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Here is video of Pajamas Media CEO Roger Simon - a members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - calling for the Academy to take back the Oscar awarded to Al Gore for his alarmist Global Warming movie - "An Inconvenient Truth." Simon was joined by Lionel Chetwynd - also an academy member - who wants the Academy to convene a public hearing to demand him to explain the science behind his film. The two are making their calls in light of the "ClimateGate Scandal." . . . (VIDEO)

<p>But two Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) have called upon the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the prestigious, profitable gold Oscar statuette that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth."</p>

Jesus is the greatest example of a friend. (John 15:13), "There is no greater gift that anyone can give that a man would lay down his life for another".

We just got around to seeing "The Reader" this weekend (warning: plot spoilers below). I don't think I've ever seen a movie that I felt ruined my weekend. This was a first for me. If only there were an Oscar for worst excuse for sex in a film, "The Reader" could have garnered the Oscar it deserved. As it was, Kate Winslet won the best actress award for her sympathetic potrayal of an Auschwitz camp guard in the film. The first hour of the film is devoted to a graphic portrayal of the postwar affair between Winslet's character Hanna Schmitz...

Gay rights took center stage at the Oscars ceremony when actor Sean Penn and the writer of the film "Milk" made impassioned pleas for opponents of same-sex marriage to rethink their stand. Penn won the Academy's best actor award for his role as gay politician Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay man to be elected to public office, who was shot and killed in 1978. "I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if...

British actress Kate Winslet won her first Oscar on Sunday for her portrayal of a German woman with a secret Nazi past in the romantic drama "The Reader." "Titanic" star Winslet, 33, was Oscar-nominated five times in the past 13 years but had always returned home empty-handed. Her best actress Oscar joins two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild award, a British BAFTA and a handful of U.S. critics awards that Winslet has won this season. "To the academy thank you so much. My God," she said. In addition to her acclaimed turn in "The Reader," she won plaudits for...

The government is not the only one who is out of touch with the American people. Our entertainment industry is completely disinterested in America and Americans as well. They are literally living in a different universe from what they call "ordinary people." This is not really new news, but I thought I would bring up the topic after seeing Drudge's interesting photo of the larger-than-life Oscar statue. Does anyone notice how closely the figure resembles a corpse? A corpse of fake gold that is dead. Surreal.

Mark my words, or mock my words. "Slumdog Millionaire" will take home eight Oscars, "Benjamin Button" will win a handful of technical awards, Heath Ledger is the biggest lock of the night and Kate Winslet will win for the wrong role in the wrong movie. (cut) Let’s take a look at my predictions for all 24 trophies that will be handed out Sunday. In the major categories I'll speculate on the percentage of votes that will go to each of the five contenders. (And just because I predict an actor will get a tiny percentage of the votes doesn't mean...

It’s the political movie time of the year. I can enjoy a liberal, preachy movie, from cheesy to highbrow. I liked “Star Trek IV,” “The Mission,” “Romero,” “The Emerald Forest,” and even “Mosquito Coast.” But somewhere along the lines, Hollywood decided that simply preachy was enough to win an Academy Award. Consider “Philadelphia, ” one of the most successful Oscar-bait movies. It was like watching an episode of “the Practice.” Except without the characters I’d learned to like, or enjoy hating. And it ran for what, five hours? And the characters had all the moral complexity of the Noid from...

Wow. Thank you very much, Academy. Here's to all doc filmmakers. And, truth is, I think my dear wife Anne was kind of hoping I'd make a romantic comedy, but honestly, after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition that simply wasn't possible. This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let's hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side...

Oscar Ceremony Not So Golden With Ratings Posted By:Julia Boorstin Topics:Advertising | Movies & Film Studios | Television | Media Sectors:Media Companies:Walt Disney CoThe preliminary ratings numbers are out and Nielsen Media Research is saying that ratings for the Academy Awards telecast last night were some 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever, which was 2003, when 33 million people watched. And these preliminary ratings are also 21 percent lower than last year. Advertisers look to the Oscars, nicknamed "the Super Bowl for women" to reach a mass audience of more affluent women. Last year 40 million people watched...

