A famous scene from Casablanca | Photo by udronotto via Flickr Normally, the Academy Awards making the news this early in the Oscar-year calendar doesn't make sense. That is, until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday in a press release the key dates for next year's show on Sunday, February 22nd. And after listing those dates (below if you care), the last sentence of the release mentioned why there was......

New mural of Marion Cotillard, Oscar winner, found in Los Angeles I Photo by Osmany Rodriguez for LAist> That's Marion Cotillard, this year's best actress winner at the Academy Awards. Pictured is a mural depicting a moment from her very sweet Oscar speech. Sadly my name isn't Olivier, I am at the moment providing 0.00% of rock to Marion's world. She's referring to Olivier Dahan, her director in the Edith Piaf biopic "La Vie......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the......

Enough with the Oscar talk -- Kimmel's long-awaited response to "I'm Fuckin' Matt Damon" is here and it's chock-full of hilarity:......

Ethan and Joel Coen, aka the Coen Brothers took home the biggest prizes at tonight's Academy Awards for the film "No Country For Old Men." It wasn't even the best film they've done but then again, Herbie Hancock. Jon Stewart ran the show as he did last year but could do no wrong with Regis Philbin there in the wings. You really want commentary? Visit our 2008 Oscars Liveblog. Hate the Oscars? Check out what......

Live, from in front of our television set, it's LAist's Oscar night liveblog extravaganza. I've spent the hours preceding tonight's telecast half-assedly getting ready by drinking beer, making brownies, and marveling over how few movies I actually saw this year (yet again.) I've stocked the larder with movie-going snacks, like popcorn, junior mints, and Twizzlers (sorry, this Canadian cannot do Red Vines; they taste like candles). Last night some amped up pitch gal with a......

"Banksy phone booth crashes Downtown LA?" by xxjetlab via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself. As we have pointed out before,......

Is this the best seat in the house? | Photo by neonspecs via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr TV: WATCH THE OSCARS LAist's own TV Junkie has already given us the deets (and some alternatives), but in case you missed it, the 80th Annual Academy Awards are tonight, live from our very own Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Settle into your favorite spot in front of your tee vee and tune in along......

Looks like the Academy Awards don't have the same in with Mother Nature and the big meteorologist in the sky the way the Tournament of Roses Parade does. It's a wet Sunday morning in the city known around the world for its perpetual sunshine, and when everyone's tuned into the 80th Annual Academy Awards this afternoon, the ugly truth will be revealed: It rains in Los Angeles! And it's probably going to keep raining. Cbs2.com......

Final preparations are being made for tomorrow evening's big Academy Awards bash, which means Hollywood is in for an ongoing traffic clusterfuck. Today's closures (pictured) have created a no man's land on the perimeter of the Kodak Theatre, which means streets and sidewalks have limited to no access for vehicles and pedestrians. Of course, the real logistical nightmare kicks in tomorrow when closures extend to streets south and west of the event (including portions of......

Outside the Kodak Theatre last year | Photo by nailmaker via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Yesterday we launched a series of polls to see who you would give the Oscar to in the big four acting categories. Now let's look at the other sets of nominees who will be gnashing their teeth and squirming in their seats at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on Sunday at the 80th Annual Academy Awards. So let's......

OK so the Oscars are this weekend. Even though the writers' strike is over, the prediction is that this will be a ho-hum (excuse me?) Oscars. First of all, the majority of the films presented for consideration are real downers, secondly, because of the strike, many potential presenters thought that the awards ceremony would be canceled or drastically cut back so they made other plans and are now not available to present at the show.......

Rollin' out the Red Carpet |Photo © Copyright 2008 by Jonathan Alcorn (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr The 80th Annual Academy Awards are this weekend and it's time to break out the ballots and play the at-home game, which is probably second only in fun to making booze-enhanced color commentary from the couch for the red carpet arrivals. (We'll leave you to your own devices on that one.) So let's......

Only a few more years of this before the Oscars moves out of Hollywood and Cirque de Soleil moves into the Kodak Theatre for a permanent show in 2010. Luckily, six days until the big event and impacts particular to tonight are minimal. From 10 p.m. tonight to 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, closures include Hollywood Blvd. from Highland Ave. to Orange Dr., part of the Hawthorne Alley on the east side of the El Capitan......

OK so the Oscars a week from Sunday are what we're building up to but as an enthusiastic follower of Dexter on Showtime, I'm intrigued to see how it will translate to its network debut on CBS at 10:00pm this Sunday. At first I was concerned that the end result would be a heavily edited, several minutes shorter, vapid and empty shell of its former glory. Not so according to my Showtime contact. Evidently when......

KNX1070 is reporting that "a police manhunt is ongoing West of a Washington Mutual bank at Ventura and Topanga Canyon in Woodland Hills. Authorities are searching for two armed kidnapping suspects." Things were something close to touch-and-go late this afternoon on the Blue Line near 5501 S Long Beach Ave when a female pedestrian fell near the tracks as a train passed by, but did not have any direct contact with the train itself.......

