awards.

Rahman creates magic at the Oscars | Video News

Colin Firth to play vampire?

London, March 6 – After playing a stuttering king in ‘The King’s Speech’, actor Colin Firth is likely to play a vampire in a horror movie. 

‘It’s dark, modern and creepy. He’s (Firth) going out on a limb with this part,’ a source told News of the World.

The 50-year-old Oscar winner is expected to join Nicole Kidman, 43, and ‘Alice In Wonderland’ star Mia Wasikowska, 21, in the film, which is inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel ‘Dracula’. It is about a girl called India and her mother who are visited by a mysterious uncle after the death of India’s father, reports dailymail.co.uk. 

If the things work out, Kidman may play the mother, Wasikowska will feature as India and Firth as uncle Stoker. 

IANS

'Slumdog' star Rubina loses house in fire

A child star of Oscar-winning movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' lost everything she had as her family home was destroyed in a huge fire in Mumbai.

Rubina Ali, who played Latika in Danny Boyle's 2008 Oscar-winning film, said she had lost everything, including her photographs, newspaper clippings and film memorabilia.

More than 500 huts were destroyed in the city centre blaze, near the Bandra Railway Station.

"Along with my house, all my good memories of my time on the film have been reduced to ashes. My new school books have been totally burnt. However, I feel relieved to see all my family members safe. The fire is so huge, it could have cost us our lives," the Daily Mail quoted the 12-year-old as saying.

Rubina's father, Rafiq Ali, said: "After my daughter's fame, this house had become all the more special for me. Seeing it burnt to ashes in front of my eyes, I feel like I have lost everything. This was all we had."

The fire that broke out in one of the houses in the early evening quickly spread to around 500 houses in the locality. Last night the fire was reported to be spreading due to strong winds blowing into the city.

Penelope, Bridges play Beauty and the Beast

Oscar winners Penelope Cruz and Jeff Bridges have posed as fairytale lovers Beauty and the Beast for a new Disney advertisement.

The stars dressed up as the beloved characters for a whimsical campaign for Disney theme parks shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, reports the Daily Star.

In the advertisement, Bridges looks like a handsome prince lifting Cruz in a yellow ball gown high into the air.

Leibovitz''s latest campaign also features Queen Latifah as Ursula from The Little Mermaid, as well as Olivia Wilde as the Evil Queen and Alec Baldwin as the Mirror from Snow White

Kate Winslet says no to botox

London, Mar 2 – Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet has no intention of going under the knife – because she is satisfied with her body.

 

“No, I have never tried any of that stuff. I don’t have parts of my body that I hate or would like to trade for somebody else’s or wish I could surgically adjust into some fantasy version of what they are,” she said.

The star was talking to the April edition of U.S. Glamour magazine, for which she posed in a figure-hugging Victoria Beckham dress, reports the Daily Mail.

The 35-year-old admitted that she hadn’t always been as confident in her looks.

“When I was heavy, people would say to me – and it was such a backhanded compliment – they would say, ‘You’ve got such a beautiful face.’”

“In the way of, like, ‘Oh, isn’t it a shame that from the neck down you’re questionable.’” (ANI)

Katie Price’s booze shame at Oscars party

London, Mar 1 – Mum-of-three Katie Price a.k.a Jordan allegedly shocked guests at Sir Elton John’s post-Oscars party – by getting trashed.

She drunkenly tried to snog horrified male and female guests before dragging a mystery man into a cab, reports the Sun.

The 32-year-old glamour model managed to corner Bros star Matt Goss for a kiss. 

She also made a beeline for boxer Joe Calzaghe but he ducked out of the way. 

Eventually she ended up dragging a bemused European man she had just met into a taxi. She was heard asking him: “How big is your ****.” 

One witness said: “It was embarrassing. People didn’t know where to look. 

“She was so drunk she was slurring her words and trying desperately to pull any man who would listen to her for more than 30 seconds. And there weren’t many. 

She was rejected by Calzaghe but managed to land a smacker on Matt Goss.

“She even tried unsuccessfully to kiss some women. 

“In the end she went off with some guy she had just met. 