I'm didn't watch the Oscars. Normally I do. But I've spent enough time and money on the most depressing, dark and disturbed lineup of movies I ever can remember. I don't need to see them get rewarded. Am I the only one who remembers when they actually gave Oscars to movies that had happy endings? There's not one happy ending in this lot — unless you consider an unplanned teenage pregnancy resulting in someone else's adoption a happy ending. That's the big payoff in "Juno." Otherwise, you have "There Will Be Blood," in which a tyrannical oil baron destroys everyone...

Hollywood took on a new role in Sunday's 80th annual Academy Awards: bit player. In a series of startling upsets and a few expected triumphs, almost all of the top Oscars were handed to foreigners and iconoclastic show business outsiders. Every one of the evening's winning actors came from beyond American borders, and the ceremony's dominant film -- best picture winner "No Country for Old Men" -- was created by a pair of filmmaking brothers from Minnesota who have never made a mainstream movie in their three-decade career. In an era when overseas revenue accounts for more than half of...

In theory, if I correctly predicted every single Oscar race, nobody could outguess me, and by default, I would win the prize. Alas, that has never, ever happened, and it's unlikely again this year, because as usual I will allow my heart to outsmart my brain in one or two races, which is my annual downfall. In any event, for what they're worth, here are my Academy Award predictions in a year rich with wonderful films. PICTURE Prediction: My heart cries out "Juno! Juno! Juno!," but my brain dashes a pail of cold water and sternly corrects me: "No Country...

'Katyn' leading in NYT internet poll 04.02.2008 Katyn - the movie by Polish Oscar winning director Andrzej Wajda, nominated for the Academy Award this year in the category of non-English language films, is leading in the New York Times internet poll. The movie is getting many votes from Poland, as Polish internet users in the country and abroad are joining forces to vote other films out. The results of the poll are, of course, not binding. The official results of the academy awards are to be announced in L.A. on February 24.

Wajda’s Katyn nominated for Oscar 22.01.2008 15:47 ‘Katyn’, last year’s box office hit directed by Poland’s most renowned director, Andrzej Wajda, has been nominated for an American Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The ceremony is to take place 24 February. The last time a Polish film received a nomination in this category was 1982, when another Wajda movie, Man of Iron was nominated but then withdrawn from the contest by the then Polish authorities. In the history of American Academy Awards, seven Polish films have received nomination in the Best Foreign Language category, but none of...

Seriously Inconvenient Truth: Producers of Gore’s Film Asked to Return Oscars By Noel Sheppard | October 11, 2007 - 22:46 ET As media in America fall all over themselves with glee at the thought of the Global Warmingist-in-Chief winning a Nobel Peace Prize, Wednesday's findings by a British judge that Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" contained nine material falsehoods has prompted a request to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to strip the movie's producers of the Oscars they received in February for "Best Documentary." How delicious.As reported by The West Australian Friday:   A conservative...

Wajda’s Katyn Poland’s Oscar candidate Sunday, September 23. 2007 Katyn, the latest film by veteran Polish movie maker Andrzej Wajda, will be Poland’s candidate for ‘Best Foreign Film’ in next year’s Academy Awards. Katyn – which had its premier last week in Warsaw – tells the story of the massacre by over 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD in 1940. Some of Wajda’s family were murdered during the massacre. Wajda’s latest movie was among 16 Polish films which a special committee had to chose from to send to the Academy in Los Angles for consideration for nomination in the...

Joe Biden is donating to charity a contribution from a Houston oilman on trial for charges related to paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, and John McCain says he’ll follow if Oscar Wyatt is convicted. But Hillary Rodham Clinton would make no such pledge. Sens. Biden (D-Del.), McCain (R-Ariz.) and Clinton (D-N.Y.) years ago accepted thousands of dollars for previous campaigns from Wyatt, an opinionated self-made billionaire, and his wife, Lynn, as did dozens of others. Wyatt, an 83-year-old World War II vet, was indicted in 2005 on fraud and conspiracy charges related to illegal payments for oil contracts from the...

Prosecutors promised on Monday to prove that Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, earning him a privileged position in Iraq. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Miller told jurors at opening arguments of Wyatt's trial that prosecutors would present photos, audio tapes, bank records, U.N. records and Iraqi government records proving Wyatt paid kickbacks to win Iraqi oil contracts . "Oscar Wyatt's years of assistance to the Hussein regime earned him a privileged status in Iraq," Miller said. Wyatt, an 83-year-old self-made oil tycoon, faces five counts in Manhattan federal court including engaging in...

