They aren’t exactly Laurel and Hardy, or Hope and Crosby, or Lewis and Martin (that’s singer Dean) or even Rowan and Martin (as in Laugh-in’s Dick Martin). So when Oscar organizers on Tuesday named Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as the co-hosts of the upcoming Academy Awards, it left more than a few Hollywood watchers scratching their heads. You can read the story here.

After all, their only two pull quotes from the press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ranged from Martin’s mildly funny “I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” to a decidedly mixed statement from Baldwin, “I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars — it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Baldwin’s first reference is, of course, a joke about Martin’s love of the banjo, but the last half of the statement sounds rather serious.

It seems like salt and pepper, oil and water, but maybe that’s exactly what Oscar organizers are hoping for. And, if nothing else, it looks to generate some publicity and maybe even some controversy given Baldwin’s history with social and political activism. Yet, no matter how you slice it, it’s an odd pick and left more than one or two Hollywood publicists scratching their heads in Hollywood.

So, we leave it to you. Martin (the standup comedian) and Baldwin (the actor) co-hosting the world’s top film awards. Good choice? Bad? Or somewhere in between, which in some ways would be the worst choice of all because it might not elicit any reaction. And if they were successful, could it be a new comedy team: Martin and Baldwin? Or would it be Baldwin and Martin? We’d love to be a fly on the wall in that conversation among Hollywood agents.

 ***Veteran showman Hugh Jackman pulled out all the stops in his first stint as Oscar host, gamely singing and dancing his way through the night’s five best picture nominees with rarely seen Broadway flair.

In the musical number that traditionally kicks off the awards ceremony, Jackman — deadpanning that the Academy had cut back on the glitz this year because of the recession — pranced between cut-outs illustrating the reverse-aging of Benjamin Button; sat at a bare-bones set of the fictional quiz show in “Slumdog Millionaire”; roped in an ostensibly bemused Anne Hathaway to recreate the “Frost/Nixon” interview; stood on a “soapbox” Milk-crate; and, finally, stood on the top ropes of a make-shift wrestling rink as paper Oscars unfurled on either side.

“Because of the recession, everything is being downsized. Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called ‘New Zealand’,” the “Australia” actor remarked just before breaking into song.

Pundits had been undecided on Jackman before the show, given the Academy’s decision not to go with a comedian. But if the standing ovation and raucous applause from his toughest critics — the royalty of Hollywood seated in the front rows — were any indication, Jackman may just pull it off.

***Ben Stiller got laughs onstage and backstage for his riff on former Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, who is giving up acting to for rapping and should get an online Oscar for his portrayal of the “Unibomber” on David Letterman.  Natalie Portman should get a prize for keeping a straight face.

***Heath Ledger, the evening’s shoo-in, won a posthumous Oscar for his depiction of The Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

Backstage, Ledger’s mom, Sally Bell, said he would have been “quietly pleased” with the award.

“Heath was never one to be over-the-top with anything,” she said.

Ledger’s award is destined for his daughter, Matilda, but it will have to be put in a trust until she can sign for it when she is 18, dad Kim Ledger said.

Matilda, who is the daughter of actress Michelle Williams, is “totally like her daddy,” Bell said. “She has the same mannerisms, I really feel like he’s in her.”

***Danny Boyle wins Best Director prize for “Slumdog Millionaire,” the night’s big winner.

***Kate Winslet takes home the Best Actress award for “The Reader” — finally an Oscar win for her after five previous nominations.

“I want to acknowlege my fellow nominees,” Winslet said. “These goddesses. I think we all can’t believe we were in the category with Meryl Streep at all. I’m sorry, Meryl, but you just have to suck that up.”

***Sean Penn picks up the Best Actor prize for “Milk,” saying “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns.” It’s his second Oscar.

***”Slumdog Millionaire” proves it’s top dog with Best Picture Oscar and 8 awards overall. Aren’t those kids adorable?

Don’t miss us live at the Oscars on Twitter at http://twitter.com/reuters_fanfare

(Written by Edwin Chan, Nichola Groom and Lisa Baertlein)
    
(Photos\Reuters)

After months of watching movies, listening to punditry and seeing critics’ picks, the Oscar race has rounded the final corner and is in the home stretch. Nomination ballots are due at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week, and the world’s top film awards will be given out on Sunday, Feb. 22, in Hollywood.

