KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 26, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- With Spring Break, long holiday weekends and summer just around the corner, many people are making their vacation plans now. If you are one of the millions of people traveling with pets, you know how time consuming making vacation plans can be. BringYourPet.com (http://www.bringyourpet.com) seeks to alleviate some of your vacation planning stress by offering pet friendly lodging options, including hotels, condos, private homes, etc. No matter what type of lodging you are looking for, BringYourPet.com is sure to have something to fit your vacation needs.

So the ratings for the Academy Awards on Sunday night were in the toilet: An all-time low of 32 million viewers. Much moaning and groaning about what went wrong, which joined earlier speculation that the whole event has become irrelevant. My editor thinks the event's going the way of the Miss America pageant and we'll be watching it on Turner Classics in a few years.

Blame the lingering effects of the writers' strike if you want, but to my mind there are two things at work here and one of them is cyclical. As plenty of other people have pointed out, the award-worthy movies this year were a dark, dark bunch that did not play mainstream. Of the five best picture nominations, only one could be described as remotely upbeat and that was the movie about the pregnant high schooler. Every five years or so, a movie comes along that's a critical and commercial hit and that has an unstoppable pop culture momentum that draws audiences to the Oscar telecast like flies: "The Return of the King," "Titanic". And then you have years where the quality of the nominated films seems in inverse proportion to their commercial appeal. That would be 2007.

Tough. When you set up an award ceremony to honor the "best pictures of the year," you run the risk of looking elitist. "Spider-man 3" and "Shrek the Third" were the top-grossing movies of 2007 -- the most popular, in other words. Is anyone really going to suggest they were the best?

Of course not, so take your periodic lumps, AMPAS. What has changed over the years is that there are exponentially more diversions: other channels, other media, other awards shows, most of which are a lot more fun and have pushed Oscar into the status of the staid old lady of the genre. And that's where things need to be fixed if ratings aren't to continue in free-fall.

Sunday night was elegant, graceful, tactful, and dull as dirt. Where was the showmanship? Why bring on Amy Adams to sing the "Enchanted" song and dress her like she's playing the Oak Room at the Algonquin? Memo to Gil Cates: We want the glitz, the spectacle, the energy, and we don't mind if it's a little tacky. I found myself missing the days of mindbending Alan Carr production numbers because at least there was a pulse there. (Racing, overmedicated, but a pulse.) Even Jon Stewart seems too tamped down as host, and that's all wrong.

My modest proposal, then: Next year, get someone other than Cates to produce the thing. Someone-- and this is important -- with a lot less taste. Front-load the evening with star presenters who matter to moviegoers under 40. Serve alcohol. And give Jack's front-row seat and sunglasses to Sacha Baron Cohen.

One other matter I just have to get off my chest: That bit during the ceremonies where Cameron Diaz led off the cinematography nominations -- excuse me, "the cinematopolography nominations" -- by making fun of "Sunrise," the first film to win the award back in 1929? Diaz recited the names of the movie's characters -- The Man, The Wife, The Woman from the City -- as if to say: See how far we've come in eight decades? See how sophisticated we are, how primitive the movies used to be?

What a moron. Anyone who knows the least bit about the silent era also knows movies were hugely sophisticated by 1927, when "Sunrise" was first released, with mammoth sets, complex camera moves, multi-layered narratives, realistic performances. It was the talkie revolution kicked off by "The Jazz Singer" -- which hit theaters just two weeks after Murnau's movie -- that dialed Hollywood back to zero and inaugurated a new crudity while they worked the bugs out of the machinery.

"Sunrise," then, was a work of conscious, purposeful naivete -- a gentle piece of primitivism made by one of the medium's greatest artists, F. W. Murnau ("Nosferatu"). In a time of increasingly baroque silent productions, Murnau dared to shoot for poetic simplicity, and the resulting film won the 1929 Oscar for "Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production" -- the art-house award, basically.

Once you get past the melodramatic opening scenes in which the other woman (Margaret Livingston) almost talks the farmer (George O'Brien) into drowning his country-mouse wife (Janet Gaynor, in photo above), "Sunrise" moves into a beautifully shot, astonishingly tender tale of a man and a wife falling in love again during a trip to the city. It's not a movie for hardened sensibilities or "Transformers" fans, but it does still play very, very well in 2008, if you can find it (a standalone DVD is out of print -- probably available in libraries -- but you can buy the film as part of a "Best Picture" boxed set from Fox).