Miyoshi Umeki, 78, a Japanese-born singer and actress who became the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award, for "Sayonara" (1957), distinguished herself onstage in "Flower Drum Song" and played a housekeeper on the TV series "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," died Aug. 28 at Licking Park Manor nursing home in Licking, Mo. She had cancer. "Sayonara," based on a best-selling James A. Michener novel, was about forbidden romance between U.S. servicemen and Japanese women during the Korean War. Ms. Umeki's naive character marries an Air Force sergeant, played by Red Buttons, and the relationship leads to his persecution...

AP) LOS ANGELES The Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences is suing to stop the public sale of two Academy Awards given to silent film star Mary Pickford. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the academy claims it has the right to buy the historic statuettes and one owned by her late husband for $10 each. The academy contends an heir to the Oscars demanded $500,000 for one statuette alone in July -- an offer the academy refused. Pickford won the Academy Award for best actress in 1930 and was given an honorary Oscar in 1975. When she died in...

Excerpt - NEW YORK: A document suggesting that Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. provided former President Saddam Hussein's government with information about when the United States would invade Iraq should be excluded from his upcoming oil-for-food trial, his lawyers say. "This document essentially alleges that Wyatt has committed the deplorable crime of treason and aided an enemy of the United States," the lawyers said in court papers made public Tuesday. Wyatt is scheduled to go on trial next month on charges that he conspired to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam's regime in Iraq to win contracts...

Now, somebody ought to make a movie about Al Gore. I would call it "An Uncomplaining Life." The movie would be about a man who did not quit, who came off the canvas after a painfully close election -- he won the popular vote, after all -- who accepted defeat graciously and tried to unite the nation, who returned to the consuming passion of his earlier days, the environment, and spoke endlessly on the topic, almost always for free, who starred in a documentary based on his speech and who Sunday night, before a billion or so people, won an...

Among potential Democratic candidates for president, he may be the best of them all. He’s a Vietnam vet. He’s been against the war in Iraq since the beginning. He’s leading the fight against global warming. He served as congressman, senator and vice president of the United States. He’s star of one of the most successful documentary films in history. He just won an Oscar. And he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, Al Gore’s on a roll. So why doesn’t he run for president? That’s what a lot of Democrats are asking. And even some Republicans. MSNBC’s Joe...

Well, well...Hollywood says Al Gore is a winner and awards him an Oscar. I seem to remember not so long along, the American people decided otherwise! Let's see now, which would Al the Loser have preferred...his Academy Award or the White House? What do you think, folks?????

Today's forecast for Los Angeles from weather.com: Partly Cloudy, High 64.

OSCAR WEEK! The Academy Awards come up this Sunday and we'll be marking them all this week with a look back to Oscar nights and Oscar movies. Scroll down for my take on Hollywood's political "courage", the one name you don't want to find in the winner's envelope, a couple of Best Film nominees from the Nineties, and the great acceptance speeches from years gone by. But first Oscar lui-meme! The silent star He's short. He's muscular. He has no private parts. No, not Tom Cruise. We're talking about one of that select handful of silver screen legends recognised instantly...

....Al Gore, the star of the global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth," which is the odds-on favorite to capture the award for Best Documentary, has been transformed in the eyes of many in the last year from an oft-maligned former vice president to a man whom some bloggers call the "Goracle" for his prescient messages on climate change and his warning in 2002 about the dangers in Iraq. …..Around the country, many are already plotting ways to persuade Gore to run. One of them is Linda Sophia Pinti , a Democratic activist in Cambridge, Mass., who has been holding monthly...

Ebert's Oscar predictions Oscar's in the driver's seat BY ROGER EBERT / In a year when the Academy Award nominations are more diverse and international than ever before, it's anyone's guess who will win best picture. "Dreamgirls" garnered more nominations than any other movie, but was passed over for both picture and director. But there are four categories that can be predicted with certainty -- best actress: Helen Mirren; supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson; best actor: Forest Whitaker, and supporting actor: Eddie Murphy. They have won almost every award, including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Golden Globes. If any...

