With little time left until Hollywood’s big show, this could be your last chance to put in your picks on all those Oscars.

Will “Slumdog Millionaire” take home the Golden Boy for best movie, as is widely expected?

Can Mickey Rourke wrestle the best actor Academy Award away from Sean Penn, or might veteran Frank Langella slip in with a victory? And what happened to Brad Pitt?

Does veteran Meryl Streep have the clout to overpower British sweetheart Kate Winslet for best actress. Weigh-in now.

And follow us the rest of the night at Reuters.com, on the Fan Fare Blog and the Twitter we’ll have going throughout the show that begins in Hollywood around 5 p.m. pst/ 8 p.m. est.

Good Luck!

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.”

Mickey Rourke has been vocal in recent weeks about his affection for his dogs, and he must be devastated by the death of his Chihuahua Loki.

Celebrities don’t usually bring their dogs along to the leading red carpets of the world but when they do — as Rourke did at the Venice film festival last year — their choices of breed can be surprising.  Who, for instance would have matched Rourke, with his background in boxing, with a tiny Chihuahua?

We’re not sure which of the other leading Oscar nominees already owns a dog.  But we wondered what a fantasy parade of celebrities and their canine friends might look like on Sunday’s big night.

Which dog would you choose as the potential best friend of  Sean Penn,  Meryl Streep,  Anne Hathaway or Angelina Jolie?

And which star would make the perfect  partner for this crazy pooch?

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?

Mickey Rourke has been feeling a whole lotta Hollywood love recently — but his “Wrestler” co-star Evan Rachel Wood wants to make clear that none of it, physically, is coming from her.

Rumors that Wood, 21, and Rourke, 52,  were involved in a romantic relationship were fueled by reports that they were seen kissing at a Screen Actors Guild awards party in Los Angeles at the weekend.

Wood played the estranged daughter to Rourke’s Oscar-nominated, lonely, washed-up character in the comeback movie “The Wrestler”.

But on Thursday she told Rolling Stone magazine that she was distraught at the rumors.

“Im upset because I feel disrespected by the press and by Mr. Rourke,” she said. “Just because I’m single doesn’t mean that you can take advantage of me. It’s unfair that the performances might suffer because of all these distractions.”

Wood, whose two year romance with rocker Marilyn Manson, 40, ended in November last year added; “I’m not attracted to him (Rourke). He’s too old for me. Nothing ever happened and nothing ever will.”

Ouch!

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

“The Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke appeared to back off an earlier boast that he would enter the ring against pro wrestler Chris Jericho, when the two appeared together Tuesday night on the CNN interview show “Larry King Live.”
    
But World Wrestling Entertainment, the company presenting WrestleMania XXV in Houston on April 5, said on Wednesday that Rourke is still in talks to possibly join the bout.
    
If Rourke is planning to make an appearance, it would be hard to judge from his exchange with Jericho on “Larry King.” Jericho said that Rourke made “a mistake” on the red carpet at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards when the actor announced he would take on Jericho at WrestleMania.

“If he got his wish and had a confrontation with me at WrestleMania, I think the ending of the Jericho-Rourke movie would not turn out very well for Mr. Rourke, as it did in ‘The Wrestler,’” Jericho said.
    
Rourke responded by appearing to back off his red carpet trash talk against Jericho, without mentioning the episode. ”Perhaps I did put my foot in my mouth,” he said.
    
When Larry King asked Rourke if he will wrestle Jericho, Rourke said no. ”It’s not my world, I was a professional fighter. Would I box him in a boxing ring or a bare-knuckle match? Yeah,” Rourke said. “Wrestling? That’s his world, that’s what this man does.”

That did not please Jericho, who told Rourke he had no respect for the actor. So will the two actually end up fighting in the ring? 

The WWE is playing up the spat for all it’s worth, even without pledging that Rourke will show up at WrestleMania. ”You never know what’s going to happen at the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania,” said Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for the company.

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Actor Mickey Rourke has turned himself into one of Hollywood’s comeback kings with an Oscar-nominated performance in “The Wrestler.” Now, the actor is planning to take on opponents larger and tougher than movie critics — he wants to fight in World Wrestling Entertainment’s WrestleMania match in Houston on April 5. 
    
Rourke made the announcement on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday night. The news was reported by celebrity news outlets Access Hollywood and E! News. Rourke even fit in a bash against pro wrestler Chris Jericho, telling a reporter that he “better get in shape.” 
    
Rourke was stuck in the Hollywood wilderness for years because of on-set troubles and run-ins with the law. He gave a salty acceptance speech when he won a best actor award for “The Wrestler” at the Golden Globes on Jan. 11, and it’s clear that being back in the limelight has not taken the edge off Rourke. The question is: how will he fare in the ring? He is, after all, just an actor.

