James Garner Recovering After Minor Stroke

Billy Crystal brings the same old stuff

(NEWSER) - Last night's Oscars, like its Best Picture, was a throwback to a different time in film history. And though the show may have topped last year's Anne Hathaway-James Franco fiasco, it was boring and tired throughout:

• "The whole night looked like an AARP pep rally," writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times . "For a town that prides itself on tinsel and titillation, the night was pretty tame." "It all looked very familiar," but that "is perhaps necessary when so few of the nominated films are."

Or, Natalie Portman: From Black Swan to Thor

(NEWSER) - This year has seen many an Oscar winner in less-than-deserving films, from Tom Hanks in Larry Crowne to Frances McDormand in Transformers. Over at Grantland , Lane Brown averaged the Rotten Tomatoes scores of all an actor’s films since the Oscar victory—first through 2010, then through this year. The difference—measured in “cubas” (sorry, Mr. Gooding)—reveals how much the actor tainted his or her Oscar this year. And the winners are: More»

But maybe he could have kept that to himself?

(NEWSER) - George Clooney voted for Jeff Bridges instead of himself to win this year's Best Actor Oscar, and he even photographed his ballot and sent it to Bridges with best wishes. Stuff like this is why Clooney "might be the classiest man in Hollywood," declare the experts at the New York Post 's Page Six. More»

First directing honors for a woman as Iraq thriller reaps 5 awards

(AP) - The Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker earned the Best Picture Academy Award tonight, and Kathryn Bigelow won for best director. Bigelow is the first woman in the 82-year history of the Oscars to earn Hollywood's top prize for filmmakers. Among those Bigelow beat were ex-husband James Cameron, the best director winner for 1997's Titanic, who was nominated this time for his sci-fi spectacle Avatar. Bigelow and Cameron were married from 1989 to 1991. More»

Food, drink, and fashion flubs start awards season off right

(NEWSER) - Awards season unofficially begins with tonight's Golden Globes ceremony, an alcohol-addled free-for-all that makes the Oscar telecast feel like a prayer meeting. Breeanna Hare of CNN runs down 10 reasons the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's shindig beats the Academy Awards:

• Booze: "The Globes would not be the Globes if the nominees weren't loose enough to potentially shirk their handler's instructions and drop an F-bomb or two during an acceptance speech."