Carter Endorses Gore, Says Former Veep Can Win More Than OscarsFebruary 23, 2007 ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: In an exclusive interview with former President Jimmy Carter set to air on Sunday's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos", Carter lavished praise on "(his) favorite Democrat) former Vice President Al Gore. Carter told ABC News, "If Al should decide to run -- which I'm afraid he won't -- I would support Al Gore." The former Democratic President asserted Gore could accomplish much more in the White House than he ever could as a private citizen, saying to Stephanopoulos, "His burning issue now...

Gore ex-campaign chief wishes on her star 'Wait till Oscar night,' Donna Brazile says of a possible 2008 run. By Daryl Nerl Of The Morning Call Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are the hot early front-runners, while 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry has already bowed out. But could former Vice President Al Gore be waiting to make a dramatic entrance into the 2008 presidential race, especially if he wins an Oscar next month? His former campaign manager, Donna Brazile, strongly implied that possibility while speaking at Moravian College in Bethlehem Tuesday night. ''Wait till Oscar night,'' Brazile told...

Mel Gibson's Apology OK With Catholic League Monday, July 31, 2006 3:51 p.m. EDT Catholic League President Bill Donohue commented today on the furor over the comments Mel Gibson allegedly made after his arrest for drunk driving Friday morning: "What Mel Gibson apparently said is indefensible. The remark attributed to him, ‘The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,’ is anti-Semitic and irresponsible. Fortunately, he has apologized for his bigoted outburst. "Unfortunately, his apology is being rejected by some who should know better. To wit: Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, has branded Gibson’s apology ‘unremorseful...

The author of "Brokeback Mountain" is trashing the Motion Picture Academy and Best Picture Oscar-winner "Crash" in the wake of the film's upset loss at the Academy Awards. In a commentary piece titled Blood on the Red Carpet posted on U.K.'s Guardian online, E. Annie Proulx called out "conservative heffalump academy voters" for not voting the gay-themed "Brokeback" Best Picture, and called "Crash" "Trash." "Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment...

‘Brokeback' an Oscar? What about Ray Nagin? If you're like me, you've had it with all the hype about “Brokeback Mountain.” Practically every major media enterprise in the nation has proclaimed it the front-runner to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards program on March 5. Not that we needed them to tell us. It was loudly proclaimed - even before the film's release to theaters - that this picture, about two sheepherders who give new meaning to the phrase “on the back forty,” would take all the major Oscars. Even my editor - no cowboy himself, although some days...

If Hollywood is so pitifully out of touch, how does the industry’s economic train keep chugging along? Why don’t market forces come crashing in on Hollywood executives, sort of like the way the Red Sea came crashing down on Pharaoh’s army in “The Ten Commandments”? The answer’s in the numbers. Let’s take a sampling of 5 left-leaning, hot button’ films from last year, all of which were Oscar-nominated and four of which won Oscars: “Brokeback Mountain,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Syriana,” “The Constant Gardener” and surprise Best Picture winner “Crash.” The average budget for these five films was about...

Fate is indeed fickle. Who would have guessed that in this year's Oscar voting, Brokeback Mountain, a fine, risky movie about a gay love affair, would surge ahead of Capote, a movie about a gay journalist, only to be edged out for the Best Picture Oscar by a fine, risky movie about racism? Is this a sign of our times, or what? If conservatives needed any evidence that liberal impulses have taken over the Motion Picture Academy, this is it. Right? But, alas, in some folks' minds, every silver lining has its cloud. Instead of celebrating, many fans of Brokeback...

March 10, 2006 Los Angeles, California With a break in my protest schedule this last week, I decided it would be fun to rub elbows with Tinseltown's movers and shakers at the Oscars. Also, I figured maybe I could raise a few bucks for my upcoming "save-the-whales" protest. The only problem was I didn't have any contacts that could get me in so I had to come up with something. I called Scooter and together we devised a plan to at least crash the "Vanity Fair" post-awards party. The first thing I needed was a designer dress, but I didn't...

Wow! The Oscars! I can't believe I'm up here! First, I'd like to thank the Academy. I have to admit, I was pretty scared when I took that role as a gay cowboy. But with "Brokeback Mountain," I can see things have changed. Too bad I wasn't in "Brokeback Mountain." I played the gay cowboy in a movie called "La Cage Aux Folsom." It didn't do so well. Anyhow, I learned a valuable lesson there. I learned that I wasn't really the "controversial" type and that I was better suited toward playing famous singers, such as Johnny Cash in "Walk...

