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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

shoaib malik


Pakistan Cricket Stars Yousuf, Younus Banned for Life; Malik, Naved-ul-Hasan Banned for 1 year


Pakistan cricket was thrown into turmoil today with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) putting an end to the international careers of former captains Mohd Yousuf and Younus Khan besides imposing a one-year ban on Shoaib Malik in the wake of the team's disastrous tour of Australia.

were whitewashed in all three formats of the game in Australia and the PCB had set up an inquiry committee headed by Wasim Bari to probe the reasons for the debacle.

As recommended by the committee, former captain Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were handed one-year bans.

The inquiry committee had recommended that Yousuf and Younis should no longer be part of the national team in any format because of their bad influence on the team and that Malik and Rana be banned for 12 months and fined Rs2 million each.

The Akmal brothers — Kamran and Umar — and Shahid Afridi have been put on probation for six months besides being fined
between Rs2-3 million for indiscipine on the tour, the PCB statement said.


The punishments are set to impact the composition of Pakistan's World Twenty20 Championship. The team is the defending champion in this format and the 15-man squad for the event is due to be out by the end of this month. According to sources, the report was discussed by the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt with the national selection committee on Monday as part of the selection process for the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.

g, there were mixed reactions to the strong recommendations keeping in mind that upcoming Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies where Pakistan defends its title," the source stated.

The inquiry committee apparently had serious reservations over the attitude and commitment shown by Malik and Rana in Australia where they are accused of not cooperating with the management.

He said the captain, coach and manager on the Australian tour had reported Malik and Rana for misbehaviour and not cooperating with the management a fact confirmed by some other players who appeared before the probe committee.

This is the first time in Pakistan cricket history that the Board has taken such strong disciplinary action against so many players at one time.

"Apparently at the meetin

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

colossal squid


Believed to be the largest known invertebrate, make the Colossal Squid a giant in terms of the other species of its family. The Colossal Squid was discovered and then inevitably named in the annum 1925 by the British Zoologist Guy Coburn Robson who named it M. Hamiltoni under the genus of Mesonychoteuthis.

The span in length of the Colossal Squid is estimated between the range of twelve and fourteen meters though a full sized Colossal Squid hasn’t as yet been found. The estimate of the squid was based on under developed squids of the same species by predicting their full growth span according to their growth cycle and the age they were at when observed.

The Colossal Squid has its variation when it comes to the tentacles as compared to the giant squid. The Colossal Squid has sharp hooks, some of them with three points while others which swivel, evolution, you might think from the giant squid whose tentacles only have little suckers engrained with small teeth.

The Colossal Squid has a bigger head than the giant squid but falls short on its tentacles which are measured to be shorter than those of the giant squid. These proportions significantly increase the overall weight of the Colossal Squid which also has the largest eyes ever to be witnessed in the animal kingdom apart from having a beak that reveals its abyssal gigantism.

The Colossal Squid is known to inhabit the Southern Ocean where it has been spotted in the waters between Antarctica and South America and then between New Zealand and the b

seneca wallace


Seahawks deal Seneca Wallace to Browns

Seneca Wallace waited seven years in Seattle for a chance to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Now he might get that shot, but in Cleveland where he'll reunite with former coach Mike Holmgren.

The Seahawks traded their long-time backup quarterback to the Browns on Monday evening for an undisclosed draft choice in 2011.The Seahawks clearly are ready to go new directions with their roster under new coach Pete Carroll and now will likely draft a quarterback to groom under and compete with starter Matt Hasselbeck.

Holmgren, meanwhile, is pushing the Browns in the direction of his familiar West Coast offense and could use Wallace to help that transition.

"This will give Seneca a chance for a fresh start," said new Seahawks general manager John Schneider. "The Browns front office's familiarity with his abilities will give him an opportunity to compete for playing time. We wish him nothing but the best."

Wallace, 29, was drafted by Seattle in the fourth round in 2003.

Wallace performed fairly well as the fill-in starter after Hasselbeck went out with a back injury midway through the 2008 season, but struggled in his two starts last year in new offensive coordinator Greg Knapp's system.

The draft pick will be in part decided by how much Wallace plays next season in Cleveland, but exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Coincidentally (or not, conspiracy theorists?), the move frees up Wallace's No. 15 roster number, which also happens to be the number worn by Denver receiver Brandon Marshall.

Don't hold your breath on anything happening there immediately as the Seahawks must determine their level of interest in Marshall and then work out compensation with both the player and the Broncos if they intend to make him an offer.

But it's fair to say the Seahawks were impressed with Marshall during his weekend visit and will continue looking into the possibility of signing the controversial receiver.

Wallace started 14 games in his seven seasons in Seattle, completing 333 of 556 passes for 3,547 yards with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

He was a good enough athlete to play wide receiver on occasion as well and made a memorable catch in the Seahawks' NFC Championship game in 2005. He caught four passes for 76 yards in his Seattle tenure and rushed 54 times for 214 yards.

The move leaves the Seahawks with just two quarterbacks on their roster -- Hasselbeck and Mike Teel, who didn't play last year as a rookie out of Rutgers.

It surely increases the likelihood of the team drafting a quarterback at some point this April. The Seahawks have lined up an individual workout with Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, but they'll have numerous options there or could pursue a veteran backup in free agency.

Chad Pennington just re-signed with Miami, so the list of potentially available veterans include the likes of Kyle Boller, Rex Grossman, Jon Kitna and Chris Redman.

More likely the Seahawks pursue a young leader of the future and may be competing with the Browns in that vein. Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer suggests Derek Anderson likely will be released or traded in the coming weeks and that Brady Quinn might be vulnerable as well.

sunan international airport


Sunan International Airport is the main airport serving Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, located 24 km from the city’s center.

When traveling to this unique country you are likely to arrive at this international airport. Pyongyang has undergone great restoration following the Korean War of the 1950s. Massive buildings line the streets and large monuments catch your eye. When visiting the city be sure to look out for land marks such as the Juche Tower, Rungnado May Day Stadium, Kim II Sung Stadium and thePyongyang TV Tower.

On arriving at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport you are certain to be impressed with the fine facilities including a business center, disabled facilities, passenger lounge, few souvenir shops, duty-free stores, a bookshop and the Korea Trade Bank. Passengers looking for something to eat or drink can stop by the bar or restaurant. Theairport also has a baggage storage facility; service hours are from 08:00 to 21:00 and the charge is 1.5 Korean Won (KPW) per piece. Air Koryo offer bus fares toPyongyang and to Sunan airport.The airport’s book shop opens at 10:00. The airport’s restaurant, bar and the Korea Foreign Trade Bank all operate from 09:00 to 18:00. The airport also can cater for four aircraft simultaneously. There are also 17 separate parking bays for additional aircraft. The airport also has a maintenance area that consists of two hangars one large and one smaller along with a large apron.