Heath Ledger's death today was a big loss to the Hollywood community. It is a notable national tragedy when young talent is lost from the spotlight in America, when someone so young and budding has his life cut short. Ledger's death, as well as artists like him reminds that the Academy has an annual tribute for such notable passing -- a tribute that will be completely absent this year if the Oscars don't go......

"No Country For Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," and "Atonement" all received nominations for Best Picture this morning, as the Academy Award nominations were announced in Beverly Hills. "No Country" and "There Will Be Blood" are the front runners with eight noms apiece, including a Best Actor nod for perennial Oscar fav Daniel Day-Lewis, and directing nominations for the Coen Bros. and Paul Thomas Anderson. While Javier Bardem was recognized......

The 80th Annual Academy Awards are scheduled to take place Feb. 24 at Hollywood & Highland's Kodak TheatreAuthorities have released the names of the victims in yesterday's deadly airplane collision in the skies above Corona. According to KNBC.com, "one of the victims -- Earl Smiddy, 58, of Moreno Valley -- was on the ground when he was hit by falling debris. The other victims were identified as Anthony Joel Guzman, 20, of Hesperia; Scott......

Hey check it, yours truly was invited to contribute some commentary to this ABCNEWS.com article (I'm on page 2). Thanks for your support! So the Golden Globes got canceled and now maybe the Academy Awards will get canceled and this is conflicting me. On the one hand I will have a whole bunch more free time (hours upon hours) to watch my Tivo'd episodes of Grape Ape but I will have so much less lousy......

Oh L.A. and your crazy kooky vagrants! Please meet Crazy Doll Lady (as we are calling her), pictured in the photo above. She and her scary puppet friends hang out around Sunset and Vine every day, and wait outside the Hollywood Public Library every morning for food handouts. Say hi to her if you see her...or drive by real real fast like I do! Even if the Globes are cancelled, Academy Awards organizers are......

Richard M. Sherman is half of the famous Sherman Brothers songwriting team. Responsible for the scores of “Mary Poppins” and “Jungle Book” He has two Academy Awards, A Grammy, A star on the walk of fame, 23 gold and platinum albums, and is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I got a chance to speak to Mr. Sherman about his current projects and some of his much beloved past ones. His current project is......

These days, the Roosevelt Hotel is all about partying. After the painstaking restoration of its Spanish-Moorish lobby, with its hand painted beams, tiled floors and leaded glass windows, the hotel is home to the Tropicana Bar, where guests get in free till 9pm (How generous!) and long lines develop of the young and the beautiful. They don't hold a candle to the older residents of the hotel though. The Roosevelt is rumored to be......

The 80th Academy Awards (host: Jon Stewart) aren't until February 24 but starting today you can register for a chance at a bleacher seat overlooking the red carpet. Thousands applied for 300 spots last year along the 500-foot-long red carpet, but you're feeling lucky, right? The chosen voyeurs will be randomly selected next Monday at noon, and notified in March. Submit for up to four tickets per person. http://www.oscars.org/bleachers/ Dangerous Liaisons devotees look for......

The legendary film director Ingmar Bergman died early this morning at his home in Sweden. He was 89 years old. Born into a middle-class family in Uppsala, Bergman struggled with issues of faith, mortality, and identity throughout his life; these themes would echo through his films, including classics such as Persona, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander, and The Seventh Seal. Bergman is remembered most for his visionary style and his complicated portrayals of love......

Dear LAist, On Sunday both Ellen DeGeneres and Vice President Gore said something along the lines of there being a billion people watching the Oscar broadcast. When the Neilson (sic) ratings came out it said that only 37 million Americans watched the program. Did 963 million foreigners really watch that show the other night? If they did, I now understand why they let that guy speak Italian for what seemed forever. - TF, Highland......

Last week all you had to do was stroll down to Hollywood & Highland or take the subway there, then stand in line for a short while and you'd get to hold a real Oscar trophy. Every day we kept forgetting to mention it and then kicked ourselves when it was over. And now The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog has posted video of regular people holding the award and mugging for the cameras.......

Here's a little something to help wash out the taint of Celine Dion's "tribute" to Ennio Morricone at last night's Oscars. Sure, Celine has a great set of pipes. No one will argue that. But her singing? Puke! She might as well have been singing the latest bit of background fodder from American Idol for how much you could tell that it was an Ennio Morricone tune. But that's who Celine Dion is. That's what......

Most vanilla Oscars ever. Ellen DeGeneres wasn't a bad host. But she wasn't a good one. Her mildly funny jokes and conversational good nature made it feel like we were watching a daytime talk show host wallowing in the oversized britches of a big-time awards ceremony. Oh wait, we were. Thank you, Ellen DeGeneres, for proving that queers can be as bland and conventional as breeders. Jerry Seinfeld's presentation of the feature documentary award was......

The Oscars as TV This is strictly opinion about the Academy Awards broadcast on ABC - not the pre- or post- shows. This isn't about who won and the merits of their winning, this is just about the nearly 4 hours of TV that was on. The Oscars are a marathon, no doubt about it, and a slow marathon at that. Most able bodied people should be able to do a marathon in about......