There were actually very few surprises with most categories won by the favorites. No thrills at all. That lack of surprise continued over into Best Actor and Actress, with “Crazy Heart’s” Jeff Bridges and “The Blind Side’s” Sandra Bullock both taking home a golden statue.

The broadcast has some “technical problems” with really bad choice of clips and audio dropouts. The whole show, unfortunately,  lacked much of the polish of last year’s Academy Awards.

Anyway, here’s the list:

Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart“)
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds“)
Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side“)
Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo’Nique (“Precious“)
Animated Feature Film: “Up”
Art Direction: “Avatar”
Cinematography: “Avatar”
Costume Design: “The Young Victoria”
Directing: “The Hurt Locker”
Documentary Feature: “The Cove”
Documentary Short: “Music by Prudence”
Film Editing: “The Hurt Locker”
Foreign Language Film: “The Secret in Their Eyes”
Makeup: “Star Trek”
Music (Original Score): “Up”
Music (Original Song): “Crazy Heart”
Short Film (Animated): “Logorama”
Short Film (Live Action): “The New Tenants”
Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker”
Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker”
Visual Effects: “Avatar”
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): “Precious”
Writing (Original Screenplay): “The Hurt Locker“

Patrick Swayze

Swayze was raised in Houston, Texas, and his mother was a choreographer and ballet school owner. He trained with the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet schools in New York, starting his career dancing for “Disney on Parade.” After appearing in “Grease” on Broadway, he made his film debut in “Skatetown, U.S.A” (1979).

He was cast in several youth-appeal pics, including “The Outsiders” and the brilliant “Red Dawn,” before netting a major role in Civil War miniseries “North and South” in 1985. His popularity rose with the dance instructor role opposite actress Jennifer Grey in 1987′s “Dirty Dancing,” which became a surprise hit. He received a Golden Globe nomination for the performance and sang one of the songs on the soundtrack. After several minor films, his career picked up with “Road House” and then the modern classic “Ghost,” in 1990, where his character romantically haunted Demi Moore after he was murdered.

He married Lisa Niemi, one of his mother’s dance students, in 1975. He is survived by his wife, brother, and his mother.

Sad news for all movie lovers out there. We all knew it was coming but still… He will be missed.

Now Jackman is attached to  “Ghostopolis,” an upcoming graphic novel from Doug TenNapel that the author recently set up at Disney. TenNapel’s graphic novels are in high demand as movie projects, with nearly all of them set up at studios.

Anyway, “Ghostopolis” centers on a man who works for the government’s Supernatural Immigration Task Force (say what?). His job is to send ghosts who have escaped into our world back to Ghostopolis. When a living boy accidentally is sent to the other side, the agent must team with a female ghost (and former flame) to bring him back.

Jackman himself will produce. No director or writer has been attached to the project.

Sounds kind of good. Jackman is a fine actor and we all love ghosts so… APPROVED. Next.

His most famous part, and the one you probably recognize him from, is the creepy, smooth-talking eyewitness Verbal Kint in “The Usual Suspects” (1995). Mot likely one of the films of the 90′s.  If not THE best one. The role earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and catapulted him to the Hollywood top shelf. That same year, he turned in another complex, eerie performance in David Fincher’s thriller “Se7en” (1995). Also a fantastic movie starring an outstanding cast with Spacey, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

Let’s face it, the man can make any film shine. Regardless of a shitty script, poor supporting actors and/or a mediocre director. Kevin is truly one of the great actors of his generation.

Anyway, Variety tells us that Spacey will star in and produce the indie comedy “Father of Invention.” Trent Cooper will direct from a script he penned with Jonathan Krane and Nichole Beattie. The story centers on a humble inventor-turned-egomaniacal billionaire who loses it all when one of his inventions goes horribly awry. After eight years in federal prison, he returns bankrupt, homeless and determined to rebuild his reputation and fortune.

Looking forward to it!

“Damn Yankees,” which bowed on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, focuses on Joe Boyd, a happily married middle-aged man whose devotion to a hapless pro baseball team prompts him to make a Faustian bargain with the devil to help the team. He’s transformed into slugger Joe Hardy, in exchange for Boyd’s soul. Boyd can break the deal, but the deadline occurs during the World Series. For good measure, the devil engages Lola, a gorgeous lost soul, to seduce the slugger and seal his fate.