The airport possesses 2 concrete runways. The first is in a 01/19 direction and measures 13 241ft or 4 037m. The second is in a 17/35 direction and measures 11 480ft or 3 500m. The larger runway handles international flights, whilst the smaller is for civil aircraft and domestic flights. Navigational aids for aircraft at theairport are VOR-DME (VHF Omni-directional Range Distance Measuring Equipment) and NDB (Non-Directional Beacon).

marie osmond son s funeral


There could be no grief bigger than this to see one’s 18years old son’s body being taken away to rest in peace forever. Marie Osmond, the American singer-actress, had to experience such an incident on Monday 8th March 2010 as her son’s dead body was taken for the last prayers.

Radar Online reports that Michael Blosil’s funeral was held on Monday 8th March 2010 at The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints in Provo, Utah. Michael committed suicide on 26th February 2010 by jumping from the 8th floor of his apartment in Los Angeles. He had left a suicide note which was found later by his best friend Ruthann Clawson.

Marie Osmond was consoled by her entire family at the funeral ceremony. She attended the event in black outfit and the grief was clearly visible on her face as she stood beside her daughter.

Michael’s body was taken by the pallbearers that included his uncle Donny Osmond (Marie’s brother) and Michael’s brothers Merrill, Wayne, Jay and Jimmy. There were about 450 family and friends who attended the ceremony. Donny broke down to tears while reciting the last prayers for Michael.

Michael was one of the 5 adopted sons of Marie Osmond. He was an aspiring fashion designer and he had been suffering from depression which ultimately took his life on 26th February 2010.

Monday, March 8, 2010

russian launch keys


Russian Launch Keys were seen on TV via the Pawn Stars TV show. A guy came in the shop with what was thought to be an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). It turned out, after an inspection from the expert, that the items were Russian Launch Keys.

The Russian Launch keys were used for launching space craft.

The guy wants $10,000 for the item, Rick can only offer $1500. The guy thought it was too small an amount and decided not to have a deal.

naughty by nature



Was that Naughty by Nature on The Buried Life tonight? And what’s the theme song of The Buried Life? Yes, Naughty by Nature appear on The Buried Life season finale tonight.

And like My Life as Liz, the question remains, is there a season 2 of The Buried Life?

congressman massa

Eric Massa hosted his weekly radio show on his last day as the Congressman and intimated that the Democratic Party pushed him out of his seat to pick up a vote on health care. He also detailed the charges against him and said he would perhaps rescind his resignation if the move to toss him from Congress became a “national story.”

You can listen to the audio at this link. Roll Call provided a rough transcript of Massa retelling the incident in question.

“On new Year’s Eve, I went to a staff party. It was actually a wedding for a staff member of mine; there were over 250 people there. I was with my wife. And in fact we had a great time. She got the stomach flu,” he said.

Massa explained that he then danced first with the bride, who was not identified, and then with a bridesmaid. He said multiple cameras recorded the incident.

“I said goodnight to the bridesmaid,” Massa continued. “I sat down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them by the way bachelors.”

“One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don’t know, 15 gin and tonics, and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that,” Massa said. “And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, ‘Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.’ And then [I] tossled the guy’s hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn’t right for me to be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes.”

Massa claimed that the staffer who reported the incident to the Ethics Committee was not the subject of the comment, but someone else at the table.

Massa later said that he hadn’t realized the mathematics of how his resignation would help get the health care bill passed until after his announcement on Friday afternoon. He said that “Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill, and this administration and this House leadership have said, quote unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they’ve gotten rid of me and it’ll pass.”

Well, if his was the deciding vote they wouldn’t be talking so intensely with Bart Stupak. Massa has the same inflated sense of self that all Congressmen presumably have. But the story is plausible and consistent with where this seemed to be going all along. I think the leadership had multiple reasons to dump Massa, primarily the appearance of taking control over a messy ethics probe. But the health care vote certainly didn’t hurt. If Massa were a committed “yes” maybe things play out differently.

Later in the show, Massa addressed events in his Navy career which a right-wing radio host blogged about, insisting they were misunderstandings. And he detailed a conversation with Rahm Emanuel after the climate change bill vote:

“When I voted against the cap and trade bill, the phone rang and it was the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, Rahm Emanuel, and he started swearing at me in terms and words that I hadn’t heard since that crossing the line ceremony on the USS New Jersey in 1983,” Massa said. “And I gave it right back to him, in terms and words that I know are physically impossible.”

“If Rahm Emanuel wants to come after me, maybe he ought to hold himself to the same standards I’m holding myself to and he should resign,” Massa said.

oscar fashion best and worst




Oscar Fashion Best and Worst: Oscar Fashion 2010 Updates – After the success of the 82nd Academy Awards or also known as Oscars 2010, here’s come the Oscar Fashion Best and Worst. The Academy Awards 2010 was not only handed by some of the best and most talented actors, directors and producers but also lead its way for the Hollywood’s star to rock and show themselves at the red carpet and even flaunt the stunning gowns and suits made by the world’s top fashion designers.

And for some news site and entertainment blogs, here are their opinion of whom should be proclaimed as the Best and Worst Dressed at the Oscars 2010.

Best Dressed at the 2010 Oscars




The 10 ladies topping our best dressed list of 2010 include Amanda Seyfried in a gorgeous Armani Prive floor-length off-white gown, Anika Noni Rose in a jewel-busted cream gown that literally lit up the red carpet, Sandra Bullock who dazzled in a light gold, jeweled dress, Demi Moore who looked subtly sexy in a ruffled light coral number, Helen Mirren who donned a perfectly age-appropriate strapless gown in a body that would rival any woman in her twenties, Kate Winslet won looked chic and sexy in a figure-flattering silver floor-length gown and Queen Latifah who rocked a light purple pastel number with jeweled detailing around the bust.

Rounding off our list at #3 is Twilight star Kristen Stewart who shocked everyone last night in a feminine deep navy strapless gown. #2 on our list belongs to the amazing Meryl Streep who looked fresh and glowing in a white, full-sleezed, floor-length gown and a white clutch. Landing in on our top spot for the 2010Oscars best dressed is none other than Penelope Cruz who looked smashing in a deep red, gorgeous strapless gown.

Worst Dressed at the 2010 Oscars

While many women rocked the red carpet, there are always a few that can’t seem to get it right. This year those women include Zoe Saldana who’s gown looked more appropriate for a high school prom than a coveted awards show, Carey Mulligan who looked like a 12-year-old boy wearing an unflattering woman’s gown, Charlize Theron who might as well have worn two bulls eyes on her tatas and nothing else last night and Vera Farmiga who obviously has yet to learn the meaning of less is more.

