Rethink.

"American Idol" hopeful Danny Gokey is now in the top three. While I was not excited to see Allison Iraheta go Wednesday night, I was excited by the fact that the final three are visiting their hometowns today, Friday, May 8th. The powerhouse singer that is Gokey is thankfully from Milwaukee and will be stopping by the "sexiest city in the world" for a quick visit — and my college town will be on TV next week! Sounds awesome to me... Plus, he giving a free concert !!! Here is his schedule, thanks to my friend Rincey (subject to change): 7 a.m. : Danny arrives at the WITI Fox 6 studios for TV interviews, 9001 N. Green Bay Road, Brown Deer. 11:15 a.m. : Danny makes a visit to the AT&T store (9078 N. Green Bay Road). 3-4:30 p.m. : Scheduled short stops at Milwaukee downtown area landmarks : the bronze Fonz, the Harley-Davidson Museum the Milwaukee Art Museum and Discovery World. 4:15 p.m. : Main gates to Summerfest open. 4:30 p.m. : Short car parade to the Summe...

As I discussed in a post Thursday , Oscar ceremony ratings hit an all-time low last year . So this year, getting above 32 million viewers didn't seem like a huge challenge. The challenge I hoped the new producers, along with a Hugh Jackman-hosted ceremony, would meet was the 46.2 million threshold, putting the ceremony in the Top 10 for best rated telecasts. Alas, it was an uphill battle. With no "Dark Knight" Best Picture nominations, viewers and film goers were not happy with the snub. And the results are... "Ratings for this year's Academy Awards improved substantially over last year and are the highest for any TV show (sports excluded) in two years ," according to Zap2It.com . ABC says an average of 36.3 million people watched the 81st annual Oscars on Sunday , making it the most-watched entertainment program of the season and bigger than any other entertainment program since the 2007 Oscars' 40.17 million viewers. The adults 18-49 rating was up, to...

As the show starts, here are my predictions (and winners): I got 19/24 correct. Tied for the lead in my pool. Best Picture “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Director Danny Boyle √ Best Actor Sean Penn √ Best actress Kate Winslet √ Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger √ Best Supporting Actress Taraji P. Henson X Penélope Cruz Best Original Screenplay "Milk" √ Best Adapted Screenplay Simon Beaufoy for “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Foreign-Language Film “Waltz With Bashir” X "Departures" Best Animated Feature “Wall-E” √ Best Original Song “Jai Ho” √ Best Musical Score “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Art Direction Donald Burft, Victor Zolfo for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” √ Best Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle for “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Costume Design “The Duchess” √ Best Film Editing “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Makeup “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” √ Best Sound Editing “The Dark Knight” √ Best Sound Mixing “The Dark Knight” X "Slum...

I opened my Sunday New York Times with much surprise. Were my eyes seeing what I thought...? It was not a dream. There was the set for Sunday's 81st Annual Academy Awards ceremony , pictured grandly on the Arts&Leisure cover. Here are the details extracted from the 1,900-word article, which can be read if full here : This year's set is designed by none other than the architect of the Kodak Theatre itself - the very place designed for the ceremony: David Rockwell . (Note NYT, its theat re , not theater.) Rockwell said he is out to " redefine the show's DNA ," trying to tame the beast - "a show on television celebrating the movies in a theater," as writer Patricia Leigh Brown describes it. " It's about celebration ," said Rockwell, 52. " We want to make it less a big, pre-taped package and more a live show . " Rockwell designed the set with all this in mind. The set includes a 92,000-Swarovski-crystal curtain , fluted crystal ch...

Hi everyone who is reading my blog or subscribing to the RSS feed. I wanted to take moment to tell you about this upcoming (amazing) week and a little bit about myself. First, if you're subscribing to my RSS feed, try to visit my actual page at least daily. I will be posting videos and other media onto this page; however, some content might not appear in the RSS feed (or on Facebook, for example) because I will be using the sidebar to the left. So please, come visit the Web page. Second, I will be posting anything and everything related to the Academy Awards - from the setup and the secrets to the red carpet. If I miss anything, comment and fill me in. Also, follow me on Twitter (jamesamolnar) this weekend for the latest news. Finally, I want to prove myself to you about why I should be your source for Oscar news: I've been watching, taping and rewatching the ceremonies for nearly a decade; I have bought every ceremony poster (except one) since they were made available to th...

Tim Gunn , Robin Roberts and Jess Cagle with host the 30-minute red carpet show, the Academy announced Wednesday. Executive producer Robert Morton announced the first-time hosts for show, which airs on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. EST., prior to the 81st Academy Awards® presentation. Gunn, as the press release stated, is chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne Inc. and well known for his co-hosting of the Emmy®-nominated program “Project Runway." Roberts is a “Good Morning America” anchor and has traveled from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to the Persian Gulf covering a wide array of topics. She was a commentator and contributor to ESPN before joining ABC News. Cagle is the managing editor of Entertainment Weekly and the former executive editor of People. He contributes to CBS News and has appeared on “Today” and “20/20.” That's all we know for now. 10 DAYS UNTIL OSCAR SUNDAY ®

Last night, Jessica Biel , pictured, hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards in Beverly Hills. Set was nice. Congrats to all those honored last night. Other notes: Tomorrow we find out the three finalists for mtvU 's Oscar® Correspondent Contest , and consequently voting opens for them. So far, this is what I know: Don't look for Nick Maslow , but look for one of my favs Megan Telles . (Can't tell you how I know...) Here's hoping good news was given to David Distenfeld , but he removed his entry video from YouTube so I'm not thinking that's a good sign... Good luck to my other top five picks, Justin Shackil and Dylan Steinberg . Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson performed on the Grammys this evening. She brought down the house! You could see the emotion on her face. The Orange British Academy Film Awards took place tonight at the Royal Opera House in London. Award winners included " Slumd...

With 18 days until the 81st Annual Academy Awards (on Feb. 22nd) and just about three days left until voting closes for the mtvU Oscars Correspondont Contest (this Friday around 5 p.m. ET), I thought it would be appropriate to discuss odds and ends... Event news In a New York Times article published Monday (" Oscars Suspense: Will People Watch? "), writer Michael Cieply discusses the secrets behind this year's ceremony and building pressure on the Academy to get more viewers to watch. Worth the read. Jessica Biel will host the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. The " Oscars Live Challenge " on OSCAR.COM went live earlier this week. Here , you can predict the winners and the during the ceremony answers questions for more points. There have not been any prizes announced for a possible nationwide winner, but maybe the Academy might not be offer a cool incentive this year. Nominees for this...

It was the moment Rincey and I were waiting for - the phone call . We had lost a lot of sleep during week so the waiting might not be too bad in our state of mind. Saturday and Sunday came and no phone call. " OK... that's not bad. We still have Monday and Tuesday ," we told each other. It was Thursday morning, Rincey tweeted: " i've given up on mtvu and am moving on with my life. i can't live with all the suspense for this long. " She called me a few hours later, telling me to check the site. Our names were not included among the semi-finalists. Instead of being angry and screaming so that my neighbors could hear my ire, I decided to watch the 10 videos. As a good journalist, I noted what I liked about each and decided to share my thoughts so that I could help others who might not want to watch all 10. Here is my Top 10-styled list , with number one being my favorite: 10. Diana Snyder, freshman - New York University My main point of contention is the f...