Seriously, this one's in my personal Top Fifty, and I'm hardly alone. I can't say the same for "Charlie's Angels".

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 26, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH), formerly EchoStar Communications Corporation, reported total revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, a 12 percent increase compared with $2.58 billion for the corresponding period in 2006.

RIDGEWOOD, N.J., Feb. 25, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Mandy Moore, singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer, has added another facet to her multiple careers: chairperson of the Web site www.uPumpItUp.com.

LONDON, Feb. 25, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Virgin Media (Nasdaq:VMED) will today file an appeal with the Competition Appeal Tribunal requesting a review of the recent conclusions of the Competition Commission and the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform relating to BSkyB's acquisition of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV.

I am one of many of Ben Affleck’s harshest critics. After witnessing some dismal acting performances by him in Daredevil and Armageddon, I pegged him for just another movie star who got lucky despite his limited acting ability. Along with his tabloid shennanigins with Jennifer Lopez, I felt very comfortable with my negative assessment of the man. But after selling him short for years, I must now eat some humble pie and say that Ben Affleck has talent. Much like Sophia Coppola, Affleck’s talent lies behind the camera rather than in front of it. His directorial debut is a stunning piece of work. Gone Baby Gone isn’t just competently put together, but confidently executed. Although I have questioned Affleck’s talents in the past, I can now say with certainty that this is one of the best films of 2007. (more…)

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Filed under: Awards, Celebrities and Controversy, Obits, Oscar Watch

Last night, as per every year at the Oscars, they take a brief break from all the self-congratulatory back-patting to acknowledge the deaths in the movie industry over the preceding year. As several of our readers (and Scott Weinberg, who was going ballastic on IM about it) noted, Brad Renfro, who died of a drug overdose on January 15 of this year, was mysteriously excluded. The troubled actor, best known for his work in The Client, Apt Pupil, and Bully, had been known to have a drug problem for years, and had a drunk driving and heroin-possession arrest in May 2006, but was supposedly "working hard on his sobriety" at the time of his death.

The In Memorium was supposed to be for everyone who died between February 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008. Heath Ledger, who died a week after Renfro, was included in the montage. No word from the Academy that I've seen yet on why Renfro wasn't included -- an honest oversight? A deliberate sweeping-under-the-red-carpet because heroin was involved? What do you think about Renfro being shut out of Oscar's "In Memorium"?

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I just put tomorrow's story to bed and didn't get to put in the observation that in spite of the evening's efficient dullness -- god, I miss Sacheen Littlefeather -- there was a definite sense of a generational changing of the guard. I mean, the Coens just won best director(s) and picture. Paul Thomas Anderson tied with them for most nominations. And there's Ellen Page and Diablo Cody (real name Brooke Busey -- I'm contractually and morally obligated to mention that every time I type the words "Diablo Cody"). Add to that the fact that Jack Nicholson actually seemed older than the 98-year-old Robert Boyle and the times they may indeed be a-changing.

On the predictions front, I did pretty poorly this year -- 12 right guesses out of 24. Wesley skunked me by one: 13 out of 24. As usual, I got hosed on the short subjects and the sound categories. As usual, some of the folks I thought should win went ahead and did win, so I guess I should trust my instincts. There's always next year. Besides, not even Tilda Swinton thought she'd actually get an Oscar for best supporting actress.

I hate not to be paying attention to the fact, however inevitable, that "No Country for Old Men" won best picture. But are Sissy Spacek and Quincy Jones at the Oscars together? I'm starting rumors! Did the producer Scott Rudin just thank his partner? Way to not thank a beard, Scott Rudin.

Wait, the band is playing the "Mission: Impossible" theme music over the closing credits. Is that a joke? If Bill Conti really wanted to show off his cojones wouldn't he have had made his strike commentary at the start of the show? Oh well. Thanks for letting me type all over you. 'Night.

Diablo Cody will presumably get to keep her EW column. Her 16th minute might have just turned into a career.

"Ambition." "Amorality." "Deviousness." "Venality." "Remorse." "Decency." "And good old-fashioned Cojones." Helen Mirren is totally playing "Password"!

Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor and thanks the "golden sapling" that grew out of the mad head of Paul Thomas Anderson. Every winner should be obligated to mention golden saplings from here on out.