The plan is for Carrey to play the devil, and Gyllenhaal to play Boyd. It’s the first musical for each.

My personal standpoint is that nothing good ever comes out of a movie musical. The whole concept rubs me the wrong way and hopefully this is not the start of some “Hollywood trend”… If you wanna hear actors sing – go see a musical. If you want to see actors act (without suddenly bursting out singing) you go to the movies. Lets not complicate things.

It’s that time of year again. Hollywood’s finest wins an Oscar, if they are lucky… Dark Horizons tells us that it was the most interesting ceremony in years. Even though Ben Stiller’s

“Slumdog Millionaire” easily dominated the ceremony with eight wins, way above nearest rival “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which took in three. Mild surprises came in the form of Sean Penn beating Mickey Rourke and “Departures” beating “Waltz with Bashir“.

So dear readers, without further ado, here’s the goodies (I left some of the categories out because the list is sooooo long and I know you only want the big categories… and yes, I have the power…) from 2009 Oscar’s winners list:

Best Picture of the Year: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Sean Penn (“Milk”)
Best Actress: Kate Winslet (“The Reader”)
Best Director: Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”)
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Best Original Song: “Jai Ho” (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Original Score: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Sound Mixing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Sound Editing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Cinematography: “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Best Make Up: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Animated Feature: “Wall-E”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”)

LaBeouf will play a Yale Law School student with a sordid secret that leaves him vulnerable to blackmail. He’s manipulated into taking a job at a law firm and working on a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.  William Monahan won an Oscar for adapting the Asian film “Infernal Affairs” into “The Departed” for Martin Scorsese so it’s pretty safe to say that the project is in good hands. Monahan most recently scripted “Edge of Darkness,” starring Mel Gibson.

The studio acquired rights to the novel late last year. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and LaBeouf sparked to the notion of doing it together after reading the book in galley form while they were on the set of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

There you have – a whole piece about Shia LaBeouf. Now we can all relax and enjoy life again.

The Hollwood Reporter tells us that as far as festival programmers are concerned, “Paper Hearts” is pretty much “the one.”

And if you take a closer look you can’t really blame people for investing their hopes in the title. It’s not every day that the star of two movies in the boxoffice top 25 from the previous year toplines a movie.

Those familiar with “Hearts” describe it as part-documentary, part-scripted comedy about the real-life relationship between Cera and his girlfriend, Charlyne Yi, another member of the Judd Apatow acting crew (she played the pigtailed stoner in “Knocked Up“).

After hyped movies like “What Just Happened” fizzled last year, most sellers believe it wise to keep Sundance expectations in check. “Any movie that’s going to be touted too much will have a bull’s-eye on its back,” said one indie vet.

Well, It seems as if the sneaky approach was the right move. Paper Hearts was news to me. But now I know… and my expectation are already up. Cera, don’t fail me!

On a side note, there is talks about Clooney coming back to his ol’ TV show “ER” for the final episode… Nothing confirmed but… there is talks…

Back to todays story – Variety reports that George Clooney will star, and Grant Heslov will helm the aforementioned film, “Men Who Stare at Goats.”

The film is an adaptation of British journalist Jon Ronson’s book about the U.S. Army’s First Earth Battalion, a unit that was to use paranormal powers. Title refers to the notion that one can kill a goat by staring at it.

The project has been around for some time, but international buyers only just received the script this week as the Cannes fest and market got started. Script topped the 2007 Brit List of best unproduced screenplays.

Hopefully we will get to watch George Clooney staring at goats int he not so distant future.

“No Country for Old Men” won four Academy Awards. Excellent film. Three statuettes to “The Bourne Ultimatum“. Solid action movie. 

I was pleased to see “Juno” take home an award. I’m also very happy for Marion Cotillard who won a statuette for her performance in “La Vie en Rose.” Without further ado- I present the winners of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008):

Best performance by an Actor in a Supporting role
Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Best performance by an Actress in a Supporting role
Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

Best Achievement in Sound Editing:
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg (The Bourne Ultimatum)

Best Achievement in Film Editing:
Christopher Rouse (The Bourne Ultimatum)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
The Golden Compass

Best Animated Feature Film
Ratatouille

Best Foreign Language Film
The Counterfeiters

Best performance by an Actor in a Leading role
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Best performance by an Actress in a Leading role
Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)

Best Achievement in Directing
Ethan & Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men)

Best Picture
No Country for Old Men

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody (Juno)