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......

Barney's Beanery gets rocks the vote. Kind of. RED, WHITE AND BEER If you didn't get enough beer yesterday, Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica is hosting a "Super Tuesday Countdown Beer Vote" today and tomorrow. Alcoholics Drinkers vote for their favorite candidates by choosing which tap to draw their $3 beer from. They'll be serving up plenty of Hillarys and Obamas for sure. A running total will be announced as the votes are tallied.......

"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 Golden Globe winners have been announced, and unbelievably, Viggo Mortensen did NOT win "Best Actor" for Eastern Promises. True, he did not really emote; he didn't scream and he didn't cry. He did not play a person with a disability. Yes, he had to learn a foreign accent - with some success. But what really made Viggo award-worthy was that steamroom fight. I wish they had a "best fight scene" category like they......

During the Academy Awards some boring guy always comes out and explains how they voted and who guarded the results and we never pay attention. But the upshot is that people that are in The Academy get to vote on the nominees. And believe it or not, starring in "Police Woman" gets you into the Academy. Angie Dickinson was overheard in Hollywood talking about the Best Actor Category. Philip Seymour Hoffman, she rationalized, will......

Someone walked off with Gregory Peck's star on Hollywood Boulevard sometime between Nov. 17 and Nov. 22, says Hollywood's honorary Mayor Johnny Grant. Authorities believe the perp (yeah, we know we watch too much Law & Order) used a cement saw to hack off one of the Boulevard's original stars. Begs the question, didn't anyone notice a saw being used? And why didn't anyone notice sooner? According to an Associated Press news report: Peck's......

What do City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and the city of Beverly Hills have in common? Well, yes, they all think Jamie Foxx is a shoo-in for Best Actor (and who doesn't?), but they're also all in favor of extending the Red Line subway westward along Wilshire, all they way out to Santa Monica. This astounding consensus, which Councilmember LaBonge has tirelessly worked to build, didn't carry much weight for the......

There was good and bad for Sideways uber-actor Paul Giamatti this past weekend when he was awarded a SAG statuette for his Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Yes, that's right, he had to share it with three other people. It was yet another example of Paul Giamatti getting the hot steaming fireplace poker in the eye. Local residents reported on Sunday, however, that this fleeting piece of somewhat-mediocre good news......

Well, we've survived the first leg of awards season so far. The Golden Globes are over, Industry-types are off to Park City for Sundance and the Oscar nomination/winner odds-making begins in earnest. Now is the time for out-of-town journalists to do their legwork about town in order to find new ways to describe the luxuriousness of Wolfgang Puck's Oscar Ball menu or give readers a verbal blueprint of this year's location for the Vanity......