I'm not gonna lie: I was a little worried listening to the opening verse of Jennifer Hudson's new single, "Spotlight." True, the pretty piano riff is reminiscent of Alicia Keys' "No One," and the lyrics about dealing with a suffocating relationship — "Are you a man who loves and cherishes and cares for me?/ Are you a guard in a prison, maximum security?" — are more interesting that your average pop-R&B clichés. But it all seemed just a wee bit, well, low-octane. I mean, we didn't fall in love with J.Hud back on season 3 of Idol because of her vocal restraint; we want big, unabashed belting from the woman who won an Oscar for hollerating "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" right through the theater walls and directly into that 2 p.m. screening of We Are Marshall next door. Thankfully, J.Hud gets good and warmed up just before the two-minute marker on "Spotlight," and when she declares, "if I'm just love's prisoner, then I'm bustin' out," she begins to do just that: Busting out with the riffs and runs, and nailing a saucy bridge in which she chides her man and declares her devotion for him all at once. (Complicated!) No, it's not quite "Cirrrrrrrrrrrcle of Liiiiife," but it's a solid post-Dreamgirls kickoff that should do quite nicely at radio. What think you, PopWatchers?
'Tis the season when pop-culture pundits start compiling best and worst lists in every conceivable category, and we here at EW.com certainly aren't immune. Right now, we're working on a list of the Worst Style Moments of 2007, and because we want to leave early today and start our holiday shopping value your opinions, we'd like you to help us brainstorm a list of nominees.
As someone whose personal '07 style nadir involved a lamb osso buco splatter on a light-blue dress shirt (right before I went to a fancy party!), I'm probably a dubious choice to start the discussion, but I'm gonna go ahead and nominate those metallic wings slapped on Jennifer Hudson's brown Oscar gown, and Britney Spears' much-dissected costume from this year's VMAs. The former seemed to me like a sad case of a well-liked young starlet foolishly following the advice of a kooky guardian angel (Andre Leon Talley), and winding up as a fashion victim on Hollywood's biggest night. And as for Britney's bedazzled underpants and busted weave (second ugliest of the year, right behind the frayed, yellow-white yarn forced onTop Model's Jenah by Ken Paves), the whole thing reeked of desperation (and perhaps a hint of Fantasy).
Are you with me on that duo, PopWatchers? And what other unspeakable looks belong on the list of the worst style moments of 2007?
So Mark Wahlberg, you're coming off an Academy Award-nominated turn in The Departed, and you follow it up with... the sniper-on-the-run action vehicle Shooter? Hmmm. Okay, maybe not the most obvious choice to snag you a repeat Oscar nod, but a closer inspection of this morning's reviews from newspapers across the country finds that, while the film is generating mostly lukewarm notices, you're (mostly) continuing to shore up your position as a critical darling. Read on...
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "Oscar-nominated for The Departed, Walhberg is a brooding, convincing actor who seems to gain confidence and improve with every role. With Shooter, he is called on to carry the picture while adding enough conviction to make its numerous Mission: Impossible implausibilities seem reasonable. He does it and makes it look easy."
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Wahlberg brings a grim purposefulness to his role, and he doesn't grandstand or preen. Personally, I prefer the actor when he has his thinking cap on, as in The Departed, or when he's at a dimbulb loss (I Heart Huckabees, Boogie Nights), but he's eminently watchable here."
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: "Wahlberg, all buffed and stoic, continues to solidify his screen presence as a believable action hero — a working-class guy who believes in honor and loyalty, just like you and me, only with bigger biceps."
In much the same way as a trip to Taco Bell guarantees you indigestion, taking a musical journey with Meat Loaf guarantees you a whole gordita's worth of bombast. And on that count, "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be," Loaf's new duet with recent Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (streaming here at AOL Music), doesn't disappoint. The lyrics ("Some days I feel so numb and empty/ And those would be the good days for me") are predictably over-the-top, the vocals start at "full-tilt wail" and eventually get amped-up to "manic shriek," and the arrangement is like something from the first-act finale of a Disney-on-Broadway extravaganza. All of which makes it that much weirder to me that the whole number is so incredibly dull. The melody on "Future" doesn't have the same stick-in-your-brain quality that marked Meat Loaf's previous love-it-or-hate-it hits like "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," nor does it have the randy energy of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." I'd do anything to see J.Hud find success on the Billboard charts, but while "Future" isn't as screamingly awful as that "we are a tree" nonsense from Dreamgirls, I am telling you, I'm not going... to be listening to this track again, either. How 'bout you, PopWatchers?