“He obviously didn’t know who she was. Everyone heard her asking him how big his willy was.” (ANI)

Abhishek, Aishwarya, Mallika dazzle on Oscar red carpet

Los Angeles, Feb 28 – Bollywood star couple Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, along with Mallika Sherawat, dazzled in their finery at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards red carpet here.

Abhishek and Aishwarya got a chance invite to the prestigious event, where Hollywood’s Who’s Who gathers to celebrate international cinema. The duo was holidaying in Los Angeles and were not at all prepared to attend such a high-profile event at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood Sunday night.

However, last minute help from their designer friends helped them put their best foot forward at the red carpet.

Aishwarya sparkled in an off-shoulder Armani Prive bronze gown and kept her look minimalistic with just a pair of dangling earrings and hair on one side of the shoulder. 

Abhishek looked dapper in a traditional, formal black tuxedo.

Mallika, one of the most talked about Bollywood glamour girls, flaunted a sequinned white gown, with a daring front slit and a plunging neckline – just as she likes it always!

Among other Indians at the Oscars this year were composer A.R. Rahman, who was nominated in two categories – best original score and best original song – for his work in Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours”. However, he lost out on both the titles.

Nevertheless, Rahman wore a charcoal Corneliani suit and a blue tie to the red carpet, and took a proud walk with his wife Saira Banu, who chose a beige Indo-western ensemble with a golden Judith Lieber clutch.

Oscar Awards 2011: complete winners list

Finally, the much-expected 83 Annual Academy awards 2011 have been announced at a grand functions held at the Kodak theatre, Los Angeles. Movies like The King's Speech and Inception have shared top spot in the winners list of Oscar Awards 2011 by bagging four awards each, while The Social Network managed to occupy second spot with three Oscar gongs.

The King's Speech won four top awards in the categories like Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Director (Tom Hooper) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler). Leonardo DiCaprio's movie Inception has also got four awards in the Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects categories.

The following is the complete winners list of the 83rd Annual Academy Award announced Sunday:

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Best Directing: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Best Foreign Language Film: In a Better World, Denmark

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler, The King's Speech

Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Best Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Best Cinematography: Inception

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Original Score: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Original Song: We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Randy Newman

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Best Documentary (short subject): Strangers No More

Best Film Editing: The Social Network

Best Makeup: The Wolfman

Best Animated Short Film: The Lost Thing

Best Live Action Short Film: God of Love

Best Visual Effects: Inception

The King’s Speech bags four top honours at Oscar awards

After winning seven awards at BAFTAs, The King’s Speech is once again making it big. This time, it shines at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards 2011, which has been held at the Kodak theatre, Los Angeles. The Tom Hooper-directed historical flick was nominated in 12 categories and has managed to receive the top four honours at the Oscar Awards 2011 on Sunday.

Firstly, The King’s Speech has won the top-most honour of Oscars, the Best Motion Picture, beating nine hit movies. Secondly, Colin Firth, who played Prince Albert, Duke of York/King George VI in the film, has bagged the Best Actor gong for his wonderful performance. Thirdly, Tom Hooper has walked away with Best Director award. Finally, David Seidler has received the Best Original Screenplay award.

The King's Speech is a British Historical drama about the King George VI. Though movie got rave reviews, some film reviewers had the accused the movie bosses of twisting some historical events. It has been made the whopping budget of £8 million and it has topped the Box Office records for several weeks with its collections reaching $235,468,702 across the globe.

However, the film The King's Speech has already been screened at several International Film Festivals. Earlier, it has topped the winners list of BAFTA Awards 2011 by bagging seven top awards out of its 14 nominations. It has also bagged one Golden Globe award out of its seven nominations.

Natalie Portman wins best actress

Los Angeles, Feb 28 – Actress Natalie Portman won her first Oscar for best actress for ‘Black Swan’ at the prestigious 83rd Academy Awards here Sunday night. 

Portman beat Annette Bening for ‘The Kids Are All Right’, Nicole Kidman for ‘Rabbit Hole’, Jennifer Lawrence of ‘Winter’s Bone’ and Michelle Williams of ‘Blue Valentine’. 

IANS

‘In A Better World’ wins Oscar for foreign language film

Los Angeles, Feb 28 – Danish director Susanne Bier’s ‘In A Better World’ won the Oscar for foreign language film at the 83rd Academy Awards here. 