The special lady who stole the top spot of worst dressed on our Oscar 2010 list is none other than country songstress Faith Hill who’s black, floor-length gown and thigh-high slit looked more appropriate for working the corner than it did the red carpet.

carl edwards suspended


Kurt Busch wins his first victory of the year, second spring Atlanta win in a row, in the 2009 Kobalt Tools 500, though the talk doesn’t even involve Busch. After a controversial wreck with six laps to go, everybody is talking about Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards.



On lap 39, Keselowski and Edwards made contact on the restart, sending Edwards and Joey Logano into the wall. On the initial replay, it looked as if Keselowski got into the back of Edwards. Though upon further review, Edwards actually came down in front of Keselowski, causing Keselowski to get into him. Either way, blame was placed on Keselowski for the incident.



“He cut down on me on the restart and I couldn't lift faster,” Keselowski said of the accident. “I appologize to him.”



“Looking at that replay, it didn't look as bad as I first thought,” Edwards said. “We were on the restart and I was going for the bottom. I knew Brad was peeking inside, but I thought he'd give me just a little bit of room and he didn't and we ended up overlapping."



"I know Brad (Keselowski) has made his career on being super-aggressive," Edwards continued. "But it's just a little too aggressive overall for that early in the race and caused us to wreck."



Carl Edwards also added that, “Brad is somebody who doesn't ever give me any room.”



After spending numerous laps behind the wall, Edwards returned to the track, looking to make the points loss due to the incident minimal. However, with six laps to go, Edwards did something that’d become the No. 1 hot topic: He retaliated.



Edwards got behind Keselowski with eight laps to go and took three swipes at him, finally wrecking him on the third try. The result was Keselowski flipping upside down on the front stretch at Atlanta Motor Speedway, not injured, and Edwards being parked for the remainder of the race.



After the wreck, Keselowski said Carl Edwards, “decided to just wreck me intentionally down the straightaway and about killed me and a couple thousand people in the grandstands. It’s one thing to race somebody hard and get in an accident when you’re going for position. It’s another to just intentionally wreck someone at 195 mph at a track like this. I know it's ironic that it's me saying that but I didn't do it on purpose."



After the race, Carl Edwards posted the following on his Facebook page:



Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyones safety or hard work, should I: A-Keep letting him wreck me? B-Confront him after the race? C-Wait til bristol and collect other cars? or D-Take care of it now? I want to be clear that I was surprised at his flight and very relieved when he walked away. Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine.

dallas office shooting


DALLAS --
A father and son were wounded Monday after a gunman walked into a Dallas financial office and opened fire, police said.

The gunman, who later got into a shootout with police, also was in critical condition after shooting himself, said Dallas police spokesman, Sr. Cpl. Lt. Kevin Janse.

The shootings happened just before 11 a.m. in the 15-story Four Forest high-rise office building, which houses the United Texas Bank and other businesses near the intersection of U.S. 75 and Interstate 635.

The gunman walked into a financial services office on the third floor and opened fire on the father and his son, who apparently had an ongoing dispute with the suspect, Janse said.

After three police officers arrived on the scene, the man came out of the office and pointed his gun at them, Janse said. Police fired several shots without hitting him, and the man went back into the office where he shot himself, he said. He was in critical condition at the nearby Medical City Dallas hospital.

The 63-year-old man was shot in the legs and his 39-year-old son was shot in the neck, and both were in stable condition at Medical City Dallas, Janse said.

During the shootings, the building was on lockdown and about 16 people took refuge in the vaults in the bank on the building's first floor.

"The building has announced we should stay in here until they let us know otherwise," bank employee Linda Farley told WFAA-TV of Dallas and Fort Worth by telephone from the vault. "Everybody is a little scared."

Police did not immediately release more information including the identities of the alleged gunman and the father and so

jon jones raytheon

Raytheon Mourns the Passing of Jon C. Jones

WALTHAM, Mass., March 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) extends its deepest condolences and heartfelt support to the family and friends of Jon C. Jones, a Raytheon Company vice president, and president of the Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business, who died this past weekend of an apparent heart attack. He was 55.

An admired leader and colleague, Jon Jones joined the Raytheon family in 1977. He steadily progressed to senior management by overseeing the engineering and development of some of the company's premier missiles product lines. Before being appointed president of El Segundo, California-based SAS in November 2005, Mr. Jones served as vice president and deputy general manager of SAS and had also held a similar position with Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona.

"Jon was a valued contributor to Raytheon for 33 years, an outstanding leader within our company, industry and community, and a dear friend," said Raytheon Chairman and CEO William H. Swanson. "He was a wonderful innovator who guided numerous programs of the utmost importance to our men and women in uniform. Everyone who knew and worked with Jon will miss him."

Mr. Jones served as executive diversity champion for Raytheon and was a member of the Raytheon Executive Diversity Leadership Team.

He received the Malcolm R. Currie award for innovation in 1996, was named the State of Arizona's Innovator of the Year in 1997, and received Raytheon's corporate Excellence in Technology Award for advancements in infrared guided missiles in 2001. Mr. Jones received a bachelor's degree in engineering from California State University, Northridge, and later attended the University of California at Los Angeles where he received a master's degree in engineering management.

Raytheon Company, with 2009 sales of $25 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 88 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 75,000 people worldwide.

doug schantz


The disappearance of a Houston energy executive in New Orleans's French Quarter could have been the result of foul play, a New Orleans Police Department official said Monday.

Douglas Schantz, 54, president of Sequent Energy Management, a subsidiary of AGL Resources Co., went missing after he left the Bourbon Street club Razzoo Bar & Patio. He was last seen at 2 a.m. Friday.

Assistant superintendent Marlon Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department said Mr. Schantz could have been the victim of a crime.

"We have been using a tremendous amount of resources," Mr. Defillo said. "As of this morning, we have met negative results." The FBI and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the investigation.

Police surveillance cameras captured Mr. Schantz walking by himself in a blue blazer and white shirt at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets, Mr. Defillo said.

Mr. Schantz hasn't reached out to his family or friends, and his cellphones are dead.

"There is a total disconnect," Mr. Defillo said.

He was supposed to stay at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon, about a block from where he was last seen, according to the police. The 54-year-old executive had been in town to give a donation to Tulane University Thursday and was to meet his daughter Friday at the New Orleans airport for an early-morning flight back to Houston, the police said.

He had a meeting scheduled for Friday, said Alan Chapple, a spokesman for Sequent.

Mr. Schantz has been president of Sequent, a wholesale energy-trading firm, since 2003. Its parent company, Atlanta-based AGL, is the largest natural-gas distributor in the Southeast.

Rahm

Rahm Emanuel attacks Eric Massa, naked, in the congressional showers- audio




"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) said. "He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

Rep. Massa describes a confrontation with Emanuel in a shower: "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me."

ubisoft



Ubisoft has apologised to gamers for the fact that its servers went down over the weekend, saying it was attacked by a hacker.

