John Mayer will be Aniston's 'Oscar boyfriend'

RTÉ.ie Entertainment: Mayer will be Aniston's 'Oscar boyfriend': “Singer John Mayer has revealed that he will be accompanying Jennifer Aniston to the Oscars this Sunday.
In an interview with Popsugar, he said that he would be walking the red carpet with Aniston.
"I'm going to the Oscars. It's my first Oscars and it's my first time being an Oscar boyfriend."”

Oscar Party List (Partial) From Nikke Finke

More at Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood DailyThis is the list! But not all of them are here. Go to Nikke's blog for the rest of them : “WEDNESDAY, February 18th
6:30PM Children Mending Hearts Event
Sheryl Crowe will perform, Anderson Cooper will be honored
House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood
 
6:30PM-9:30PM Swarovski 2009 Award Season Celebration
Thompson Hotel, 9360 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills

7PM-9PM Vanity Fair Dior Party
Hosted by Wendy Stark Morissey, LACMA and BMW
LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles

7:30PM Milk Private Dinner hosted by William Morris Agency
Chateau Marmont, 8221 West Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

8PM Alfre Woodard Dinner Honoring Taraji Henson, Viola Davis
 
THURSDAY, February 19
1PM Essence Honors Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon
Beverly Hills Hotel, 9641 Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills

4PM GBK hosts Industry Mixer to celebrate 81st Academy Awards
SLS Hotel, 465 S. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles

5:30PM Moet and Australians in Film
For Oscar nominees Kirk Bakster, Heath Ledger, Katherine Martin, Lee Smith, Ben Snow
And present the first annual Heath Ledger scholarship
Chateau Marmont, 8221 West Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

6PM-8:30PM Vanity Fair Dior Party Launch of Brandaid
Hosted by Paul Haggis, Diane Lane & Josh Brolin
Environment (Furniture), 8126 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

6:30PM-11PM 4th Annual Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film
Honoring Brendan Gleeson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Hylda Queally
The Ebell, 743 South Lucerne Blvd, Los Angeles

8PM Sixth Annual Global Green Pre-Oscar Party
Hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio, Penelope Cruz, Orlando Bloom, Rosario Dawson
Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St, Hollywood

FRIDAY, February 20
11AM 16th Annual Oscar Week Student Filmmakers Scholarship Luncheon
Hosted by the Multicultural Motion Picture Association
Four Seasons Hotel, Ballroom, 300 South Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills

5PM AMPAS cocktail party for Foreign Language nominees
AMPAS (Lobby), 8949 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills

5PM-8PM Women in Film hosts a reception honoring female nominees
With Perrier-Jouet Champagne
Hosted by Cathy Schulman, Donna Gigliotti, Wendy Finerman and Lili Fini Zanuck
Home of Peter and Tara Guber, Bel Air

6PM-8:30PM Bally’s Hollywood Domino Party To Benefit The Art of Elysium
Hosted by Kate Bosworth
Andaz Hotel, 8401 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood

7PM Haven - Fashion Show And Cocktails
Spring collections from designers Russell Simmons, Yansi Fugel, and Born Uniqorn
360 Trousdale Place, Beverly Hills

7PM Mont Blanc and UNICEF host Signature For Good event
Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles

8:30PM Ari Emanuel-Endeavor party

10PM Bryan Lourd-CAA Party

SATURDAY, February 21
11AM Universal/Focus' Academy and Spirit Award Nominees Brunch
Hosted by David Linde and Felicia Rosenfeld, James Schamus, Marc Shmuger, Louis Hamagami

11AM DreamWorks hosts annual brunch for animation nominees

11:30AM Film Independent's Spirit Awards
2030 Barnard Way, Santa Monica

12PM Barry Diller Luncheon for Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter
Diller's Beverly Hills Estate

4PM IFC Indie Film Celebration
Shutters on the Beach, 1 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica

6:30PM Miramax Oscar Nominee Party
The London Hotel, 1020 N San Vicente, Los Angeles

7PM Focus Features Party
BLT Steak, 8720 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

