What Baby? Oscar Producers Beg MIA to Perform

No more tweens, boring categories, unfunny hosts

(NEWSER) - The Oscars tried really hard for a broader appeal this year—10 best picture nominees! A Neil Patrick Harris appearance!—but even so, Ramin Setoodeh is "having trouble remembering anything that happened during the lethargic 210-minute ceremony." He offers five ways the Oscars can really improve in the future in Newsweek:

• Hire hosts who are actually funny: Joining the now decade-long tradition of hosts who have bombed, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin “opened the show like the old uncles at your family reunion.”

(NEWSER) - The red carpet was rolled out once again—who sashayed down it and who clunked her way along? Elizabeth Snead of the Los Angeles Times snarks and sings about this year's Oscar fashion, while Christopher Muther moans about the "battle of the bland" in the Boston Globe.

• Frozen River's Melissa Leo somehow confused the Academy Awards with prom night.
• Zac Efron's no king of the Oscar world; he tried to channel Leonardo DiCaprio with his slicked-back hair, but ended up looking like a creepy French waiter.

Audiences get closer to the red carpet than ever

(NEWSER) - Thanks to the wonders of technology, you’ll be able to get closer than ever to the stars on the red carpet come Oscar night tomorrow, Variety reports. Several websites will allow users to zoom in, à la Google Earth, and magnify high-res photos up to four times. More»

After 10 years, an opportunity to fix mistakes: Lowen Liu

(NEWSER) - Slate wants to fix the Oscars—"Academy Awards ceremonies are laughable, even to those of us who love them," the site declares —so it's asking writers and editors to offer up their proposals in advance of the Feb. 26 ceremony. Lowen Liu's idea : Allow for a re-vote on the major categories 10 years later. That would mean that this year, Academy voters could finally make up for the travesty that occurred when A Beautiful Mind won over such "diverse and dazzling" films as English manners mystery Gosford Park and the theatrical Moulin Rouge! More»

Yet Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' gets acclaim, actor laments

(NEWSER) - Daniel Radcliffe is "slightly miffed" that none of the Harry Potter films have won an Academy Award, whereas children's movie Hugo was nominated for Best Picture and 10 other categories this year. "I don't think the Oscars like commercial films, or kids' films, unless they're directed by Martin Scorsese," Radcliffe tells the Radio Times . "I was watching Hugo the other day and going, 'Why is this nominated and we're not?' I was slightly miffed. There's a certain amount of snobbery." More»