The company's new DRM system failed yesterday. And because its authentication system requires players to be online at all times, even when playing a single-player game, gamers were unable to play Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 on the PC.
first the company reckoned that 'exceptional demand' was the cause of the problem.

"Clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I've been told these servers are constantly monitored," said a company representative on the Ubisoft forum.

"I'll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won't happen in the future."

Now, though, Ubisoft reckons it's been hacked.

"Apologies to anyone who couldn’t play ACII or SH5 yesterday. Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30pm to 9pm Paris time," the company said today in a tweet.

It added, "95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors."

Ubisoft's already come under fire for its new authentication system, intended to combat piracy, with gamers pointing out that for many people the requirement to be online at all times means extra cost.

'Precious


'Precious,' 'Crazy Heart' win top Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards -- which celebrated its 25th anniversary Friday night in a new Los Angeles venue but with the same old joyously casual approach to honoring the best in low-budget cinema -- played out in some ways like a rehearsal for Sunday's Academy Awards.

Oscar front-runners like Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart") and Baltimore native Mo'Nique, who plays the relentlessly abusive mother in "Precious," both won winged statuettes in their respective acting categories. As a matter of fact, most of the names announced during the course of the two-hour-plus ceremony, held on the roof of the L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles for the first time after years of unfolding on a Santa Monica beach, also will be read aloud from the podium of the Kodak Theater, as nominees if not winners.

"Precious" collected the most honors, taking five of the 13 big prizes doled out: best feature, best director for Lee Daniels, best first screenplay for Geoffrey Fletcher, acting honors for both Mo'Nique and lead female Gabourey Sidibe. Also winning big: "Crazy Heart," which, in addition to a victory for Bridges, earned recognition in the best first feature category. And that, of course, raises the question: Does an event like this have as much meaning when it shares so much in common with the Academy Awards?

Michael Hoffman, director of "The Last Station," which was nominated for five Spirits but came away with none, says yes.

"It really proves to people that there's an audience for independent film, that there's excitement about independent film, that there are good movies being made for the adult audience that's really, really underserved," he said while walking the "blue carpet" before the ceremony got underway. "I think it's absolutely crucial."

"This is where all those ideas begin, with independent filmmakers," said actress Olivia Wilde, a Washington, D.C., native who served as one of the show's presenters. "And some of them make it to the Oscars and some of them don't. But it's important that there is an awards show that's just about celebrating them."

Independent film is a broadly defined term, but for the purposes of the Spirits, it means any film made for less than $20 million and largely outside of the Hollywood studio system, even if it later gets picked up for wide distribution. That's why pictures like "Precious," which was eventually championed by the likes of Lionsgate Films and Oprah Winfrey, share the spotlight with lower-profile films -- titles like "The Vicious Kind," or the Arab-immigrant drama "Amreeka" -- that most of the cineplex-packing masses probably have not seen at a theater near them.
In a more even playing field minus a few of Oscar's leading contenders, it means that people like Daniels -- who is nominated in the directing category at the Academy Awards but not projected to come away a winner -- get at least one moment this weekend to stand on a stage with a trophy in their hand.

"Kathryn Bigelow is not here tonight," Daniels noted happily during his acceptance speech, referencing "The Hurt Locker" director who competes against him Sunday. "But I am." ("The Hurt Locker" actually received a couple of Spirit nominations last year because it had played the festival circuit in 2008, qualifying it for consideration.)

The presence of less familiar faces alongside ones so recognizable -- from Woody Harrelson, a supporting actor winner for "The Messenger," to Jodie Foster to Ben Stiller -- served as yet another reminder that the indie world, especially in its current, precarious state, needs star power to keep its shoestring-budget engines running.

Even Stiller, who presented the award for best feature film, couldn't resist the opportunity to joke about how he, a movie star who recently starred in a blockbuster sequel set within the bowels of the Smithsonian's museums, clearly represents the "core values" of the Independent Spirits.

who won best picture



The Hurt Locker, the gritty Iraq War drama about an Army bomb disposal squad, won best picture and nabbed an Oscar for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win best director. She's the ex-spouse of fellow director nominee James Cameron, whose blockbuster Avatar was tied with Hurt Locker with a field-leading nine nominations but won just three statues. Hurt Locker wound up with six.

"This really is ... there's no other way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime,'' said Bigelow, 58. "I'd just like to dedicate this to the women and men who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world, and may they come home safe."

Jeff Bridges won best actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic country singer in Crazy Heart. Sandra Bullock won best actress for portraying a nurturing mom in the feel-good football drama The Blind Side.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


"Whew! Thank you Mom and Dad ... they loved showbiz so much," said Bridges. "This is as much honoring them as me."

Said Bullock: "Did I really earn this or did I really just wear y'all down?"

Their wins, which many critics had predicted, did little to overshadow the drama surrounding the two nominations leaders. Box office king Avatar, which has pulled in nearly $2.6 billion worldwide to date, picked up early Oscars for cinematography, art direction and visual effects but was shut out of top categories. Locker ($21.3 million to date) won for sound editing, sound mixing, film editing and original screenplay early on. The screenplay statue was accepted by Mark Boal, whose work was based on his experience as an embedded journalist with the Army in Baghdad.

"I would like to thank and dedicate this to the troops," Boal said. "The 115,000 still in Iraq. The 120,000 in Afghanistan, and the more than 30,000 wounded and 4,000 who have not made it home, and to my father, who did not live to see this. He died a month ago."

Both Bridges and Bullock had picked up Golden Globes and SAG awards this season. Perhaps best known for his role as The Dude in 1998's The Big Lebowski, Bridges, the son of the late actors Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Dean Bridges, had been nominated five times.

Oscars watchers believed Bullock's main competition was Meryl Streep, nominated a 16th time for Julie and Julia.

Brassy, sassy Mo'Nique, best known for her TV comedic skills, won the best-supporting-actress Oscar for her dramatic role in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

The stand-up comic and TV talk show host, 42, acknowledged Hattie McDaniel— the first African-American to win an Oscar, for 1939's Gone With the Wind— and thanked supporters including Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey and the academy, "for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics."

Precious' Geoffrey Fletcher won for best adapted screenplay.

Austrian-born Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his work in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the first major category winner Sunday.

"Quentin, with his unorthodox methods of navigation, took this ship across and brought it in with flying colors," said Waltz, 53. "This is your welcoming embrace, and I can never thank you enough, but I can start right now."

Among other winners, Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett won best song for their Crazy Heart theme, The Weary Kind, while Pixar's computer-animated Up won for best animated feature. The best animated short film Oscar went to Logorama.

Basterds was Waltz's first major Hollywood film. But the veteran European actor's win was hardly surprising — he'd already swept most major acting awards for his role as a duplicitous Nazi officer in Tarantino's World War II drama about Jewish-American soldiers spreading fear in Nazi-occupied France.

