While Hollywood doesn’t seem interested in balancing the lack of Black representation on the big screen, the Academy is happy to have us host the awards show. According to HumorMillmag.com , Eddie Murphy is confirmed to host the 84th Academy Awards in February of 2012. The Oscars will be the first time Murphy has taken the stage to perform any kind of stand-up in over twenty years. He is currently starring in the up-coming movie Tower Heist , Directed by Brett Ratner. Ratner is reported to be producing the Awards as well. The last African-American to host the Oscars was Chris Rock in 2004. Whoopi Goldberg has hosted four Oscars with her last being in 2001. Will this make you watch? RELATED POSTS: FIRST LOOK: Eddie Murphy And Gabourey Sidibe In “Tower Heist” Trailer [VIDEO] Eddie Murphy To Receive Comedy Icon Award The Internet Kills Eddie Murphy…Again
If anyone in showbiz is both qualified and deserving, it’s Eddie Murphy. This Tuesday, a confab is scheduled for Oscar producer Brett Ratner to tell the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences whom he wants to host the Oscars. I’ve learned that Ratner will offer one name to Academy President Tom Sherak: Eddie Murphy. This is by no means a done deal yet, but this is a first step – though a lot more steps have to happen before this becomes a reality. I’m told that a lot of big names have approached the other 84th Academy Awards producer Don Mischer saying they are interested in hosting, and Don is fielding those calls. But insiders tell me that Ratner since getting the Academy Awards producing gig has only been talking to one person: Eddie. It’s been along the lines of, “If the Academy asked you to host, would you accept?” I learned that Eddie is “showing interest”. I do know that Murphy’s Hollywood agency WME thinks it’d be a real coup for Murphy’s dormant career which is about to get a kick-start. That’s because the veteran comedian is starring in the Brett Ratner-directed and Imagine/Universal-produced Tower Heist action laugher with Ben Stiller that opens on November 4th and is receiving great buzz. So Murphy and Ratner already have a close relationship, and this would be a way for Brett to put his personal stamp on 2012′s broadcast. Plus Murphy is starring in the DreamWorks dramedy film A Thousand Words scheduled for release on January 12th. We hope that Eddie gets this prestigious job. He would definitely bring some much needed funny to an otherwise boring show. Hate it or love it?!?! Source
Rumors abound today that Eddie Murphy may dig out of his extended rut with an Oscar-hosting stint next February. The Web site that broke the story says it’s a done deal, while our sister site Deadline reports that co-producer Brett Ratner has a few hurdles to clear at the Academy (quite possibly including his producing colleague Don Mischer). Among them: Convincingly answering the question, “What on Earth is the upside of Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars?”
All signs were pointing to this in recent days, and now it’s official: Lionsgate has sent word that it will host regional sneak preview screenings of its epic, gritty MMA /family drama Warrior this weekend nationwide. Obviously that’s nothing new in the grand scheme of release strategies, but what makes this special is the endgame: Oscar night.
It’s hard to believe that its been ten years since Aaliyah left us. Many of us remember exactly where we were when we heard the tragic news that Aaliyah’s life had been cut short by a plane accident in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001. Her memory will not be forgotten anytime soon. The singer-actress began her career in 1991 when her uncle, Barry Hankerson, signed her to Blackground Records. Three years later, her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number , would be released. Audiences were immediately captivated by the teenager’s street-smart style and angelic voice. Her debut single, “Back & Forth,” topped the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop singles chart for three weeks. The follow-up single, a cover of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Love),” peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. With the release of her second album, 1996′s One In A Million , Aaliyah helped changed the sound of R&B and Hip-Hop thanks to her new collaborators, Missy Elliot and Timbaland. With singles like “If Your Girl Only Knew,” “One In A Million,” “Hot Like Fire,” and “4 Page Letter,” it was obvious that Aaliyah’s star was on the rise. In 1998, Aaliyah was invited to the Academy Awards ceremony where she performed the Oscar nominated song “Journey To The Past” from the film Anastasia. Later in 1998, Aaliyah released yet another single from a soundtrack. This time it was “Are You That Somebody” from the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Doolittle . The single would become one of Aaliyah’s most popular with its stellar production and highly choreographed video. Two years later the singer would add the title of “actress” to her resume when she starred in the film Romeo Must Die opposite martial arts expert Jet Li. The film debuted at number two on its opening weekend and spawned two hit Aaliyah singles, “Come Back In One Piece” with DMX, and the chart topping “Try Again.” After completing work on Romeo Must Die , Aaliyah went straight to work on the vampire film Queen Of The Damned and was also slated to appear in the sequels to the popular film The Matrix . She also found time to put in work on her third album, the eponymously titled Aaliyah which was preceded by the mysterious and sexy video for “We Need A Resolution.” After wrapping up filming in the Bahamas for the Aaliyah album’s second single, “Rock The Boat,” Aaliyah and eight others were killed in a crash shortly after their plane took off from the island on August 25th, 2001. She was 22 years old. RELATED: BET To Honor Aaliyah With 10-Year Anniversary Tribute RELATED: A Sexy Aaliyah Playlist For An Intimate Night RELATED: Missy’s “Behind The Music”: On Meeting Aaliyah & Breaking Barriers [VIDEO]
As part of this week’s midpoint celebration , Movieline has already run through the 2011 films that are most likely to contend in this year’s Academy Awards race . But what about the titles that completely fell short of moviegoer and studio expectations? Ahead, Movieline recalls the five biggest box office disappointments of 2011 thus far.