The film was competing with ‘Biutiful’ (Mexico), ‘Dogtooth’ (Greece), ‘Incendies’ (Canada) and ‘Outside The Law’ (Algeria). 

IANS

Christian Bale picks best supporting actor Oscar

Los Angels, Feb 28 – Actor Christian Bale took home his first Oscar by winning the best supporting actor at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards here for his role in ‘The Fighter’. 

The actor plays a troubled boxer Dicky Eklund in the movie, which also stars Mark Wahlberg.

Bale was competing with John Hawkes (‘Winter’s Bone’), Jeremy Renner (‘The Town’), Mark Ruffalo (‘The Kids Are All Right’) and Geoffrey Rush (‘The King’s Speech’) for the award.

‘The Fighter’ is about two brothers Dicky Ecklund (Bale) and Micky Ward (Wahlberg) who, against all odds, come together to train for a historic title bout that will unite their fractured family and redeem their past. 

IANS

Rahman loses Oscar for ‘127 Hours’ original score

Los Angeles, Feb 28 – Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman lost the Oscar for best original score to composer duo Trent Rezmor and Atticus Ross who won it for ‘The Social Network’ at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards here. 

Rahman is also nominated in the best song category with Dido and Rolo Armstrong, who have penned the lyrics of ‘If I Rise’.

Earlier this year, the 45-year-old had also lost the Golden Globe award as well as British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for best original music in ‘127 Hours’. 

IANS

Atwood wins best costume design Oscar for ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Los Angeles, Feb 28 – American designer Colleen Atwood won the Oscar award for her costume designs in Tim Burton’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’ at the 83rd Academy Awards here. 

This is the third Oscar for Atwood since she started designing for movies in 1984. She won the golden statuette earlier for her work in ‘Chicago’ (2002) and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ (2006).

The Academy award for best makeup went to Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for ‘The Wolfman’, while Richard King took home the best sound editing award for his work in ‘Inception’.

Oscar for sound mixing went to Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick for ‘Inception’. 

IANS

Bookies betting on how long Colin Firth’s Oscar winning speech would be

London, Feb 26 – As Colin Firth is favourite to win this year’s Best Actor Oscar, bookies have begun taking bets on how long his winning speech will be.

The British actor, who has already taken the Best Actor awards at the Golden Globes and the Baftas for his moving performance as King George VI in ‘The King’s Speech’, is hotly tipped to take home his third major film award honours at the Oscars this Sunday, reports the Telegraph.

William Hill’s odds on Firth for Best Actor currently stand at 1/66, the shortest odds the bookmaker has ever offered in the Oscars betting history. The odds beat those on offer for Helen Mirren before she won Best Actress in 2008 for her portrayal of The Queen.

His fellow nominees are trailing behind in public votes: 33/1 for Jeff Bridges (True Grit), 50/1 for Javier Bardem (Biutiful), 20/1 for Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and 20/1 for James Franco (127 Hours).

It is the second time that the British actor has been nominated for an Oscar – both times in the Best Actor category. (ANI)

The menu for post Oscar dinner revealed

Washington, Feb 26 – The 1,500 guests invited to the post-Oscar dinner will be treated to scrumptious culinary masterpieces at the Governors Ball.

The stars can pig out on sushi, shrimps, smoked salmon on flatbread with caviar and creme fraiche and black truffle pizza with ricotta and thyme, reports Fox News.

Among the starters prepared by catering company Wolfgang Puck feature 1,200 Kumamoto oysters and 1,500 mini burgers.

An army of 900 staff will be on hand to serve a trio of Wolfgang salads, followed by Dover sole with fennel and olives, vegetable risotto and paella with saffron.

Next up are layers of lemon cheesecake, raspberry cremiex, cassis gelee, Valrhona Ivoire and a 24 Karat chocolate Oscar.

Pastry chef Sheree Yard says pudding is the highlight and denies it’s hard to get the figure-conscious stars to eat.

“They’ve been in their gowns all day long, they’ve been on best behaviour and it’s time to have fun so they eat and they eat and they eat. There’s hardly anything left over.”

To wash it all down, 1,200 bottles of Moet and Chandon will be served – 500 of those magnums. (ANI)

Will Natalie break the curse?