Earlier on the red carpet, Mo'Nique said she hoped Precious' bleak but ultimately uplifting story would be inspirational.

"It's changed my life inwardly, and we're hoping the message of this movie changes lives," she said. "And when that happens, everything is different, because people are healing."

iron man 2 trailer


New Iron Man 2 Trailer May Have Coolest Last Frames in History
A new Iron Man 2 trailer proves that, yes, Scarlett Johannson and Sam Rockwell are in the movie.
After the Oscars ended, and then the local news, and then some alleged comedy on the Jimmy Kimmel show, folks who were still awake got to see the new Iron Man 2 trailer.

If you weren't one of them, we've got you taken care of.

Featuring more breezy zings from Robert Downey, Jr, this new trailer also proves that, yes, Sam Rockwell is in this film (you can barely see him in the first one) and Scarlett Johansson will do more than crouch in tight black clothing. She'll actually speak (though Stark will refer to her as an object, not a human, in one of the more shockingly sexist sound bytes in a recent movie aimed at the youth market.)

The new trailer also follows up on what we saw the first time - that Mickey Rourke will completely rule in Iron Man 2. Let's take a look.

womens day


Daily Buzz: ‘Alice’ Tops Box Office, International Women’s Day, Oscars Recap

Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland” topped the weekend box office with $210 million dollars in worldwide ticket sales, beating the opening figures “Avatar.” The 3-d film starring Johnny Depp is the actor’s seventh film with director Tim Burton.

Today is International Women’s Day! A global event since the early 1900’s, International Women’s Day focuses on respect, appreciation and love towards women as well as a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.

And, perfectly fitting and just in time for International Women’s Day, history was made at the Oscars last night as Kathryn Bigelow (‘Hurt Locker’) became the first woman to win the Best Director honors. ‘Hurt Locker’ also took home the Best Film award, and Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock won for Best Lead Actor and Best Lead Actress respectively. In case you missed anything from the winners to the dazzling fashion on the 2010 Oscars Red Carpet, we’ve got a full recap of all the highlights in our Oscars Special Section.

lloyd bridges


LOS ANGELES — Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges have won the lead-acting honors at the Academy Awards.

Bullock won for her role as a wealthy woman who takes in a homeless future NFL star in "The Blind Side." Bridges won best-actor for his turn as a boozy country singer trying to clean up his act in "Crazy Heart."

The Oscar marks a career peak for Bridges, a beloved Hollywood veteran who had been nominated four times in the previous 38 years without winning.

Also an industry darling, Bullock won with her first nomination. The night before the Oscars, Bullock also won the year's worst-actress prize at the Razzies for "All About Steve."

Supporting-acting Oscars went to Mo'Nique for "Precious" and Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeff Bridges won the best-actor Academy Award on Sunday for his turn as a boozy country singer trying to clean up his act in "Crazy Heart."

The Oscar marks a career peak for Bridges, a beloved Hollywood veteran who had been nominated four times in the previous 38 years without winning.

Bridges held his Oscar aloft and thanked his late parents, actor Lloyd Bridges and poet Dorothy Bridges.

"Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession," said Bridges, recalling how his mother would get her children to entertain at parties and his father would sit on the bed teaching him the basics of acting for an early he landed on his dad's TV show "Sea Hunt."

"I feel an extension of them. This is honoring them as much as it is me," Bridges said.

Villainous roles snatched the supporting-acting prizes: "Precious" co-star Mo'Nique as a contemptible mother and "Inglourious Basterds" co-star Christoph Waltz as a sociable Nazi fiend.

Both performers capped remarkable years, Mo'Nique startling fans with dramatic depths previously unsuspected in the actress known for lowbrow comedy and the Austrian-born Waltz leaping to fame with his first big Hollywood role.

"I would like to thank the academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics," said Mo'Nique, who plays the heartless, abusive welfare mother of an illiterate teen (Gabourey Sidibe, a best-actress nominee in her screen debut) in the Harlem drama "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire."

Mo'Nique added her gratitude to the first black actress to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 supporting-actress winner for "Gone With the Wind."

"I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to," she said, adding thanks to Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who signed on as executive producers to spread the word on "Precious" after it premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

"Precious" also won the adapted-screenplay Oscar for Geoffrey Fletcher.

"This is for everybody who works on a dream every day. Precious boys and girls everywhere," Fletcher said.

Waltz's award was presented by last season's supporting-actress winner, Penelope Cruz, who gave Waltz a kiss as he took the stage.

stirling moss


Sir Stirling Moss breaks ankles falling down lift shaftThe British motor racing great Sir Stirling Moss is recovering in hospital after falling down a lift shaft at his Central London home and breaking both his ankles.

A friend of the racer said that Sir Stirling, who turned 80 last September, opened the lift door on the third floor of his house in Mayfair and stepped forwards without knowing that the lift had jammed on the floor above because of a malfunction.

A statement on his website said that Sir Stirling had broke both ankles in the accident on Saturday evening as well as four bones in his feet. He also suffered skin abrasions and chipped four vertebrae.

"The door to the lift, that should have remained locked if the lift was not on the floor that it was called from, opened in error," the statement said. "He stepped into the narrow open shaft in the expectation that the lift would be present for him to walk into, as it should have been. Lady Moss, Stirling’s wife, added: "This was a very unfortunate accident. It could have just as easily been another member of the family stepping into where the lift should have been."

Sir Stirling, who remained conscious despite the three-storey fall, was taken to the Royal London Hospital, where the doctors attending him included Professor Sid Watkins, the former Formula One crash specialist and neurosurgeon known on the circuit as "Professor Sid".

He was moved yesterday to a hospital closer to his home where he underwent surgery to insert pins and plates in both his ankles. He is expected to take six weeks to recover.

"The family are very relieved that Stirling survived the fall, demonstrating that his body still has the same resilience to injury as it did in his racing days. He is comfortable, following a good night’s rest post surgery, and is well on the road to recovery," the statement added

Lady Moss was quoted as saying that Sir Stirling was in good spirits and already complaining about the size and quality of the hospital breakfast.

Sir Stirling's six-storey house was built for the racing star in 1962 after he bought what he described as "the last Second World War bomb site in Mayfair".

He filled it with futuristic gadgets, including one of the country's first dishwashers, a remote control television - and a carbon fibre lift.

"I run up and down the stairs which keeps me fit but if you have anything heavy there’s a lift here," Sir Stirling told Times Online during a tour of the property in 2008.

"The difference with this lift is that it’s the only one in the world a) made of carbon fibre, which is what racing cars are made of and b) made by the Williams Formula One team for me - so it’s quite a piece of gear."

Moss is widely regarded as the greatest driver never to have won the Formula One championship, racing at the same time as the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, who won five championships.

