January 31, 2006

As announced Tuesday Jan 31st by Sid Ganis, Academy President and Mira Sorvino at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, CA, gay romance "Brokeback Mountain" gloriously leads the 78th Annual Academy Awards nominees, taking eight nominations. The flick ups for the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor for Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actor for Jake Gyllenhaal, Best Supporting Actress for Michelle Williams, Best Director for Ang Lee, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Music Written for Motion Pictures.

Following close behind is "Crash" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" which score six nominations each. As of the previous film, it vies for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Matt Dillon, Best Director for Paul Haggis, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Music Written for Motion Picture. Meanwhile, the latter flick is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor for David Strathairn, Best Director for George Clooney, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.

Another honor was bestowed upon Samuel L. Jackson as he finally got his hands and feet cemented in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on Monday Jan 30th, joining an elite group of celebrity prints there. "It's an awesome sort of experience, the kind of thing you don't really think about as a young actor," he said.

Previously had defended the author of best-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces", James Frey, from the accusation of fabricating the book's key portions, Oprah Winfrey shockingly showed her reversal on her television show on Thursday Jan 26th in front of the writer himself and even made an apology to the audience. "I made a mistake," so she said at the opening of the live show. "And I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that because that is not what I believe."

To Frey, Winfrey also expressed her disappointment, asking him why he lied about what he had written in the book. "I feel duped," she told him. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers." In his reply, the author finally admitted that he has made a mistake, adding that he had developed a tough-guy image of himself as a "coping mechanism" to help him address his alcohol and drug addiction. "And when I was writing the book, I -- instead of being as introspective as I should have been, I clung to that image," he said.