8PM Jeffrey Katzenberg's The Night Before Party for MPTF
Beverly Hills Hotel (The Pool), 9641 Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills

9PM Tag The World Pre-Oscar Night Charity Gala
in affiliation with The American Humane Film And TV Unit
Hosted by Amber Valletta, Lorenz Tate, Wilmer Valderrama, Jesse Metcalf
My House, 7080 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood

TBD Julianne Moore & Sally Morrison Dinner: Diamonds In Africa
Chateau Marmont, 8221 West Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles

TBD Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Dinner
Madeo, 8897 Beverly Road, West Hollywood

TBD Sony Pictures Classics 2009 Oscar Nominee Dinner
Cecconi’s, 8764 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood

TBD The Weinstein Company Oscar nominee party
Andaz Hotel, 8401 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood”

Oscar now a quality act - Film - Entertainment - theage.com.au

More at theage.com.au: “Recognising quality crowd pleasers is a long-standing Oscar hallmark, but of late he has often sidestepped blatant populism to honour small, deserving, edgier films with serious topics and diverse interests.

A survey of this year's field reveals that this tendency has reached a new extreme. Even the two big films are essentially high-quality arthouse films with large budgets.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a brilliantly conceived expansion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story, is a sprawling contemplation about love, death and America across the 20th century. Frost/Nixon, an equally superb, highly cinematic adaptation of the hit Broadway play, combines an excoriating comment about celebrity journalism with a riveting dissection of Richard Nixon's complex, troubled character.

With Oscar favourite Slumdog Millionaire we have a small film by a left-of-centre British director set in India that wrestles with the weighty issues of class, wealth, poverty and sacrifice. The film's appeal to Academy voters is obvious: (1) its multinational flavour plugs right into the mood of a more selfless, open-minded, approval-seeking post-Bush America; (2) it's an absolutely terrific film.”

-- And I'm excited to see who will win! Did you fill out your predictions yet?

Josh Wolf Documentary Project: Sierra Choi Needs Your Help

John Wolf spent 226 days in jail to protect his videos and sources, and caused the creation of a new law protecting video-bloggers. Now Sierra Choi is directing and producing a documentary - the trailer is here as part of my video blog.

At the time in 2006, I met Josh when he worked for the television division at Peralta Community College. He was also in the middle of his battle with the Federal Government, but even then was still focused on his work, and didn't spend a lot of time fretting about what could happen.

Then Josh defied San Francisco U.S. District Judge William Alsup's order to turn over the videos Josh had taken from a anti-G8 anarchist protes heldt in San Francisco on July 8, 2005. Wolf feared that the U.S. Government in the form of the FBI simply wanted to identify the people who were protesting and not solve a crime they claim had been committed against a police officer. Wolf's videos did not contain any footage of a police officer being harmed.

Still, U.S. District Judge William Alsup order Wolf to be held in jail for civil contempt of court later in 2006. Then, after negotiations, he was released but still refused to give up any of his videos, offering instead to post them online and show them to the Judge himself. Initially the judge refused, and Wolf was ordered back to jail.

Eventually, and after 226 days, Wolf agreed to show the then unseen video clip online and was released from jail. He never gave a copy of the video to the goverment.

In the wake of his ordeal and new stronger "shield" law has been placed in California law to protect journalists of all kinds, from print to blogs. We have Josh to thank for this.

Now, video film producer Sierra Choi is working to raise $250,000 to create a documentary called "Quiet Uprising: The Story of Josh Wolf" and needs our help. You can contact Sierra through me by sending an email here: zennie@sportsbusinesssims.com

Please help as many need to know Josh's story so this will never happen again.

Late Show - Where's Joaquin Phoenix? - 2/11/09

This Letterman show video clip is just too funny for words!

Julia Allison and Gawker's Obsession With The Online Star

Julia Allison's exploits are regularly covered by the online publications Gawker and Valleywag, who complain that she wants attention, then give her the attention in the process. Why? She's a great example of self-promotion.

2009 Oscars® Trailer -- Academy Awards February 22, 2009