The Briton lost the title by a single point to Mike Hawthorn in 1958, despite winning four races to his compatriot's sole victory

Winner of 16 grands prix, he finished overall runner-up on three more occasions and retired after a career-ending crash at Goodwood in 1962. He also competed in rallies and endurance races, winning 212 of the 529 races he entered.

roy disney

Disney warms to brain-eating zombies - Calgary Herald


When Walt Disney Co. asked publisher Dan Vado to make a series of comic books based on its Haunted Mansion theme-park ride, he worried the empire built on the likes of Snow White and Tinker Bell would reject his brand of creepy humour. Vado gave Disney skeletons dangling from nooses, scattered corpses and a ghostly poodle that says "crap." To his surprise, Disney signed off on his vision.

"Everything we did was really strange," says Vado, founder of San Jose, Calif.-based SLG Publishing, as in Slave Labor Graphics. "The interesting thing about Disney is, for a company perceived as being stodgy, they do a good job of reinventing themselves."

Disney chief executive Robert Iger, 59, is on a spending spree at the world's biggest media company to transform his film studio, amusement parks and stores. In fiscal 2009, net income at Disney fell 25 per cent to $3.3 billion US -- the worst annual performance in Iger's five-year reign -- and was almost flat in the first quarter of 2010 compared with a year earlier.

The global recession has hammered the company's 11 theme parks, which are offering promotions and discounts. The Burbank, Calif.-based company's studio is also struggling: in 2009, it churned out box offi ce flops such as G-Force, which featured wisecracking guinea pigs.

Iger is pouring billions into attracting a new generation of kids -- boys, especially -- raised on violent video games and reality shows.

In December, Disney completed its $4.3-billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment Inc., home of Iron Man, Spider-Man and the X-Men, paying a 40 per cent premium over the stock price.

The company is now building two additional cruise ships, one of which includes an AquaDuck water coaster that plunges four decks. Park guests will see more-complex, life-size electronic robots made to look like U.S. presidents and Disney characters. And with input from Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, Disney's largest shareholder, Iger is giving his 350 retail stores a high-tech makeover and opening a new one in New York's Times Square in the fall.

The total price tag for all of the upgrades through 2014: more than $12.3 billion, according to New York-based Soleil Securities Corp. analyst Alan Gould, a 59 per cent increase over the prior five years.

Investors give mixed reviews of Iger's moves to refresh the entertainment giant, which was founded as a cartoon studio by Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney in 1923.

After Iger took over in October 2005, the stock rose 53 per cent to a seven-year peak of $36.30 in May 2007 before crashing in 2009 during the credit crisis to a low of $15.59. From that bottom last March through Feb. 26, the shares doubled to $31.24 as of Feb. 26, beating the Standard & Poor's 500 index gain of 63 per cent, but lagging rival News Corp.' s 179 per cent rise.

"What we look for is a company that is constantly refreshing its operations, improving and continuing to build a business, and that's true of Disney," says Michael Cuggino, president of San Francisco-based Permanent Portfolio Family of Funds Inc., which owns 720,000 Disney shares.

In December, S&P affirmed its earlier revised outlook on Disney's debt to negative from stable, citing concerns about the company's recovery, the growth in spending and threats from deep-pocketed rivals.

"Disney is going to be basically doubling what they are spending," says James Tarkenton, a managing director at Lateef Investment Management. Greenbrae, Calif.-based Lateef has sold all of the 149,984 Disney shares it held in April 2009. Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha declined a request for an interview with Iger.

Iger has proved to be a serial acquirer. Three months after taking the helm as CEO, he agreed to pay $7.4 billion for Pixar, which was co-founded by Jobs, to improve Disney's flagging animation pipeline. In all, the CEO has snapped up 28 companies in whole or part, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

When announcing the deal for Marvel and its cast of superheroes in August, Iger said they would add to Disney's stable of characters and attract more boys to its cable cartoon offerings.

"Content and products for boys have been less consistent for Disney than those for girls," says UBS AG analyst Michael Morris in New York. "When Disney looks for growth opportunities, it sees big potential with boys."

Last year, Disney also bought Wideload Games Inc., maker of the violent video game Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, featuring brain-eating zombies. And the company rebranded its Toon Disney cable cartoon channel into Disney XD. The channel's new programming features shows such as Kick Buttowski, aimed at boys age six to 14, the company said.

During a conference call in May, Iger criticized his studio, led by 40-year Disney veteran Dick Cook, which had produced clunkers such as Bedtime Stories about a hotel handyman.

"It's about choice of films and the execution of the films that have been chosen for production, and we've had a rough year in terms of the performance," Iger said. Four months later, Cook resigned, replaced by Rich Ross, then-president of Disney Channels Worldwide.

Soon after, Ross named new heads of studio production and distribution. "Everyone liked Dick Cook, but the results weren't coming through," Gould says.

In 2009, Disney finished No. 5 in box office sales among the six major studios, according to Box Office Mojo.

To fill theatres, Ross, 48, can't yet rely on several of Marvel's most popular comic-book characters. They're tied up in licensing deals: News Corp. has the rights to the X-Men, Sony Corp. controls Spider-Man and Universal Studios Inc. claims several Marvel characters for exclusive use in its Orlando, Fla., theme parks.

Ross has to mine the likes of Captain America, Thor and lesser-known figures like Ant-Man until the bigger superhero licences expire beginning in 2013. The licensing deals soured some analysts on the Marvel purchase.

"Over the long run, we suspect this will be viewed as Mr. Iger's first major mistake as CEO," Citigroup Inc. analyst Jason Bazinet wrote in September.

crazy heart

Jeff Bridges Talks 'Crazy Heart,' Quotes 'Lebowski' Backstage At Oscars
'I've had ups and downs,' the Best Actor winner says backstage.
HOLLYWOOD — After years of sitting idly by while the Dude abided, the Academy Awards finally gave back to Jeff Bridges, with the veteran actor winning his first Oscar for "Crazy Heart." Shortly after receiving Best Actor honors, the easygoing "Big Lebowski" legend greeted the press backstage — and continued the love-in.
Asked to comment on a career that's had plenty of failures and has now achieved the ultimate success, Bridges quoted his most famous movie role. "I've had ups and downs," he laughed, staying as humble as always. "What does the Dude say? Strikes and gutters, man!"

Bridges bowled a strike Sunday night (March 7) thanks to a tailor-made character in broken-down country rocker Bad Blake, a role that had Bridges performing songs onstage in arenas and barrooms alike. "It was the music — that's how I most identified with Bad," Bridges said of what attracted him to the character. "But unlike Bad, he had four great wives he got rid of, and I have a great marriage."

Some Oscar followers have noted the recent rise in Oscar-winning actors (Bridges, Charlize Theron, Halle Berry, etc.) whose movies weren't nominated for Best Picture — implying solid acting but mediocrity elsewhere.