Here's a speech we would like to hear from an Academy Award winner: I thank you for this wonderful award. Receiving an Academy Award gives the recipient an almost unique opportunity to speak to hundreds of millions people around the world, so I would like take this once-in-a-lifetime moment to say this:

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Preliminary figures from Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast indicate ratings for the awards extravaganza were down versus the past two years' but still ahead of 2003's ratings. The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) network ABC said the awards show got a 27.1 household rating, reflecting the percentage of total households watching the telecast. It also attracted a 40 share, representing the percentage of homes with televisions on that were tuned to the awards show. On an inflation-adjusted basis, no field of best-picture nominees in years had done as poorly at the box office as this year's entries....

Oscar Blinks James Hirsen, NewsMax.com Monday, March 6, 2006 Remember when Hollywood had mystique and glamour and was the wellspring of entertainment? That now seems a relic of another era. In its place sits a town where self-absorption has taken a lead role and superficial social messages predominate. When it wasn't embarrassing, the 78th Annual Academy Awards show was generally a bore. Host Jon Stewart was probably a bit surprised at the tepid response to his jokes, especially the one where he quipped about the awards show being a "place where you can watch all your favorite stars without having...

The Oscars opened the closet door to gay-themed films but shut it almost as quickly. >>>snip<<< The victory for "Crash" suggested Oscar voters were more comfortable with a tale that exploited the seamy underbelly of racial conflict in contemporary Los Angeles than with a heartbreaking tale of love between two married men. "Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," said Larry McMurtry, 69, who shared an Oscar for best adapted screenplay with Diana Ossana for "Brokeback." No overtly gay love story has ever won a best picture award and, as of Monday morning, none has....

MIDI - QUE SERA SERA When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother -- what will I be Will I be cultured and quite refined...what will become of me? Que Sera Sera...you will be a *itch and ho That's really the way to go...que sera sera...que sera sera I joined a rap group full of thugs and we made music...we're number one We cut an album...had sex and drugs...it had been very fun Que Sera Sera...you will be a *itch and ho That's really the way to go...que sera sera...que sera sera I have a daughter...

ABC is in for a "Crash" landing in the Oscar ratings. The Academy Awards were down 10 percent from last year's ceremony, based on preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings from the nation's 55 biggest markets. If the full national ratings follow suit later Monday, this year's ceremony will likely be the second least-watched Oscars telecast behind 2003, when "Chicago" won best picture. The ceremony, where "Crash" won a surprise best picture trophy, drew a 27.1 rating and a 40 share. Each rating point is equivalent to 1.1 million homes, while the share indicates that 40 percent of the TVs in...

(snip) Then he sets up what starts out like a winner, noting how “a lot of people say this town is too liberal…out of touch with Mainstream America…a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated in an orgy of sexual gratification and greed…” But then he ends with, “I don’t really have a joke here.”

King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe have taken away technical honours at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The Peter Jackson-directed King Kong has won three of the four Academy Awards it was nominated for: visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing. Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia has won an Oscar for make-up, but lost out to King Kong for its other two nominations in visual effects and sound mixing. Philip Syemour Hoffman has won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of the waspish gay author Truman Capote, in...

George Clooney won the supporting-actor Academy Award on Sunday for "Syriana," in which he effaced his glamor-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over U.S. policy in the Middle East. The win capped a remarkable year for Clooney, who made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another. Along with performing in the oil-industry thriller "Syriana," Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale "Good Night, and Good Luck," which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best- picture contenders. "All right, so...

Will you watch the Oscars this year? Yes. I can't wait to see Jon Stewart, and I love this year's nominees. 47% No. It's too long, and I don't care about the nominees. 52%

For a movie that is so scrupulously accurate in so many respects, "Walk the Line" makes surprisingly little of the abiding faith that Mr. Cash always credited, along with Ms. Carter, for saving his life. "That dimension of Cash's life, which was present all the way through, was absent," said the Rev. C. Clifton Black, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, who criticized the film for that reason in a review for the magazine The Christian Century. "I was stunned."