The Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack whose films include Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Way We Were and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, died this afternoon in his Los Angeles home. The cause was cancer. Pollack grew up in Indiana and headed to New York City when he was 17, joining The Neighborhood Playhouse and studying acting under Sanford Meisner. He acted, but, according to the NY Times obituary, Burt Lancaster told him to direct,......

Photograph of Queens native Amy Ryan, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Gone, Baby Gone At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. You can prep yourself with the Oscar nominees list as you watch (or avoid) red carpet coverage. You could read NY Times......

The Oscars are in town! Well, at least some 8-foot Oscar statues for the official New York Oscar night celebration at the Carlyle hotel, where east coast industry folk will come together Sunday night as the show goes down in Hollywood. Nominees were announced on January 22nd with Best Picture nods going to Michael Clayton, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men and Juno. The love and buzz continues to surround the......

Photograph of Kathy Bates and AMPAS President Sid Ganis announcing the nominations by Chris Pizzello/AP While the writers' strike continues and prospects of an awards ceremony are unclear, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went ahead and announced the contenders for their 80th annual back-slapping ceremony. Oscar-winning friend of the academy Kathy Bates was on hand to announce this year's golden picks. From Bob Dylan to Michael Clayton, many of the nominations......

Early this morning Hayden Panettiere and other Hollywood elite looked ready to hit the town for a night out even though it was 5:30am. They were announcing this year's Golden Globe nominees, often a good sign for who will be nominated for that other gold statue. All in all New York-based shows and movies fared well as the envelopes were opened sheets of paper were read from. 30 Rock (Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical......

Who can blame the staff at Palisades Medical Center for being excited when George Clooney and his girlfriend were admitted, after the couple got into a motorcycle accident in Weehawken, NJ? But it seems that twenty-seven staffers were so excited that they accessed Clooney's personal and confidential information and may have leaked it to the media. WCBS 2 reported that at least 40 employees (doctors, nurses, etc.) were investigated and 27 were suspended, some for......

My Kid Could Paint That (directed by Amir Bar-Levi) Documentarian Amir Bar-Levi spent a year following the Olmstead family as their daughter Marla became a darling of the contemporary art world. The only odd thing about Marla meteoric rise to fame? Her age. She was 4 years old at the time and painting elaborate abstract canvases selling for thousands of dollars each. Following a large profile of Marla on 60 Minutes that brought into doubt......

Rugged celebrity George Clooney and his girlfriend were injured when their motorcycle got into an accident with a car in Weehawken, NJ yesterday afternoon. Clooney, whose has been filming the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading in New York and New Jersey, has a hairline fracture of a rib and road rash while Sarah Larson has broken some of her toes. Both were wearing helmets. Clooney's spokesman Stan Rosenfeld said, "George said he was driving......