"That's the exciting thing to me, that this award would bring attention to a great movie," Bridges countered, saying that an acting award makes as many people see the film, before admitting, "I was surprised with 10 nominees that 'Crazy Heart' didn't make it — in a way, that's one aspect of what these awards are about, to bring attention to all these great movies we made."

The bottom line, Bridges insisted, is much bigger than Hollywood. "I'm all about getting us together, getting the world healthy," said Bridges, holding his Oscar. "Movies are a way of looking at the way this world could work."

Unlike Bad, Bridges said that it is the love of a good woman that's been able to keep him strong all these years — even though it sometimes seems like he's apart from her more often than they're together. "The first thing that pops into my mind is my wife, my support. She holds my kite strings so I can go out there and then she pulls them back when I come home," he explained. "She pointed out that we've been apart 11 of the last 14 months — so I've been way out there."

Lahore



Suicide bomber attacks Lahore police building

Blast in eastern Pakistani city far from Afghan border kills at least 11 and injures scores more

A suicide car bomber has struck at a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Lahore in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 11 people and wounding scores more, including women and children heading to school, officials said today .

The attack broke what had been a relative lull in major violence in Pakistan. It also showed that insurgents retain the ability to strike the country's heartland, far from the Afghan border regions where al-Qaida and the Taliban thrive despite army offensives aimed at wiping them out.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups. Those groups are believed to be responsible for a wave of attacks that started in October and has killed more than 600 people. Several of the earlier attacks took place in major Pakistani cities. More recent ones have been smaller and confined to remote north-western regions near Afghanistan.

The bomb blast today comes amid reports of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives. Among the militants said to have been arrested in that operation is the Afghan Taliban's second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The explosion went off outside a police building in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province, a police official said. TV footage showed a huge crater in the ground.

Lahore's police chief, Pervez Rathore, said: "This place was used to interrogate important suspects... more then 40 staff were manning the place." No such suspect had been in the building at the time of the bombing, he said.

Noorul Huda, a student at a nearby religious school, was in his first class when the blast happened, he told TV reporters.

"With the huge bang, blocks and pieces of the roof fell upon us and six of us were wounded," said the young man, who suffered a head injury. "It was total chaos outside and people were running and crying for help."

Khusro Pervez, a Lahore government official, said 11 people had died and several of the wounded were in critical condition. The suicide bomber appeared to have rammed his explosives-laden car into the perimeter wall.

A hospital official, Jawed Akram, said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl, apparently part of a group heading to a school. Several women were wounded, Pervez said.

"People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs."

Parts of the brick building appeared to have collapsed, and there were piles of bricks and metal everywhere at the site, the footage showed. Other nearby buildings, including a mosque, were damaged. Militant attacks in Pakistan frequently target the security forces, though civilian targets have not escaped. During the wave of attacks that began in October, and coincided with a major army ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area, Lahore was hit several times.

In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three separate security facilities in the city, 28 leaving 28 people dead. Two co-ordinated suicide bombings at a market in Lahore a few weeks later killed nearly 50 people.

george clooney


George Clooney & His Girlfriend Hit The Oscar Red Carpet (PHOTOS)

George Clooney arrived at the Oscars with his girlfriend, Elisabetta Canalis. Clooney is up for Best Actor for his performance in 'Up in the Air.'

turkey earthquake


Earthquake kills at least 57 in Turkey

KOVANCILAR -- A strong earthquake killed 57 villagers in a remote part of eastern Turkey before dawn on Monday, officials said, and aftershocks continued for hours after while rescuers searched for trapped survivors.

People were sleeping in their mud-brick houses when the 6.0-magnitude quake struck at 4:32 a.m. local time in a sparsely-populated area of high steppe in Eastern Anatolia.

"There was a lot of fear and panic among the people. It lasted about a minute," Nursel Sengezer, a Dogan News Agency correspondent in Elazig province, told broadcaster CNN Turk.

"We felt it very strongly and everyone tried to get out onto the street."

Turkey is criss-crossed with faultlines and frequently suffers earthquakes. A large earthquake measuring 7.4 killed about 18,000 people in August 1999.

On Monday, families huddled in the open around fires lit to keep them warm, as the ground shook with more than 40 aftershocks, the largest of which had a magnitude of 5.5.

The quake toppled the minarets of three mosques in stricken villages in the Basyurt region of Elazig, according to provincial governor Muammer Erol.

Television images from the area showed women crying and embracing amid the ruins of their one-storey houses, and cars and ambulances ferrying injured to a hospital in the nearby town of Kovancilar.

"I ask my citizens in the region not to go into damaged houses because earthquakes and aftershocks are continuing," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his AK Party.

Mr. Erdogan lamented the loss of life due to the vulnerability of the traditional mud-brick village homes, and pledged to rebuild houses using stronger materials.

Para-military and police directed operations on the outskirts of affected villages, where crowds had gathered, and a Red Crescent team had reached the area and set up a crisis centre.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and three other ministers travelled to the quake zone, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. Mr. Cicek said the death toll had risen to 57, confirming estimates given by local officials to broadcasters.

There were no reports of any damage to the strategic hydroelectric Keban Dam, further west in Elazig. The Keban Dam was the first and most upstream dam built by Turkey on the Euphrates River as part of the Southeast Anatolia Project.

best actress


Jeff Bridges celebrates his Oscar win with his 'gorgeous wife' Susan at Governors BallLos Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) - True to her word, Sandra Bullock has personally accepted her Razzie Award. A day before winning best actress at the Oscar Awards, the 45-year-old star was "honored" with a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress of 2009 on Saturday.

The brunette beauty, who is taking accolades and praises for her roles in "The Blind Side" and "The Proposal," made it no secret that she was looking forward to winning the Razzie trophy for "All About Steve," saying she would personally accept the award.

And on Saturday, she didn't disappoint. Bullock showed up while pulling a cart full of "All About Steve" DVDs to give to the audience.

She said, "Something tells me you all didn't really watch the film because I wouldn't be here if you really, really watched it and understood what I was trying to say," she joked.

She also asked the crowd to watch the film again, promising to return to the Razzies next year and "give back" her award.

Bullock also won a Razzie for worst screen couple with Bradley Cooper.

