LOS ANGELES, Feb 26 (Reuters) – When the curtain comes
up on Sunday’s Oscars in Hollywood, producers of the movie
awards show will be less worried about who wins which trophy
than they will be about how many people tune-in on television.

The world’s top film honors are in jeopardy of losing their
status as the second most-watched TV event in the United States
behind professional football’s Super Bowl if they can’t lure
more than 40 million viewers, which will be difficult given that
silent movie “The Artist” is this year’s big picture.

SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) – Silent movie romance “The Artist” on Saturday won four Independent Spirit Awards, the year’s top honors among movies made outside Hollywood’s major studios, including best film and director in a prelude to the Oscars.

“The Artist,” a black-and-white movie from French writer and director Michel Hazanavicius, also picked up Spirit Awards for its star Jean Dujardin, who portrays an actor whose career collapses with the advent of the talkies, in the best actor category and Guillame Schiffman for cinematography.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When the curtain rises on the Oscars this Sunday, nervous anticipation will, as usual, fill the theater at the world’s top film awards, but this year movie fans can relax.

After years of trying to jazz up the Academy Awards with flashy, hip hosts, emcee Billy Crystal is returning for a ninth time in 2012, bringing what Oscar watchers say is a level of predictability and comfort to the show.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. film and television writers gave their top two movie awards on Sunday to romance “Midnight in Paris” and drama “The Descendants” in the final Hollywood guild awards show before next week’s Oscars.

Writer-director Woody Allen won the Writers Guild of America award for best original screenplay with “Midnight in Paris,” his tale of a young writer in Paris who faces questions of love.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – It can’t be easy making Sean “Diddy” Combs cry, but Oscar-nominated documentary film “Undefeated” did — four times.

“I cried like a baby in my house,” the rap mogul, fashion impresario, actor and show business entrepreneur told Reuters.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British soul singer Adele won three early Grammys on Sunday, including best pop solo performance for her song “Somebody Like You,” in a show that began on a somber note with a prayer for late pop superstar Whitney Houston.

Adele, whose album “21″ was among the smash hits of 2011, took the stage and thanked her doctors who helped her recover from recent surgery to remove a polyp from her vocal cord. “Seeing as it’s a vocal performance I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back,” she said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the Grammys on Sunday night with a rousing song even as the sudden death of pop star Whitney Houston cast a pall over music’s biggest awards.

Springsteen and the band, playing “We Take Care of Our Own,” had the crowd of pop, rock, rap and country stars up on their feet and clapping to the music in an effort to brighten the mood and ready the audience for a celebration of the industry’s best performers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As little as 24 hours ago, all ears at Sunday’s Grammy Awards were expected to tune-in to the sound of soul singer Adele who was predicted to be the top winner on music’s big night.

Then Whitney Houston died.

Houston’s unexplained death in a Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the industry’s top honors shocked the music world, and Grammy organizers have changed Sunday’s program to honor the singer who sold hundreds of millions of records and enjoyed hits like “I will Always Love You” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Whitney Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world but whose personal decline was fueled by decades of drug use, died on Saturday in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She was 48.

Her death came on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and at the same hotel where her mentor, record mogul Clive Davis, was holding an annual pre-event party at which she was scheduled to perform.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy-winning singer and actress Whitney Houston, one of the most talented performers of her generation who lived a turbulent personal life and admitted drug use, died on Saturday in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She was 48.

A Beverly Hills police officer told reporters they were called to the Beverly Hilton, in Los Angeles, at around 3:20 p.m. PST and that emergency personnel found Houston’s body in a fourth-floor room, and she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.