Where: (click below to visit venue on Foursquare) Kodak Theater 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA When: March 5, 2006 What: The Memphis rap group earned an Oscar for Best Original Song for their contribution to the Hustle & Flow movie soundtrack. The film starred Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson , who performed the Three 6 Mafia-penned “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp.” NEXT | PREVIOUS In celebration of Black Music Month, TheUrbanDaily’s “It’s All Black Music” presents 100 Rewarding Black Music Moments , sponsored by Southwest Airlines . Each Black Music Moment is associated with an actual place that you can visit. During the month of June, check in to at least three of these places on Foursquare to unlock TheUrbanDaily’s exclusive “It’s All Black Music” Badge . Check out the locations and details on our Foursquare page !
RPattz will debut an exclusive ‘Water for Elephants’ clip and answer fan questions live Friday at 8:56 p.m. ET on MTV.com. By Eric Ditzian Robert Pattinson at the 2009 Academy Awards Photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage If you ask us, Robert Pattinson officially arrived in Hollywood when “Twilight” won five Golden Popcorn statues at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards — including RPattz’s nods for Best Kiss, Best Fight and Breakthrough Male Performance. But others might argue his Tinseltown coming-out party occurred a few months earlier. In late February ’09, after a weeklong series of rumors had whipped the Twi-nation into a frenzy, Pattinson walked onto an Academy Awards red carpet for the first time. He was not there because he was nominated, but simply because the Academy could not ignore the vampire phenomenon that had ignited the box office — and too many tween hearts to count — the previous fall. It was the biggest night in Hollywood, after all, and its biggest new star just had to be there. Not that he could quite wrap his head around the idea. “It’s insane,” Pattinson exclaimed when we caught up with him on the carpet. “When they first told me about this, I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, you’re joking’ — or ‘I’m going to have to do something really stupid like get gunged!’ ” Assuming he’d need to get doused with slime to justify an Oscars appearance, for that reason alone, this awards-season moment deserves to make our countdown of favorite Pattinson moments before the debut of “MTV First: Robert Pattinson” at 8:56 p.m. ET on Friday. But RPattz’s self-deprecating humor aside, it was at the Oscars that his status as the rising young actor in town was solidified. During the ceremony, he took the stage alongside Amanda Seyfried to present a montage of the year’s romantic films, everything from “Mamma Mia!” to “Revolutionary Road” to, yes, “Twilight.” Yet even though footage from the film that made him a star played at the Oscars, he couldn’t quite believe the situation. “I’m so surprised that it worked out the way it did,” he told us of becoming a crush-worthy Hollywood presence. “I was thinking the whole time, ‘I don’t really have the personality to fit into that.’ I’m not really afraid of it. I don’t even know how to play up that. I don’t know if I could ever be cast in a heartthrob role, apart from ‘Twilight,’ which I didn’t know was a heartthrob role.” Don’t miss “MTV First: Robert Pattinson” this Friday at 8:56 p.m. ET on MTV and MTV.com. Tune in to see RPattz introduce a new “Water for Elephants” clip, followed by a live 30-minute interview on MTV.com. Tweet questions using the hashtag #askrob to get in the conversation! Related Videos Get Ready For ‘MTV First: Robert Pattinson’ RPattz Being RPattz: Our Favorite Pattinson Quotes
The folks at Rotten Tomatoes have tabulated their annual Best of the Best list, inserting Tom Hooper’s 2011 Best Picture winner The King’s Speech into the annals of Oscar history. But comparing great films to other great films has always been something of an apples to oranges situation; how can you measure, say, The Godfather Part II against An American in Paris — two very different films that occupy adjoining slots on the list and have the same Tomatometer ranking (98 percent)? With a carefully calculated algorithm, that’s how! Still… why does The King’s Speech not quite feel right sitting so high above other bona fide classics?
Honestly? Kill those dudes . American Idol ‘s tenth season about the ladies — these toilet-scrubbing, bathtub-hawking, makeup-sponging femmes who look you in the eye, trill a melody, and demand, like, 8-80% of your soul. For keeps. Last night the Top 12 women crooned with unexpected grace, and today we’ve got them all listed, exalted, or exposed as frauds (in some special cases). Compare your rankings to ours, and prepare to be wrong.
