LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Directors Guild of America President Michael Apted today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2007.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Continuing its distinguished 74-year association with the Academy Awards(r), PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP today announced that Brad Oltmanns and Rick Rosas will again lead the balloting process for the 80th Annual Academy Awards. Oltmanns and Rosas are the only two people in the world who will know the identity of the Oscar(r) winners before the live telecast on ABC at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST) on Sunday, February 24, 2008.

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- In its 24th year, San Diego's ArtWalk Festival will return to downtown's hip and historic Little Italy neighborhood on April 26 and 27, 2008 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. on both days. The largest open-air gallery in the region, ArtWalk fills 14 city blocks with some of the finest painting, sculpture, glasswork, photography, music and dance by more than 400 artists from throughout Southern California, Arizona and Mexico.

Filed under: Gay & Lesbian, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand

I always get a kick out of hearing Stephen Fry's take on different matters. There's nothing like usually-solid rationale mixed with humor -- that's why dudes like Stephen Colbert are so big. In March of last year, I shared his views about America's obsession with British accents. He pondered the possibility that Americans are fooled into thinking performances by British actors are good because of their accents. Now the BBC reports that he's taken on a more serious topic and is giving his two cents on this current tendency to congratulate straight people for taking on gay roles. You know -- Jake and Heath (or any other actor) is lauded for daring to take on the role, as if it is some super-challenging deed.

According to Fry: "People say: 'Ooh, how brave of you.' Why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man?" He goes on to discuss the fact that gay actors aren't called brave for kissing women, and continues: "It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman -- I'll kiss a frog if you like. It's difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn't difficult." You can always count on Fry for a humorous, yet rational, take on an issue. There is a definite stigma attached to male-male sexuality in any form. Ladies can kiss and cavort until the cows come home, but once two stubbly faces smooch each other, all hell breaks loose.

If only we could all be as evolved as Captain Jack, who believes orientation classification is "quaint."

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HONG KONG, Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF), a leading provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, announced today the worldwide launch of the "Tokio Hotel - the official mobile game."

Just thumbtacking this onto the National Society of Film Critics awards announcement below: The director of the Best Experimental Film winner, "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," is our man John Gianvito, assistant professor on the Visual and Media Arts faculty at Emerson College. Here's his Emerson page -- it's not too late to sign up for his spring courses, boys and girls -- and here's Mark Feeney's appreciative take on "PMATWW," plus a brief Phoenix review. Also, a funny, insightful blog entry from a Syracuse student who got sucked into liking avant-garde film by the movie.

Congratulations, Professor Gianvito. Any plans to put it out on DVD?

About them Golden Globes: Too bad about the party we'll be missing, and I guess Dad finally realizes Mom's serious about the trial separation. But what about us children? We always suffer the most.

Whether this bodes ill for the Oscars is anyone's guess -- I'm betting the Academy dog-and-Jack Nicholson show either gets severely downsized or cancelled altogether -- but these developments pose an interesting thesis: What would the pop culture calendar look like without the Oscars? What would Hollywood do without the impetus to matter? Would the end-of-the-year slate become unmoored; would tony British adaptations start popping up in March? (Lord knows we could use them then.) Or would the studios stop releasing the artsy stuff entirely and devolve into all Spidey sequels all the time? We may have the chance to find out.

Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Ever since The Hollywood Reporter commented on the "as-yet-unslotted" release date for Transformers 2, the entire online community was buzzing with rumors the film had officially been delayed. While director Michael Bay continues to leave cryptic fanboy-ish messages on his blog ("Transformers 2 is coming soon!!!!"), IESB managed to sit down with robot producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to get the real scoop on where, exactly, the highly-anticipated sequel is at right now.

When asked whether they had a start date in mind to begin shooting, Bonaventura said they were currently targeting June 2. Seems pretty reasonable; things should be going along as planned, right? No so fast ... Bonaventura also claims work still has to be done on the script -- a lot of work, it appears -- and that cannot happen until the strike is over and done with. He says, "We're no where because of the strike, we won't know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we'll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He's designed a lot of great stuff already. He's got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he's ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it's the target date we'd like to go for but, you know, we've got to get some writers to help us."

Bonaventura was also asked about the sequel's budget, but didn't divulge much except for saying that "Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody." Am I the only one afraid of Michael Bay wanting to deliver a "bigger" anything? So there you have it: They're working on it, but until the strike is over, not much can be done.

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