Will you watch?

Happy Oscar Day!!!

I love the Academy Awards and will be watching (as usual) every minute of it live—from the moment the stars hit the red carpet to the very last award is handed out. With the battle for Best Picture this year, who wouldn't be able to watch?!

Herewith are my Oscar picks for the major categories:

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Geroge Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious: based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Best Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter and story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy, Up

Best Adapted Screenplay
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell,Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Best Original Score
James Horner, Avatar
Alexandre Desplat, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, The Hurt Locker
Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes
Michael Giacchino, Up

Best Original Song
Music and lyrics by Randy Newman, "Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
Music and lyrics by Randy Newman, “Down in New Orleans” fromThe Princess and the Frog
Music by Reinhardt Wagner and lyrics by Frank Thomas, “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
Music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, “Take It All” from Nine
Music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart

(photo via Oscar.com)

Vanity Fair, Vogue meet 'Nine'

The women of the upcoming film "Nine" grace the covers of my monthly magazines for November. A barely recognizable Penélope Cruz (Oscar winner) is on the cover of Vanity Fair, while she joins Nicole Kidman (Oscar winner), Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner) and Kate Hudson (Oscar nominee) for the cover of Vogue.

The movie, based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, which itself is based on the film "8 1/2", comes out in December and also stars Daniel Day-Lewis (double Oscar winner), Dame Judi Dench (Oscar winner), Sophia Loren (Oscar winner) and Fergie.

Watch the trailer here. It screams Oscar!

(photos via VF.com, EW.com)

Oscars 2010

Yes, it may be a bit early to mention next year's awards show, but it was announced today that the 2010 Academy Awards will air March 7. The last three Oscars have been in late February. 

Leslie Unger, a spokesperson for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who distributes the awards, said the change was to avoid conflicts with the 2010 Winter Olympics.

According to the AP, nominations will be announced Feb. 2. It's way too early to predict the actors and actresses on that list, but I'm already anticipating it!

Kate, Sean visit Oprah

Watch more AOL Television videos on AOL Video

Sean Penn's speech

Kate's acceptance speech

Fashion Police

E! was on the Oscar scene and have all the red carpet fashion, including winners Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Freida Pinto and others (like Miley ... what were you thinking?). One of my favorite moments of the night was when Reese Witherspoon walked out as a surprise presenter, after not walking the red carpet. She looked fantastic!

(photo via People)

Backstage

I'll add more as it becomes available, but below is Kate's backstage Thank You cam immediately after winning and behind the scenes with previous Best Actress winners Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry and Marion Cotillard, Best Actor Sean Penn and Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz. The final video is Kate's interview with the press. Congrats again Kate!

(videos via Oscars)

All the winners

Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Heath Ledger, Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire—see a full list of Academy Award winners here! And a video of highlights below.

(photo via NYTimes)

(video via E!Online)

KATE WINS!

Within minutes of her long overdue Oscar win, Kate Winslet's Wikipedia page was changed. Congrats Kate! You completely deserve it!

Check back for more Oscar coverage.

(photo via Entertainment Weekly, videos via Oscars, E!Online)

VF Live Blog

Vanity Fair has a great live blog going and videos of the VF Oscar Party! AWESOME show so far! I love the new stage set up and the story-telling aspect. Is it possible Oscar will get an Emmy at the next award show? See highlights of the show below:

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Behind the scenes

E!Online had this video posted of Oscar host Hugh Jackman behind the scenes. From the look of rehearsal, this year's show is sure to be different! Entertainment Weekly has takes on the Oscar changes from some of the stars too. Only one hour until the red carpet and three until the show starts! EW will be live-blogging the event if you can't watch.

Oscar Predictions

In less than 24 hours the Academy Awards will begin, and the next phase of Oscar buzz will begin. As I am gearing up for a golden man day tomorrow, below I offer my Oscar predictions. I must stress that in some categories those listed are not who I think should win, but who I think will win. As the awards are announced, I will offer further commentary.

• Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
• Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
• Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Best Original Screenplay: Milk
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
• Best Animated Short: Presto
• Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Costume Design: The Duchess
• Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire
• Best Documentary Short: The Witness
• Best Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
• Best Live Action Short: Auf der Strecke
• Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Best Original Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Original Song: "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Sound Editing: WALL-E
• Best Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

YAY! It's practically here. Watch the Oscars tomorrow night, 7 p.m. CST on ABC!

IT'S ALMOST OSCAR TIME!

It's officially Oscar weekend! And to celebrate, all the pop culture Web sites are gearing up for the event.

• Vanity Fair has created an Oscar-style '25 Things'—the chain-letter list that has plagued Facebook recently.
• VF also created an Academy Award drinking game—enjoy!
• NYTimes' Carpetbagger is ready to hit the red carpet on Sunday; he's made all his predictions in advance.
• ABC has prepared advice for throwing an Oscar-themed party during the ceremony.
• Need to brush up on your gold statue history? Look up all Meryl Streep's nominated films or start a Best Picture marathon through the Oscar historical database.
• TIME has an article about how the show could garner more viewers—make the votes public.
• Check out behind-the-scenes fashion and 'Road to the Oscars' specials too.
• Remember to watch the red carpet at 5 p.m. CST on E!
• Launch your pre-Oscar celebration with these updates from E!News (below)
  

Kate Winslet's TIME cover

TIME magazine has named Kate Winslet 'Best Actress' on its most recent cover, prompting Vanity Fair writer Bruce Handy to declare the actress' chance of winning at Sunday's Oscars show is now ruined. Handy even suggests there is a curse on Winslet in his piece titled "Kiss Me Not, Kate". I certainly hope his prediction is wrong as it is TIME for Kate to win.

(photo via VF)

OSCAR WEEK!!!

The Academy Awards will be given away in one week! I'm so excited! To see all the nominees and predict the winners click here. I will be making my Oscar predictions sometime within the next seven days, so look out for those!

VF Love

Here I go again with my Vanity Fair love, but I can't get enough of their posts each day, especially when they have anything to do with the Oscars. 

Today, the site put up slideshows of portraits of Academy Award-winning actors and actresses in the leading category—portraits that have been in past issues of VF. I only started subscribing last May, so seeing this old photos is really cool!

(photo courtesy VF)

VF pays tribute to Oscar legendaries

Love the Oscars, especially all the coverage Vanity Fair has had of them lately. One of their most recent posts is a tribute slideshow of "Oscar's True Originals."

The slideshow features greats like Bette Davis (above), Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.

(photo courtesy VF)

Heath's family to accept his oscar (if/when he wins)

As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Heath Ledger's family will accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor if (when in my opinion) he wins on Feb. 22 for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight".