Hugh Jackman brought his singing and dancing act to the Oscar awards ceremony and “Slumdog Millionaire” walked off with a leading 8 Oscars.

But who were the real stars of the show, and did the performances on the red carpet beat those on the stage of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood?

Viewership for Sunday’s telecast was up from last year but how much did that have to do with new host Jackman, stars like Beyonce, and the much-anticipated best supporting actor award for Australia’s Heath Ledger after his death?

The cute “Slumdog” kids in their mini tuxedos and party dresses, flown over from Mumbai, melted the hearts of those on the red carpet.

But Miley Cyrus got the thumbs down from some fashionistas for her  flouncy gown and got the “worst red carpet quote” award from readers of the Moviefone.com site for this gem.

“Hopefully I’ll be here getting something for it next year. It’s a lot more real and deeper than people would expect the movie to be,” the 16 year-old Disney teen star said of her Oscar wishes for the upcoming “Hannah Montana: The Movie.”

Some 73 percent of  Popeater.com readers polled said they hadn’t even seen “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Will that Oscar haul now encourage you to go and see the movie? Should Hugh Jackman come back next year as Oscars host, and who were the night’s winners as far as you were concerned?

 ***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)

The choice of Hugh Jackman to host the Oscars on Sunday has generated plenty of talk, because he is no comedian and Hollywood is wondering how a song-and-dance man like Jackman will fare at the high-pressure job, which usually goes to funny men and women such as Billy Crystal, Jon Stewart or Whoopi Goldberg.

But average folks on the Web think the Australian actor will do just fine. In a poll on celebrity news site PopEater.com, 85 percent of respondents think he will do either “great” or “OK”. Only 15 percent of the 31,000 respondents expect Jackman will be “terrible” at hosting the Oscars.

Jackman, who stars in the upcoming film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, and who has hosted Broadway’s Tony awards, was chosen after last year’s Oscar broadcast, hosted by television’s “The Daily Show” star Stewart, hit a record low of 32 million U.S. viewers, compared to 39.9 million in 2007. 

Oscar show producers are expected to bring a fresh look to the ceremony on Sunday, and have dropped the traditional comic opening monologue.

 Web site Moviefone.com also conducted a poll and found that “Slumdog Millionaire” is the clear favorite to win the best picture Oscar.

 A whopping 83 percent of respondents wanted the late Heath Ledger to win best supporting actor for his role as Joker in Batman movie “The Dark Knight,”  while Kate Winslet was picked to win best actress for “The Reader” and Mickey Rourke to win best actor for  “The Wrestler.”

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

Hollywood’s movie awards season got seriously underway with the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday. But have those who pick the best movies and actors of the year got it right?

Some pundits are already crying foul over the absence of Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt’s co-star in ”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”,  from the Golden Globe contenders, not to mention the fact that the San Francisco gay drama “Milk” got just one nomination, for actor Sean Penn.

And how about “The Dark Knight” –  the biggest box office success of the year — which picked up a single nomination for the late, beloved actor Heath Ledger but came away empty-handed otherwise?.

Since several of the movies, including “Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road” haven’t been released in theaters yet (awards voters get sneak previews of those arriving at the end of the year), it’s hard for regular movie goers to make a fair assessment at this stage of the game.

This year’s list of Golden Globe nominees is top-heavy with A-list stars. Everyone from Brad and Angelina to Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway will likely be walking the red carpet when the awards are handed out on January 11.

But who do you think got unfairly shut out,  and which nominations were most surprising? Most importantly who deserves to win the top Golden Globes, or Oscars, for 2008?

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Give audiences a blockbuster Batman movie called “The Dark Knight” with zany villains, and all of a sudden everyone’s a casting director.
    
A survey by movie rental company Blockbuster has found Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie — in that order — are the top two favorites of fans for starring roles in an expected next Batman film.
    
Keith Leopard, director of film product for Blockbuster, said Depp or Jolie could really bring a Batman villain to life.  However it will be up to Warner Bros, the studio behind the film,  to cast the next Batman movie.
    
The survey also listed fans most requested villains for the next Batman movie are: The Riddler (a clue-giving criminal); Harley Quinn (a Harlequin jester); Cat Woman (Batman’s bad girl love interest); The Penguin (a mobster with a penchant for umbrellas); and Bane (a muscle-bound foe).
    
Several of those characters have appeared in Batman movies since Warner Bros launched the modern version of the movie saga in 1989. Notably, The Penguin was played by Danny DeVito in 1992 and comedian Jim Carrey took a turn as The Riddler in 1995.
    
“The Dark Knight” has made nearly $1 billion worldwide since it opened on July 18, and the late Heath Ledger has been talked about as a possible Oscar contender for his role as The Joker in the film.

The hype around Friday’s release of the “The Dark Knight” has reached a fever pitch, with Heath Ledger’s dark turn as the Joker generating an avalanche of posthumous Oscar buzz.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone has called Ledger’s performance “mad-crazy-blazing brilliant,” while the sequel’s director Christopher Nolan has raved in the New York Times that Ledger’s portrayal of the sadistic makeup-caked villain is “stunning” and “iconic”.

The big-ticket Academy Award categories have typically been bereft of summer blockbuster nominees.

But is Ledger’s performance so bone-chillingly remarkable that it can survive the hype and the action-movie stigma?

As the 2006 best-picture shunning of “Dreamgirls” demonstrated, presumptive hype can lead to a snub when the Academy Award nominations are announced.

The Internet Oscar buzz alone for the Australian actor - lead by a gallery of fans likely still reeling from the shock of his untimely death in January - has eclipsed the praise of traditional critics, elevating the risk that Ledger will become a target for backlash.

The film is likely to surge above the $100-million mark during its opening weekend, placing the film in the same mega-earning category as “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”.

Writing Ledger’s name on a ballot will perhaps become more palatable for Academy voters given the length of time between opening weekend and when Oscar nomination polls close on Jan.12, 2009.

This may be one time when fading memories are deemed an advantage amongst the fickle Hollywood elite - cementing Ledger’s legacy as an Oscar-worthy talent.

For full coverage of “The Dark Knight”, click here.

The new Batman movie “The Dark Knight” has already impressed critics in advance of its Friday opening, but at its New York premier, the family of late Australian actor Heath Ledger gave the film their mark of approval. 
 
The performance of Ledger  as Batman’s nemesis The Joker has sparked speculation among critics that he could win an Oscar posthumously.
 
Kim Ledger attended the premier of his son’s movie in New York on Monday with his wife, Ines, who was Heath’s step-mother. The actor’s mother, Sally Bell, and his sister, Kate Ledger, also attended. The only close family not there was Ledger’s  former partner Michelle Williams, and mother of his daughter, Matilda.

After the movie, the Ledgers released a statement quoted in various media outlets saying: “‘The Dark Knight’ is everything we hoped it would be and more. Heath loved the experience of creating this character and working on the film. We are so proud of our boy.”
 
Kim Ledger also reportedly gave a thumbs-up sign at the premier when asked what he thought of “Dark Knight.”
 
Ledger, 28,  died alone in his Manhattan apartment in January from an accidental overdose of prescription medications. If Ledger is nominated for an Oscar for his role as The Joker, it would not be his first. He also won a nomination for his role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain.”