A study conducted by the University of Toronto has found that actresses who win an Academy Award have either broken up with their husbands, boyfriends or lovers just months after winning.

And if the new research is to be believed, then actress Natalie Portman, who is the hot favourite for the top award for her performance in ''Black Swan'', could end up being the next to feel the curse, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The study showed that Best Actress winners have a 63 percent chance of ending up divorced, and that winners were proven to be 1.68 times more likely to head to the divorce court than those who were nominated but didn''t take home the gold.

Betting agencies are already giving punters the chance to bet on the likelihood of the newly engaged and pregnant Portman, 29, succumbing to "the curse".

Sports Interaction is just one US site who will pay 1.50 dollars if the actress and her fiancee Benjamin Millepied remain together officially until December 31, 2012.

Stars who were affected by the Oscar''s curse are:

Sandra Bullock 2010 - Her five-year marriage to Jesse James ended just days after her Oscar win for ''The Blind Side'' when she discovered he had been having an affair with a tattoo model.

Kate Winslet 2009 - A year after winning the Best Actress award playing a concentration camp guard in ''The Reader'', Winslet''s marriage to director Sam Mendes ended.

Reese Witherspoon 2006 - Witherspoon accepted the Best Actress award for her role in ''Walk the Line''. By the end of the year, she had left her husband and father of her two children, actor Ryan Philippe.

Hilary Swank 2005 - Swank split from husband Chad Lowe, whom she had called "my everything" during her acceptance speech, a year after winning for her role in ''Million Dollar Baby''.

Charlize Theron 2004 - As Theron accepted her Oscar for ''Monster'', she said of long-time boyfriend Stuart Townsend: "I have to thank my incredible partner in crime. You are one hell of a partner to have. Thank you for standing by me."

The couple ended their nine-year relationship in January 2010.

Halle Berry 2002 - Berry became the first black woman to win an Oscar for ''Monster''s Ball'' and a year later she left husband Eric Benet.

Julia Roberts 2001 - Roberts took home the Oscar for ''Erin Brockovich'' and thanked boyfriend of four years Benjamin Bratt in her speech. Three months later they parted ways.

Gwyneth Paltrow 1999 - Paltrow won her best actress Oscar for ''Shakespeare in Love'' and at the time was reportedly deeply in love with Ben Affleck. The couple split two months later.

Abhi, Ash to attend Oscars

After Cannes film festival, Abhi-Ash has been invited by the Academy to grace the Oscars Award ceremony on Sunday. 

The beautiful couple, Abhishek and Aishwarya is busy shopping in LA these days. Reason? The couple will grace the Oscars Award ceremony on Sunday.

Junior Bachchan and his beautiful wife have been invited by the Academy to attend the Oscars and it is believed they are one of the few Indian celebs attending the awards this year.

Happy about the news of beta-bahu gracing the Oscars, Amitabh Bachchan confirmed, "Abhishek and Aishwarya have been invited by the Academy to attend the Oscars on Sunday."

He also informed that Abhishek and Ash will join an American actor Warren Beatty whom they met during their shopping at LA.

Now that's an honor for Bachchan parivaar isn't it!

Rakeysh’s plea to the Oscars!

Rakeysh Mehra wants the Academy to help regional cinema flourish.

Rakeysh Mehra candidly admits that he does not follow the Oscars, nor has seen any films that have been nominated for the prestigious award this year, except for Inception. However, the filmmaker believes the Academy can help flourish India's regional cinema which gets overshadowed by Hindi cinema in spite of its brilliance.

Rakeysh feels when a film is selected as the official entry by India for the Oscars, the regional films often get snubbed and left out owing to the limitation in the number of official entries that are allowed to be sent from one country which is just one.

"India is a diverse country. We have various languages and the cinema which is made in other languages is brilliant, be it Marathi, Bengali or any other regional language. Though regional films do get selected for the Oscars, it's very rare as Hindi films often get preferred owing to its reach and dominance. Not that Hindi films do not deserve an entry but it's should be fair for other languages too and thus the Academy should allow India to send atleast two films instead of one. That would help the regional cinema flourish."

Seems like a good suggestion Rakeysh. Wonder what the Academy has to say to this.