Meanwhile, "Transformers: Return of the Fallen" won Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Director for Michael Bay. And while "Land of the Lost" dominated the nomination list with seven mentions, it only walked away with Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

The Razzie also "honored" the decade's worst, with Eddie Murphy, Paris Hilton, and "Battlefield Earth" winning Worst Actor, Actress, and Picture of the Decade.

kathryn bigelow



The Hurt Locker deserves its Oscars landslide

The Academy made history with the long overdue recognition of a female film-maker, but in other respects this year's ceremony was a night of anticlimaxes
As is so often, this year's list of Oscar winners is exasperatingly mixed and – now that the pre-Oscar period is so hugely crammed with rival awards bonanzas, with the frontrunners exhaustively established – these results seem anticlimactic. It's as if the awards season has scooped itselfBut at least this time there is a resounding and satisfying endorsement for a really excellent film: Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, a brutally powerful picture about the endgame in Iraq, which made its relatively modest debut at the Venice film festival in 2008 but kept on growing. This, notably, was a movie whose prestige was kept alive by critics. In a digital age when film reviewers are supposed to be losing their lustre, I am almost tempted – almost – to say that this year's Oscars was a bit of a pat on the back for scribblers, and to lead a virtual delegation of pundits up on stage to accept the Still Unexpectedly Important Taste-Maker award.

Except that we're, erm, not. The critical consensus had also backed Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet as modern masterpieces which deserved to be nominated for best film, best director, etc, and not simply to be ghettoised in the foreign language film section. As it is, the big raspberry of the evening came when these great films lost out anyway. Like my colleague Xan Brooks, I must now confess that I have not yet seen Juan Jos̩ Campanella's The Secret of Their Eyes Рit is much liked and admired, but I can't help feeling that this is a real banana-skin moment. It puts me in mind of Ronald Bergan's online discussion of how, in the history of world cinema, the Oscar for best foreign language film is traditionally given to the wrong film.

When Mo'Nique came up to accept her thoroughly deserved best supporting actress Oscar for Precious, she referred to the history of African-Americans at the Academy Awards and alluded to Hattie McDaniel's triumph way back in 1939. As the winner of the best director award, Bigelow had no such history to draw upon: she is making history. Incredibly, she is the first woman to win a best director award, and it is unfortunately a measure of the casual sexism in the movie business and the awards industry that this omission has been all but unnoticed in the past, and not particularly noticed now. But this was a brilliant film which deserves its landslide.

the hurt locker


LOS ANGELES — “The Hurt Locker,” a little-seen war film with big backing from the critics, pushed past “Avatar” and other crowd-pleasers to win the best picture Oscar at a Sunday night ceremony here, while its director, Kathryn Bigelow, became the first woman to win the directing award.

Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” had come into the night as favorites, but the smaller film took the prize from the bigger in the end.

“There’s no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime,” said Ms. Bigelow in accepting her award. It was presented by Barbra Streisand, who announced it with the words, “Well, the time has come.”

Mark Boal, a producer of “The Hurt Locker,” said of his modest expectations when the movie was shot back in 2007, “Hopefully, we would find a distributor and somebody might even like the movie.”

There was no mention of a last-minute embarrassment in which a fellow producer of the film, Nicolas Chartier, had been banned from the show for violating Oscar rules by urging academy members by e-mail messages to vote against a film assumed to be “Avatar,” which had the advantage of a vast budget and enormous popularity.

In a sense, the awards season had shaped up into a showdown between James Cameron, who directed “Avatar,” and Ms. Bigelow, who was previously married to Mr. Cameron.

Among other winners, Christoph Waltz took best supporting actor at the start of a sluggishly paced ceremony for his bilingual performance as a Jew-hunting Nazi officer in “Inglourious Basterds.” And also, as expected, Mo’Nique won for best supporting actress for her portrait of a terrifying mother in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” With no excess of modesty, Mo’Nique thanked the academy’s members for showing that “it can be about the performance, not the politics.” The remark was a reference not just to her considerable talent, but to the fact that she had refused to spend time playing the usual Oscar campaign game. Backstage, she blamed the media for trying to stir up a controversy.

Jeff Bridges, a multiple nominee and now first-time winner, took best actor for his gritty portrayal of a broken-down country singer in “Crazy Heart.” A darling of the Hollywood crowd, Mr. Bridges had been seen as the designated winner almost from the moment Fox Searchlight made a last-minute decision to drop the low-budget movie into the Oscar race. “Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession,” said the gray-bearded Mr. Bridges, who brought the crowd to its feet in a prolonged ovation as he whooped, hollered and showed obvious joy in the moment.

“Crazy Heart,” one of the evening’s smaller contenders, also took an Oscar for its theme song, “The Weary Kind,” by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

Sandra Bullock, who had been pointed toward an Oscar since winning a bellwether Screen Actors Guild award, won best actress for her performance as a tough and loving contemporary Southern mother in “The Blind Side.” Like Mr. Bridges, she was clearly a favorite of those in the auditorium, though she had never been nominated before and had been best known for romantic comedies like “The Proposal” and the occasional action film, like “Speed.”

“Did I really earn this, or did I just wear you all down?” Ms. Bullock asked her cheering peers.

“Up in the Air” was shut out, although the movie, about a corporate operative who specializes in firing people, had propped up the long awards season with appearances at various prize ceremonies on both coasts and in England by George Clooney, its star, and Jason Reitman, the writer-director.

The show clocked in at a relatively long three hours and 32 minutes, but at times it felt longer than it actually was. That was mostly because the first half was loaded with clip samples and retrospectives, while the latter part moved along with the speed that one of its producers, Bill Mechanic, had promised in advance.

Before the bigger awards were announced, there was a trip back to “The Dark Knight,” as Morgan Freeman explained how sound editors handled a movie from an earlier year, and a lengthy string of excerpts from horror movies, in an effort to reach fans who do not find movies like the “Twilight” series on the show.

The pace had already slowed with the screening of highlights — and the introduction of two recipients, Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall — from an honorary-awards ceremony that had been moved off-camera to a November date, precisely to keep the show from slowing.

This came only a few minutes after a narrator took time to read chunks of script over clips from the best adapted screenplay nominees. But Geoffrey Fletcher, a first-time nominee who won for “Precious,” put some heart in the proceedings as he gasped and seemed to weep in accepting. “I thank everyone,” Mr. Fletcher said simply.

Going into the evening, Mr. Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster, “Avatar,” was expected to dominate the evening along with the smaller, intense film “The Hurt Locker.”

But it was not until nearly halfway through that “Avatar” won its first award, for art direction. It was presented by Sigourney Weaver, one of the film’s stars, who sounded relieved as she opened the envelope and spoke the film’s title. Awards for cinematography and visual effects followed. But “The Hurt Locker” had already won for its original screenplay, sound editing and sound mixing, and later added one for film editing, ending any thought that Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes types might have rallied behind “Avatar.”

For most of the night the ceremony put in sharp relief a split between the 5,777 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who in many categories continued a recent tradition of honoring small, independent-style movies, and their own broadcast, which played heavily into the big movies.

Ms. Bullock, from a crowd-pleaser, “The Blind Side,” took the stage as a presenter and was the subject of congenial jokes about her career, which has been heavier on commerce than art, with movies like “The Proposal” and “Miss Congeniality.”