If I were Jerry Seinfeld, I'd definitely plan on attending the Academy Awards next year, but not as a host — as many have speculated over the past three days since his standout appearance as a presenter at this year's Oscars. Nope, the stand-up may very well be stepping back into the Kodak theater as an Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature for his upcoming Dreamworks film Bee Movie. As these two hysterical teaser trailers demonstrate, it just took the former sitcom mega-star a while to, well, get animated.
Poor, adorable Abigail Breslin. She was the belle of the ball on Oscar night, even though she didn't win a trophy. So many people were rooting for her — but not her Little Miss Sunshine costar Alan Arkin, the cranky mofo. Didja hear what the Best Supporting Actor winner told Access Hollywood on the red carpet? He said he was hoping the pint-sized starlet would lose. Scandal! But, wait, wait. You know, maybe he actually had a point. Winning an Academy Award at such a young age can kill a kid's childhood and cause all sorts of damage. Just look at Tatum O'Neal. I mean, owning one of those little gold guys isn't as potentially problematic as, say, drug abuse, but it's still worth considering: Maybe Abigail Breslin was better off going home empty handed.
That's just one of the thoughts still floating through this hazy brain of mine, 37 hours after the end of the seemingly interminable big show. Here are a few more; weigh in at will:
• How does The Departed measure up against other Best Picture winners, and will it stand the test of time? I, for one, believe that it's one of the best Best Pictures we've had in a while — in fact, it's my first favorite-movie-of-the-year to win the top award since, like, The Silence of the Lambs. And this L.A. Times column makes a good case that genre flicks resonate best as the years go on.
• Ellen was great, but Jerry Seinfeld killed! Maybe he should host next year?
• Viewership for the telecast (39.9 million people) was up slightly over last year (38.9 million), probably because at least one box office hit (The Departed) was nominated this time around. Still, ratings are awfully crappy compared to several times in the past decade when 10 million or 15 million more folks tuned in (especially when blockbusters like Titanic and Return of the King were contenders). Why is this happening? Awards fatigue? The 500-channel universe? No Billy Crystal? Dare I suggest that if this weekend's box office winner, Ghost Rider, which has already earned more dough than all but one of the Best Picture nominees, is tapped next year, then more people will watch? (It won't happen, of course, but still.)
While a majority of stars were basking in Oscar glory in sunny California, a number celebrities on the East coast braved a heavy snowfall to attend EW's 13th annual Academy Awards viewing party at New York City's famed Upper East Side restaurant, Elaine's.
Among the famous faces piled into the historic restaurant: Liev Schreiber (who missed out on escorting girlfriend Naomi Watts down the red carpet due to a matinee performance of his Broadway show Talk Radio), Erika Christensen, Angela Bassett, Billy Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, and, inexplicably, two of the boys-to-men from band of brothers Hansen.
But the two people I was most excited to meet were Chris Noth (pictured here with pal Dan Florek from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) and Candace Bushnell (and, file this under freaky coinkydink, I found out that they're neighbors!). Talk about the ultimate run-in for any Sex and the City fan. I actually ended up eating dinner next to Candace and chatted with her about her new TV pilot, Lipstick Jungle
(she's one of the exec producers). She also gave me some words of
wisdom about being a career girl in The "Big" City, "It’s not about
finding Mr. Big, it’s about finding yourself first."
Now it is time to live-blog the Oscars! And tonight I am your man. Me and the Oscars are oldest pals. Obsessive-compulsively, I’ve watched every supercast from start to stop since 1988, when Eddie Murphy handed out the Best Picture award to The Last Emperor. I was ten.
