 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Meet your hosts for Oscar 2011
Get your low down on what's happening in the world of Hollywood, right here!
James Franco and Anne Hathaway will be co-hosting the 83rd Academy Awards, according to the organisers.
As per producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, the "fresh, exciting and multi-talented" pair "personify the next generation of Hollywood icons", reports the BBC.
Hathaway was nominated for an Oscar in 2008 for Rachel Getting Married, while Franco is best known for his Harry Osborn role in the Spider-Man films.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-hosted this year's awards in March.
Hathaway, whose films include Alice in Wonderland, Becoming Jane and The Devil Wears Prada, has appeared on four previous Oscar telecasts.
In 2009, the 28-year-old was memorably plucked from the audience by then host Hugh Jackman to perform a musical skit based on the film Frost/Nixon.
Franco, whose other films include Milk, Pineapple Express and Eat, Pray, Love, will be making his second appearance on an Oscar show.
The 32-year-old has been tipped for a best actor nomination next year for his role as a trapped rock climber in Danny Boyle''s new film 127 Hours.
The Academy Awards will be held on 27 February at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
Before that, Hathaway will co-host this year's Nobel peace prize concert in Norway on 11 December with actor Denzel Washington.
Click on NEXT for more Hollywood snippets
Bosnian rape victims slam 'ignorant' Jolie
Bosnian rape victims of 1990s' inter-ethnic war have blasted Angelina Jolie, who is shooting a movie about Bosnia that has sparked controversy, calling her "ignorant" about the issue.
'Angelina Jolie''s ignorant attitude towards victims says enough about the scenario and gives us the right to continue having doubts about it,' the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the Women Victims of War (WVW) association as saying in a letter published overnight.
In the letter to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), for which Jolie is a goodwill ambassador, the association said its members were "deeply concerned" over the movie.
Jolie started filming her directorial debut, a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serb man set against the background of Bosnia's 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war, in October in Hungary.
According to the synopsis, the movie is a wartime love story between a Serb guard in a prison camp and a Muslim detainee, his former girlfriend.
Jolie said at the time she wanted to meet the associations that had complained about her film to clear up any misunderstandings, but the meeting never took place.
'We have insisted to meet Angelina Jolie since we don't want to be wrongly presented in the world ... Our voices are worthwhile and we should have got much more respect,' the WVW letter said.
'Angelina made a big mistake. We feel that she did not act like a real UNHCR ambassador and we believe that she has no more credibility to remain the ambassador,' it concluded.
WVW head Bakira Hasecic said Jolie invited the victims to meet her in the Hungarian capital but they refused the invitation.
'Crimes were committed here, in Bosnia, and we want to meet her here,' Hasecic told AFP.
'We wanted to talk woman to woman. She should have asked after the victims, come (to Bosnia) before the shooting to hear our voice.'
'As far as we are concerned a love story could not have existed in a camp. Such an interpretation is causing us mental suffering,' she said.
The Empire Strikes Back director dies
Irvin Kershner, who directed the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back and James Bond film Never Say Never Again, died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.
His goddaughter Adriana Santini said Kershner died after a long illness, reports the BBC.
Born in Philadelphia in 1923, the director trained as a musician before making documentaries and features.
Kershner directed a number of noted features, including A Fine Madness with Sean Connery, Up the Sandbox with Barbra Streisand, The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976) with Richard Harris, and The Eyes of Laura Mars with Faye Dunaway. His other credits included Never Say Never Again (1983) with Connery and Robocop 2.
Yet he remains best known for The Empire Strikes Back, considered by many to be the best film in the Star Wars series.
Remembering the dragon
Over 600 students in the age group of 15-20 years gathered in Mumbai recently to mark the 70th birth anniversary of martial arts legend and American-Chinese actor Bruce Lee.
The students of Cheetah Jeet Kundu Global Federation prepared a 70-feet-high cut-out of the Fist of Fury star and painted it.
Later, they also displayed their martial arts skills at a programme held at Powai here. German actress Claudia Ciesla, who had participated in Bigg Boss 3, actress Shilpa Shukla, who essayed the role of Bindia Naik in SRK-starrer Chak De India and martial arts expert Yagnesh Shetty were among those present on the occasion.
The programme was presented by SM Shetty Group of Educational Institutes. Lee was born on November 27 and is considered one of the most influential artists of 20th century. He is known for movies like The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon and The Game of Death.