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.

A Hollywood studio probably could not ask for a better beginning to an Oscar campaign than Paramount Pictures currently is getting for director Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air.”

All of you who’ve been reading Reuters and Fan Fare this past two weeks know that we are currently at the beginning of the film industry’s award season, and smack in the middle of the final of three festivals that launch Academy Award campaigns — at Telluride, Colorado, Venice, Italy, and here in Toronto, Canada.

Reitman and star George Clooney are back in the hunt for Oscar glory this year with comedy “Up In the Air.” No need to introduce Clooney, but maybe Reitman. He is the director of 2007 hit “Juno,” the quirky little indie movie about a pregnant teenager who decides to give up her baby for adoption, as well as the satirical movie “Thank You for Smoking.”

“Juno” earned Reitman an Oscar nomination for directing, along with others for writing (Diablo Cody, she won), actress (Ellen Page) and best motion picture. Paramount, which will release “Up In the Air” in November, wants to do better and it very well may. Still, there’s a long way to go and many movies to see.

“Up In the Air,” which looks at the life of a man (Clooney) whose job is to fire people in corporate restructurings and who claims not to need any family, friends or personal relationships, proved to be a darling of Telluride’s notoriously savvy festival crowds. Saturday’s Toronto premiere was both packed and star-studded (Oprah was in the house!). Reitman earned a standing ovation from a portion of the crowd. Although it was somewhat difficult to tell whether they were standing for him or just standing to watch Oprah exit.

Regardless of which way the celebrity gawkers were gazing (or gazers, gawking) “Up In the Air” will be a film to watch in this year’s Oscar race. We were at the premiere and below is the 10-minute Question and Answer session after it was over. If you haven’t been to a festival and seen the Q&A’s, it’s interesting. Pay attention to Clooney as he waves his bandaged hand. He shut it in a car door.

Fair warning on the video, though, it’s a long one, so give it some time to load.

Something isn’t sitting quite right at this year’s fantastic, dust-filled pan-African FESPACO film festival.

For a start, it’s less “pan-African” than it might be: of 19 feature films competing for the shiny statue of Princess Yennenga riding her golden stallion -- Africa's very own Oscar -- only one is from east Africa and none from Nigeria, whose video industry is third only to Hollywood and India’s Bollywood. By far the majority are from French-speaking countries.

Not only that, but the prized 35mm category in which feature films compete is beyond the reach of many African filmmakers. Only a clutch of the films competing for the top gong were actually shot on 35mm film, and many projectors have long since lost the ability to show them.

Most films are instead shot on digital, meaning filmmakers must pay in the region of 50,000 euros to transfer their digital prints onto film in order to compete. Not only is digital cheaper, easier and quicker, but it can also means film can be edited in their home countries, and easily brought to local audiences with digital projectors. Currently only north Africa and South Africa have studios equipped for 35mm.

It means many filmmakers can afford to work only with the aid of donors, and even then they can’t secure distribution to make sure their stories reach an African audience and make money too, especially since DVD piracy is rife and cinemas are closing down across the continent.

Burkina Faso, which hosts the festival, was once home to 55 working screens; today it has ten. Cameroon said goodbye to its final three already shaky screens in January, while Congo Brazzaville’s only working screen is hosted by the French Cultural Centre.

“Africa really has to change its way of making films,” said Selome Gerima, associate producer of Teza, a movie about the Red Terror in Ethiopia. “I don’t believe in going and begging to the donors; they will not take us anywhere. We have to unite and have some kind of African film bank, to sell scripts, make loans, find outlets, so we can be independent.”

One-time FESPACO winner Zola Maseko said even South Africa’s well-developed market doesn’t have the kind of audience that can support local cinema.

“When I make a film it has to be for an international audience. We need to make films in 35mm, because that’s what the international community of cinema does. We have to tell black stories, but they will mostly be seen by people at home through DVDs and TV.”

Is African cinema as we know it dying out? And if so, can it unite, adapt to new markets and tell its stories in new ways?

(Writing by Lisa Baertlein)

Glamour ruled on Hollywood’s biggest night, and “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto was brilliant in a blue John Galliano gown, supporting actress winner Penelope Cruz donned a 60-year-old Balmain and best actress winner Kate Winslet dazzled in a one-shoulder number from Yves Saint Laurent.

Stars like Heidi Klum and Natalie Portman added splashes of color, but many stars including Anne Hathaway, Cruz, Taraji P. Henson and Evan Rachel Wood wore white and other light colors.

Who do you think was best dressed? And worst?

Award winners Penelope Cruz in Balmain and Kate Winslet in Yves Saint Laurent

Heidi Klum in Roland Mouret

Freida Pinto in John Galliano

Anne Hathaway in Armani Prive

Viola Davis in Reem Acra and Taraji P. Henson in Roberto Cavalli

Marisa Tomei and Natalie Portman

Don’t forget to check us out on Twitter!

(Photos: REUTERS)

Kate Winslet, who is nominated for an Oscar for best actress in ”The Reader,”  has been happy to take her clothes off for the sake of her art. 

But those days may be over.

“I think I won’t do it again: a) I can’t keep getting away with it, and b) I don’t want to become ‘that actress who always gets her kit off,’” Winslet told Time magazine, in a profile that ran on its website on Thursday.

The comment comes the same day the Los Angeles Times ran an article looking at Winslet and fellow Oscar nominee Marisa Tomei, who plays a stripper in “The Wrestler” and who has also not been shy about shedding her clothes.

The LA Times wrote that, “Winslet would appear to have no equal among A-list actresses in her fearlessness about displaying her body.”

“Stretching from her career-making role in “Titanic” to “Iris” to 2006’s steamy “Little Children” — for each of which she received an Oscar nomination — Winslet has bared at least some skin in service to the film’s story,” the article said.

It appears to work for Winslet, 33, who has won six Oscar nominations in her career. On the set, Winslet appears to know exactly how to handle an awkward sex scene. She told Reuters that for “The Reader,” where she appeared nude with 18-year-old actor David Kross, she always knew where their bathrobes were and was quick to grab them after each film take.

With her acting ability, Winslet’s career will do just fine without nudity. But what will her fans think?

Word comes to us that Oscar has a new favorite champagne, Moet & Chandon.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the champagne maker have said the company’s White Star flagship champagne will be the “exclusive champagne of the Academy Awards.”

And there will be plenty of it. The bubbly will be poured at the Red Carpet Cocktail Party, the Awards Ceremony, the fabulous Governor’s Ball after the ceremony, the Foreign Language Film Awards Cocktail Party and the New York Oscar Viewing Party. That’s a lot of champagne. But hey, times are tough, and even Hollywood could use a little cheering up. So, break out the bubbly, Oscar.

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.