Most Oscar watchers favor ”Slumdog Millionaire” to take the best motion picture award and its director Danny Boyle to win the directing trophy. Danny gives it the thumbs up. After all, ”Slumdog” has scooped up nearly every other award in sight this Oscar season, and it is clearly a crowd pleaser with an overall U.S. box office slowly inching upward to the $100 milion mark.

But is it really the best movie? Does it have the artistry and cinematic appeal of rivals “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon”? Can it match the hope and inspiration of gay themed “Milk” with Sean Penn in an award-winning performance? Is it missing the weightiness of Holocaust-era drama “The Reader” led by star Kate Winslet?

Will the popular appeal and critical success of “Slumdog,” the rags-to-riches tale of an Indian boy competing for love and money on a TV game show, be enough to sway Academy Award voters. Now may be your last chance to weigh-in here. How would you vote?

Oscar organizers are promising a show filled with “risks” by changing the old formula of a comedian telling jokes and film award winners getting all teary when they accept the world’s top film honors. But will ”risk” be enough.

Stung by competition from other awards shows and simply more channels on TV, the Oscars in recent years have seen an almost steady decline in viewership to 32 million last year — the lowest audience ever — from 39.9 million in 2007.

Some have blamed not only the competition, but the movies that get nominated. Last year, the nominees included films such as dark dramas “No Country for Old Men,” which were little seen by audiences.

By contrast, the most recent telecast with huge viewership came when 2003’s box office smash hit, ”The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” swept through many categories and won 11 awards. Oscar watchers had believed that popular Batman movie “The Dark Knight” might land a best film nomination and lure fans to the telecast this year, yet in it’s place is little seen drama “The Reader.”    Hmmmmmmm.

Nevertheless, producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon (”Dreamgirls”) promise a show with a lot of risk-taking and they’ve hired song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman to lead the way. But we wonder whether that will be enough? Or are Oscar voters simply out of touch with mainstream moviegoers who thrill at movies like “Dark Knight” and “Gran Torino”? Put more simply, will you tune in on Feb. 22?

It was perhaps the biggest snub of the Oscar nominations, actor/director Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” was overlooked by voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with no — zero — nominations. Or, was it?

(For a slideshow of nominees, click here, and for a list of nominees, click here.)

For weeks, as the road to Oscars’ Feb. 22 ceremony in Hollywood has laid out in front of award watchers, critics and industry groups have continually turned their heads as “Gran Torino” drove by — no Golden Globes or Broadcast Critics Choice awards, no nominations by producers, directors, actors or writers guilds. You could see the roadkill on the highway.

Yet, Eastwood is a favorite of the Motion Picture Academy voters. He has won two best director and best film awards (”Unforgiven” and “Million Dollar Baby”), but never won for acting. He was the star of “Gran Torino,” and the movie and his performance have earned mostly good reviews. Moreover, the film has been a hit with moviegoers who vote with their dollars at box offices ($78 million and climbing). As a result, many award watchers believed Academy voters would make Clint’s day. But they didn’t. And the question is, did they get it right or wrong?

“The Reader,” which has been seen by few people, earned a nomination for best picture over “Gran Torino” and Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” – a well-respected actor but hardly a household name — was nominated over Clint for best actor. Was that right?

In other surprises, Leonardo DiCaprio was shut out of the best actor category after turning in a strong performance in dark drama “Revolutionary Road,” and that film, which also starred Kate Winslet, also failed to make it in the best film and best director category with its filmmaker Sam Mendes (Winslet’s husband). Winslet did, however, land in the best actress race for “The Reader.”

And what about Batman movie “The Dark Knight.” It was 2008’s No. 1 movie at box offices, but was shut out of best director (Christopher Nolan) and best picture. The movie’s nominations — except for supporting actor for Heath Ledger – came mostly in technical categories like makeup, visual effects and sound-editing.

So, the race for Oscars is on, and the checkered flag will wave on Feb. 22, but now is your chance to get in your own votes on Fan Fare: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” and so on. Let us know what you think were Oscar’s hits and misses.

The studio behind Batman movie “The Dark Knight” has set Jan. 23 as the date for the movie’s re-release in IMAX and conventional theaters.

Studios often re-release movies in the lead-up to the Oscars, and “The Dark Knight” has been talked about for a number of trophies.