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

 When a camera caught “The Wrestler” director Darren Aronofsky jokingly making an obscene gesture on the Golden Globes telecast on NBC, as the star of his movie ribbed him from on-stage, viewers on the East Coast of the United States saw it live.
    
The Parents Television Council saw it too, and now they’re seeing red.
    
Tim Winter, president of the council, said in a statement that the middle finger given by Aronofsky to actor Mickey Rourke is “yet another example of arrogant behavior by some who seem intoxicated by being controversial, rather than eager to celebrate with the viewing audience some of the best artistic performances of the year.”
    
NBC declined to comment on the PTC criticism, and a representative for Aronofsky was not immediately available.
    
During the Sunday night broadcast, viewers on the West Coast did not see Aronofsky’s gesture because the telecast was blacked out for those two seconds. NBC could black out that portion of the show for West Coast viewers because for them it was playing on a tape delay, unlike on the East Coast where it was carried live.
    
In another controversial moment on the show, “Slumdog Millionaire” producer Christian Colson said an obscenity on stage at the end of his acceptance speech, but the audio was dropped and viewers did not hear it.
    
Winter credited NBC with eliminating some of the graphic profanity from the show. But he also said that, given the show’s content, it should not have had a rating designating the program safe for children.

A lot of buzz at the Toronto film festival inevitably is about which movies may compete for Oscars as Hollywood begins its months-long campaign for film honors that often — although not always — bring stars fame and movie studios money.

Taken together with film festivals in Venice and Telluride, Colorado, which annually occur in late August and early September, the Toronto event is a key Oscar campaign launch site. But sometimes the movies suffer a critical backlash if they are too widely hyped. Other times critics jump on a movie’s bandwagon and propel the film forward.

A few titles winning early praise here at Toronto, mostly for their performances include: Mickey Rourke as a washed up professional wrestler being urged to make a comeback in a big match in “The Wrestler”; Anne Hathaway playing a drug abusing woman who checks out of rehab to attend her sister’s wedding in “Rachel Getting Married”; and Greg Kinnear portraying the man who invents the intermittent windshield wiper and must battle automakers over his patent in “Flash of Genius.”

 There is little doubt that singer Alicia Keys will garner a lot of media attention for a supporting part in coming-of-age drama “The “Secret Life of Bees,” as will the film’s star, young Dakota Fanning. But whether critics and Oscar voters adore the overall film seems to be a tossup among the film pundits here at the Toronto festival. Two films that clearly have stood out in the early festivals are “The Wrestler,” directed by Darren Aronofsky, and “Slumdog Millionaire” from director Danny Boyle, telling of young Indian boy who aims to be a millionaire by competing on a TV game show.

At a Toronto news conference, we asked Kinnear how he saw “Flash of Genius” playing out during awards season, and here was part of his answer:  “What I’m most excited about is that the movie’s being talked about.

“You know I think it’s a little provocative in terms of how people register this film and the fact that they recognize it, as (director) Marc (Abraham) said, he took this project out to studios and you tell studios you’re going to make a movie about a guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper — not a lot of bites…

“It’s an unconventional film and it’s hard to get these kinds of pictures noticed. It really is, especially in a world where 7 or 8 or 12 movies are coming out in a weekend now. So we’re obviously grateful to be here and grateful to anybody who in any way is referencing what you’re talking about right now,” Kinnear said

Not exactly a direct answer, but with awards talk does come attention — at least that is the conventional Hollywood wisdom. But we wonder how much attention moviegoers truly pay to “Oscar buzz”? And what matters most when it comes to picking a movie for the weekend: what critics say in reviews, or what movie marketers put on promotional posters? We — and very likely Oscar — want to know.

(Additional Reporting by Claire Sibonney)

If we are honest, most of us would admit that we derive a certain pleasure from seeing someone famous fall from their perch, be it with a critical flop, a personal problem or a bout of odd behaviour in public.

How refreshing, then, to see the world-weary entertainment press genuinely rejoicing in Mickey Rourke’s comeback in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler”, which won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice festival over the weekend. There were no snide asides among reporters as we waited in a hotel lounge by the Adriatic Sea to interview the 51-year-old. Noone complained about where they would rather be or how their head was still reeling from the night before (it was mid-morning).

No, instead there was broad agreement that Rourke had pulled it off. For most of the last 15 years the actor and former boxer has been a peripheral figure, a Hollywood outcast with a reputation for bad behaviour on set and off it. Now he is being universally lauded for an honest and touching performance as a washed up wrestler whose personal problems and professional decline poignantly reflect Rourke’s own life.

And to cap it all, he gave candid answers, with the odd expletive thrown in, suggesting that for the first time in a while he is happy where he is. He told us he believed it was the best film he’d ever made, and indicated that, as a team player from now on, there is plenty more to come.