And we're live in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . . .

The Oscars are literally only 2 minutes away from starting! The red carpet entrances were cut way down this year to speed up the whole process but my favourite moments so far?
Emile Hirsch arrives looking a) gorgeous and b) so thoughtful by rocking a white knot to show his support for marriage equality.

Alicia Keys showed us another way to die of awesomeness. The singer looked amazing in a figure hugging, is it pink or is it purple gown. Gone is ghetto and hello is goddess.

Kate Winslet looked absolutely smashing in an elegant grey/blue gown that screamed film star. Forget flashing her tits and bits like all the other chickies on the red carpet, Winslet kept it classy. Only time will tell if she nabs the best actress Oscar for The Reader.

Mickey Rourke rocked up looking like the creepy, old man that he is. To add to his Michael Jackson-esque appearance check out the necklace he wore with a picture of his dead dog on it. Beyond disturbing.
Robert Pattison what is with you? The Twilight star look like he literally rolled straight out of bed, in to a pan of baby powder, through a giant bong and on to the red carpet. For your first Oscar appearance you certainly look like a scrubber.
What I really wanted this Oscar season was a good ol’ Bjork-fest aka someone to shock the red out of the carpet. Alas, there was no one. Why didn’t they invite Bai Ling or Katy Perry to jazz up the awards? Pics are from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who (naturally) had all the Oscar goss and images as it happened.

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Oscarlicious excitement

Today is the day! Yes, the day I look forward to more than Christmas but not more than Halloween. It’s Oscars day folks. Forget the frocks, for me it’s all about who will be taking home the shiny, naked, gold man. You’re probably sick of all my Academy Award musings, coverage and predictions so thankfully (for you) after today you won’t have to hear another word about it . . .until next year. For me personally this has to be one of the most exciting Oscar races to date and not just because of the nominees. After last years lowest rated and least watch Academy Awards ceremony ever, the pressure is on our very own Hugh Jackman to jazz up the awards and regain viewership. For the first time ever the names of award presenters have been kept firmly under wraps and word has it a huge musical number starring Jackman, Beyonce, Anne Hathaway and High School Musical star Zac Efron will open the show. In another first for the Oscars, journalists and media cameras have been kept away from rehearsals. Therefore, whatever show producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon (of Dreamgirls fame) have in store will truly be a surprise for all. Most importantly for Australians the Academy Awards are being broadcast live for the first time ever in HD direct from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The who’s who of Hollywood are due to walk the red carpet any minute now so I’m off, enjoy the show and stay posted for updates on the winners.

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The biggest robbery since the 2004 Northern Bank Heist

Just thought I'd rant about how unfair it is that Chris Nolan was not nominated for a best director Oscar at the up and coming Academy Awards. Seriously, The Dark Knight is nominated for Oscars in SEVEN technical categories for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound, Best Achievement in Makeup, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Art Direction(this is not including Heath Ledger's nomination for best supporting actor). Who oversees all that? The director, that's who! If the Academy can acknowledge The Dark Knight is Oscar worthy in those categories then it's ridiculous Nolan wasn't nominated for his direction of the second most successful film of all time. A massive oversight.
That it is all.
Note: For those of you playing at home the 2004 Northern Bank Heist occured in Belfast, Northern Irleand and was the biggest robbery in UK history. A large, proficent group of robbers believed to be from the IRA made off with £26.5 million in pounds sterling.

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Looking in to my crystal ball . . . . .

With the Oscars less than five days away, I figured it was time for Movie Mazzupial to unveil some predictions. Well, I say predictions but really these are the people/films I want to win. The people I think will actually win are highlighted in green and the people I want to win are in pink. If I believe the planets will align and what I want to win and what I think will win are the same thing, then it will appear in blue. Confused? So am I. If the following spins you out too much just wait for the actual Academy Awards ceremony which is on Sunday, February 22 or Monday, February 23 for us Aussies. And the winners are -
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
Best animated feature film of the year
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton
Achievement in art direction
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
Achievement in cinematography
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle
Achievement in costume design
“Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
“The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
Achievement in directing
“Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle
Best documentary feature
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
“Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Best documentary short subject
“The Conscience of Nhem En” A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
“The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306” A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
Achievement in film editing
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens
Best foreign language film of the year
“The Class” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haut et Court Production, France
“Waltz with Bashir” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production, Israel
Achievement in makeup
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Best motion picture of the year
“Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer
Best animated short film
“La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
“Presto” (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
Best live action short film
“The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
“Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
Achievement in sound editing
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
Achievement in sound mixing
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Achievement in visual effects
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Adapted screenplay
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Original screenplay
“Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
“In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh

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My musings on the Oscar nods

First of all, why the hell was The Dark Knight not nominated for best motion picture? WHY? Seriously, you can not argue that a) the dialogue is TDK is not as good, nay, better than Frost/Nixon b) the special effects and acting is not 1000 times better and more concise than all of the other nominees put together and c) TDK  in story, direction, production, editing and execution is not a more worthy nominee than Frost/Nixon, The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I understand the Academy has a tendency to neglect the obvious brilliance of films in the action adventure category but how can they honestly justify not including TDK (as a nominee at the very least)? It is a masterpiece, pure and simple. The worlds most respected and experienced film critics have all agreed on this point so why the mongoloids at the Academy couldn't take their dick out of their hands and acknowledge the same fact is beyond me. For imagery purposes only, if there was a movie heavyweight title The Curious Case of Benjamin Button would be Woody Allen and TDK would be Muhammad Ali and, naturally, it would beat that bitch into a coma. Sigh. Moving on from my original frustration, I'm quite content with the rest of the nominees in the other categories. Particularly Heath Ledger and Robert Downey Jr for best supporting actor because obviously they were both amazing. I'm also particularly happy about Penelope Cruz's nomination for best supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona as her performance was UNREAL and award worthy. 

Above: Aussie lass Catherine Martin has been nominated for the best costume design Oscar for her work on Australia

I'm also happy Australia wasn't over looked like it was at the Golden Globes and got the nomination it deserved. TDK and In Bruges are some of my other favourite nominees. However, the real surprise and underdog has to be British rapper M.I.A's Oscar nomination with A.R Raham for best song written for a motion picture for `O Saya' which they wrote and produced for Slumdog Millionaire. Wow, its been a big year for M.I.A (pictured below) whose song `Paper Planes' got an awesome boost of publicity when it was used as the theme song for Pineapple Express which in turn helped put the song at #5 on the Billboard charts even though it was released six months earlier. `Paper Planes' was nominated for a Grammy for single of the year, M.I.A had a baby with her long time boyfriend and now she has been nominated for an Oscar. Wow. I certainly hope they take it out especially because rap songs (an alternative rap song at that) rarely get nominated, let alone win in this category. 

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