The biggest buzz surrounds the late Heath Ledger, who played Batman’s Machiavellian arch enemy The Joker and died last year of an overdose of prescription drugs. His performance already won him a posthumous Golden Globe award for best supporting actor, and Ledger could get an Oscar nomination as well.

Industry watchers expect the re-release of “The Dark Knight” to push the film past the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office sales. The film is already the second-highest grossing movie behind the 1997 film “Titanic.”

“The Dark Knight” will play in 255 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, including 142 IMAX theaters, said studio Warner Bros. The movie will play in about 32 IMAX locations internationally, the studio said.

Segments of the film were shot in IMAX, a giant screen format that Hollywood has increasingly turned to in recent years. “The Dark Knight” last year made more than $48 million in U.S. and Canada box office sales from IMAX showings.

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

PHOTO:REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

“Slumdog Millionaire” walked away with four Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, including best film drama, setting it on a solid path to Oscar glory. But there is still a long way to go. It was only three years ago that “Crash” was shut out of many Golden Globe nominations, but it made a comeback at the Screen Actors Guild awards and went on to claim that year’s best picture Oscar.

Why? One reason is because actors make up the biggest branch of voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and they loved “Crash.”

Will the same thing happen this year.? Can movies like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” or “Frost/Nixon” or “The Wrestler” make a comeback? Oscar nominations are due at the Academy on Monday, Jan. 12. On Jan. 22, when Oscar noms are handed out, we will see.

But for now, we’re curious about our readers’ choices for  best film, actors and actresses. Sure, “Slumdog” was the top dog on Sunday night, but will it be best in show at the Oscars? Tell us your favorites.

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

 It’s a tough job hosting the Academy Awards. It’s supposed to be entertaining, but it’s also a night for the stars to revel in the glory of an Oscar win. And the host has to be edgy and funny, without going over the line and insulting the honorees.
    
But when it works, as it did in 1992 when tough-guy actor Jack Palance did push-ups in front of comedian and host Billy Crystal, only to become the butt of Crystal’s jokes for the rest of the night, it makes for memorable moments. 
    
On Friday, the organization behind the Academy Awards named Australian actor Hugh Jackman as the host of February’s annual show. Jackman is the first non-comedian to single-handedly host the show in recent years. The last time an Australian hosted the show was in 1987, when to “Crocodile Dundee” star Paul Hogan shared the stage with actress Goldie Hawn and comedian Chevy Chase. 
    
Coming off starring in “Australia,” which has had only limited box office success since its Nov. 26 opening with a total box office take of $43 million, Jackman will rely on song and dance instead of just jokes to entertain a worldwide audience on Oscar night.

He has done well hosting the Tony Awards, the Broadway version of the Oscars, but the Oscars’ audience is used to comedians on the show. On a night where hype and pomp rule, the comedian’s role is often to keep the show grounded by injecting a jester’s dose of realism.

Jackman’s naming as host prompted a “love it or hate it” reaction here on our news floor in Los Angeles. There didn’t seem to be much in between, so we thought we’d leave it to readers to weigh in with their own thoughts. Hugh Jackman: an Oscar hit or miss?

Every once in a while, if you’re lucky and in the right spot at the right time, you get an interview that can stay with you a lifetime.

Eleven years ago while covering the Berlin Film Festival, I sat down with British director Anthony Minghella, who died in a London hospital on Tuesday at the age of 54.

His new film “The English Patient” was screening at the festival when news arrived that it had just picked up 12 Academy Award nominations. Minghella was obviously elated, especially because, as he explained, he had spent four years trying to get the film made that none of the major studios wanted to touch.

“The nominations are beyond any dream anyone is entitled to have,” he said with a wide smile. It was an interview in a Berlin hotel lobby that was supposed to be 10 minutes but ended up lasting nearly an hour — and has stayed with me ever since.

Minghella loved talking about his film. He was proud that his cast agreed to accept deferred salaries after the project was almost abandoned shortly after the start, and how everyone in Hollywood he approached for funding had turned him down.

“It was a very unpromising document: a European film about a man haunted from his war-time past, good actors but no stars and a director who had little experience,” said Minghella, an articulate man full of energy and ideas.

He was unlike any other director, producer or actor I have talked to before or since. At the time, in February 1997, he was 43 and just starting out as a filmmaker after being a lecturer at Hull University. He was so full of life and boundless enthusiasm.

“The English Patient” was, of course, a great film. But talking to Anthony Minghella about it was even better, an experience I’ll never forget.