I used to love the bloody Oscars. In junior high, I read that 1000-page book Inside Oscar from cover to cover. Back in my school days, you could ask me who won what when and, like a teenage Raymond Babbitt, I could tell you. (“Who was Best Supporting Actress in 1972, Greg-Greg?” “Eileen Heckart, Butterflies are Free. DEFINITELY Butterfliesarefree!”)
The Oscars started getting less lovable around 1999 or so, right around when they started running that deadly fashion pre-show. I hate dresses, so now I only like the Oscars, but my charge tonight is to stuff this live-blog full of love. You won’t hear me complaining about the thing going on forever; I dig long award shows!
If I’m gonna win the EW Oscar pool, Little Miss Sunshine needs to go all the way in this, the hardest year of all time when it comes to picking the Best Picture winner. EW.com’s panel of experts (a.k.a. all my bosses) has Babel and The Departed running head to head, with Lil Miss coming in third, but I dunno—feels to me like Little Miss Sunshine night. I think The Departed is too violent for the old folks, and besides they’ll give Best Director to Scorsese. But I wonder if Babel and Little Miss’ll split the anti-Departed vote, and end up pushing The Departed through to victory. Babel? I don’t know. I liked it, but most everybody I know hates it. Then again, most everybody I know hated Crash too. It’s a nail-biter!
Let's blog!
8:30 p.m. And so Errol Morris begins the night. The doc-maker interviewed a bunch of the nominees against a nice white background. First up: Peter O’Toole. WOW, HE LOOKS SO OLD. I'm giving up drinking right now. And then dozens of nominees—no idea who most of them are—follow. The audience chuckles. Nicely clipped together! Much better than that sketchy penguins thing that opened the pre-show, but not as good as the first time Billy Crystal inserted himself into scenes from the Best Picture nominees. That was back in 1997. See? I know Oscars!
8:35 p.m. And the first standing ovation of the night goes to—everyone! The announcer salutes the nominees, they salute each other. I wince a little bit: This is the most nakedly self-congratulatory we've ever seen the Oscars get.
8:36 p.m. Ellen takes over, in a wine-red pantsuit. Mom’s in the crowd.
8:37 p.m. Ellen can’t believe she’s hosting the Oscars. I can’t believe she’s hosting the Oscars either, but she did an ace job with the post 9/11 Emmys. “It’s my job to relax you… to make you forget that it’s a make or break night, for you,” she tells the audience. She talks about the billion people watching, and keeping the speeches short. She also invites people to make stuff up: “Tell ‘em you lived in your car—ooh, they love that.” She is not killing yet.
8:42 p.m. Ellen’s nice. Too nice. “Hi Leonardo Di Caprio,” she says. “I don’t have a joke. I just thought the ladies wanted to look at him for a second.” Oof. That’s about where this opening monologue is at.
8:43 p.m. Somebody throws Ellen a tamborine. Nooo! A church choir sings and claps up and down the halls. This is going badly. And that’s it? Time for the first award!
8:45 p.m. The first award is for Art Direction? No Supporting Actor or Actress? That’s killing me. Pan's Labyrinth wins it. I am already losing the Oscar pool!
8:48 p.m. Maggie Gyllenhaal brings us news of “the brumagic densitometer” and the science and awards dinner. They’re really hooking us in this year, aren’t they?
8:01 p.m. That was a pretty weak Happy Feet-Little Miss Sunshine mashup, no?
8:03 p.m. Who writes Chris Connelly's painful voiceovers? "A-list asylum"? "Amid all the glam what-am that makes this night fun"? Uff-da.
8:04 p.m. News you can use: Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts spend their BFF time barbequing.
8:06 p.m. Andre Leon Talley declares that Jennifer Hudson is the new "people's princess."
8:08 p.m. I love that both Patricia Field's hair and gown are the color of cherry-pie filling.
8:13 p.m. Abigail Breslin is so freakin' cute right now. Don't you love that she looks like an actual kid in her pink-checked dress, not a creepy child-bot?
8:15 p.m. Andre Leon Talley: I'm bringin crazy back! (Yeah!)
8:18 p.m. Eddie Murphy saves a zzzzz-inducing interview by responding to Lisa Ling's question about his favorite Eddie Murphy film: "I like 'em all! I even like Pluto Nash!"
