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Oscar Themes, Past and Present
ABCNews.com
February 2009
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2006: Politics as Unusual
Hollywood’s heavy hand played out at the 2006 Academy Awards, the year of the message movie.
Best picture winner “Crash” — which took three Oscars — tackled race relations and police brutality. The gay cowboy weeper “Brokeback Mountain” preached tolerance while taking three trophies (out of eight nominations), including best director and best adapted screenplay.
The war-torn “Syriana” — which earned George Clooney a best actor award — was all about foreign politics, while Clooney’s government witch-hunting-themed Edward R. …

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Oscar Themes, Past and Present
ABCNews.com
February 2009
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2008: Female Screenwriters Have Their Day
Another 2008 shocker? Four nods for female writers in the best screenplay and best adapted screenplay categories. Who could forget Diablo Cody’s irreverent acceptance for her winning “Juno”?
“That’s very rare — that was certainly a breakthrough last year,” O’Neil said. “Like directing, screenwriting is still a closed category that seems to shut out women. Very few women get nominations at all. But I don’t see things changing anytime soon. Everyone thought that this year, Mandy …

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Oscar Themes, Past and Present
ABCNews.com
February 2009
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By all accounts, “Slumdog Millionaire,” with its 10 nominations, is set to sweep the Oscars this year. In fact, it’s the front-runner to win best picture, which would make it the first film with a significant foreign language component to take the title.
“This year definitely has a more global, more international flavor,” Entertainment Weekly Oscar expert Dave Karger said. “But it’s also a very upbeat film. Both those elements are sort of a sign of the times, I think, with …

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Shatner Down to Earth on New Talk Show
ABCNews.com
January 2009
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William Shatner isn’t quite sure what makes celebrities like Kelsey Grammer, Valerie Bertinelli and comedian Jimmy Kimmel spill their guts to him on his new talk show, A&E’s “Raw Nerve.”
Perhaps it’s his restrained panache? Or his own tabloid-traversed past?
“I don’t want to back anybody into a corner, but if I probe gently enough so that I don’t get too vivid a reaction, I get what I’m looking for,” said the icon known to generations of TV fans as “Star Trek’s” Captain …

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2009′s Break-Out Stars
ABCNews.com
December 2008
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Cloris Leachman
Old school actress Cloris Leachman – best known for her Oscar-winning turn in “The Last Picture Show” and a nine-time Emmy winner (“Mary Tyler Moore,” “Malcolm In the Middle”) – made a triumphant return to TV this year on “Dancing With the Stars.” “Baby boomers think of her fondly,” says EW’s Vary. “And she’s having a nice resurgence, riding the ‘Dancing’ wave. It has jumpstarted careers for folks like Mario Lopez. But it depends on what she does next. She has a …

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2009′s Break-Out Stars: Page 2
ABCNews.com
December 2008
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Laura Izibor
Irish singer-songwriter Laura Izibor drops her first disc, “Let the Truth Be Told,” early next year, but the buzz around her has been building for a while. Her first single, “From My Heart to Yours” is already climbing Billboard’s R&B airplay chart and the 21-year-old Dublin-native has opened for artists like Al Green, Angie Stone and Aretha Franklin. “Laura is a biracial singer from Ireland, so people are comparing her to Corinne Bailey Rae,” said Essence entertainment director Cori Murray. …

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2009′s Break-Out Stars
ABCNews.com
December 2008
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Forget Lindsay Lohan and Shia LeBeouf: ABCNews.com Counts Down ’09′s Hot New Faces & a Few Fabulous Comebacks.
From “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson to Tina Fey, 2008 has been a very good year for some stars. But who’s set to break out in 2009? ABCNews.com counts down the newest crop of boldfaced names – and a few already famous faces who are ripe for a comeback.
Sam Worthington
Americans may not recognize Aussie actor Sam Worthington, but in 2009, he’s set to steal the spotlight …