8:20 p.m. Cate Blanchett deserves an Oscar just for making me believe she has any idea what Andre Leon Talley is talking about. I think he said she belted a horse? Wha?
8:22 p.m. I really wish Connelly had skipped the dull questions for Mark Wahlberg and just said: "Donnie D on the backup! Drug-free, so put the crack-up! No need for speed, I'm anti-d-r-u-g-g-i-e, my body's healthy, my rhymes make me wealthy, and the funky Bunch helps me! To bring you a show with no intoxication! So feel the vibrations!" But of course, he did not.
8:24 p.m. I gotta say, as much as I rag on Ryan and Giuliana, their show's a helluva lot more entertaining than ABC's.
8:27 p.m. Why are they showing random runway footage while Andre Leon Crazy rattles off a list of the night's best gowns and their designers? Random!
5:59 p.m. Just a thought before the red-carpet circus begins: Don't you kind of wish E! would make better use of Ryan Seacrest's American Idol connection? Like how about letting viewers call in and vote for their favorite gowns and tuxes, and then, at 7:58 p.m., the two lowest-scoring male and female celebrities could be unceremoniously ejected from the Kodak Theatre in a torrent of taffeta and tears? Cruel, yes, but riveting! "We're sorry, Miss Dion, but your jacket is on backwards. This kind of tom-foolery will not be tolerated."
6:00 p.m. Okay, they're opening the telecast with Fergie's addictive "Glamorous," maybe this telecast won't be totally annoying.
6:02 p.m. I think we've already seen the winner of the night's Most Hostile Pre-Show Moment. Ryan Seacrest cuts to Ellen DeGeneres backstage, and she can barely contain her impatience when he asks her how she's doing. "Good, Ryan. [Sigh.] Kinda busy. I'm in here getting ready for the show. Pretty good, thanks for asking. How are you doin'?" And as Ryan tells Ellen he's good, her disgust bubbles over, she shakes her head, grumbles, "Back to you," and walks off camera. Let's hope her mood improves in the next two hours. Yikes!
6:08 p.m. Ryan compliments Giuliana's shoulder blades.
6:10 p.m. E! style guru/Top Model coach/hair-gel addict Jay Manuel introduces the "glam-istrator," a football-style pen the hosts will use to zero-in on fashion highlights.
6:13 p.m. Ryan endears himself to Maggie Gyllenhaal by telling her she's "still the most famous person on the red carpet" when she hears cheering behind her, then delights boyfriend Peter Sarsgaard by publicly pushing him to propose to the mother of his child. "Hopefully you'll set the date soon. Peter, Come on! A little pressure buddy!"
6:18 p.m. Ryan rattles off a series of Oscar-related numbers without mentioning the number 23.
6:20 p.m. Ryan asks The Queen star Michael Sheen if there's "a dirty side to Helen Mirren," then tells Giuliana how much the actor looks like Tony Blair. Anyone else think the first time Ryan saw the British Prime Minister was in the Oscar-nominated movie?
6:22 p.m. Ryan says he's 5'9", 140 pounds. I seriously don't think he's that tall.
6:23 p.m. A moment of truth from E!'s Debbie Matenopoulos: "I do not eat. I'm tired of women lying." We believe it!
6:24 p.m. Ryan's entire interview with Gael Garcia Bernal consists of questions about Brad Pitt. This, despite the fact that the Babel co-star has never met Angelina's hubby. Nice!
6:30 p.m. Ever informed, Ryan asks John Singleton, "You don't have anything up for a nomination, do you?" Then -- newsflash! -- reveals Martin Scorsese has never won an Oscar.
6:31 p.m. "There's nothing like a girl in a strapless gown!" blathers Mr. Jay. How come he and Giuliana are showing old awards-show footage when, um, the Oscar red-carpet is happening RIGHT THIS MINUTE? Also, why is Giuliana dressed like an extra from Conan the Barbarian?
6:36 p.m. Al Gore is speaking but all I'm hearing are Jennifer Hudson's gold shoulder-wings in the background behind him.
6:37 p.m. I'm so sure Ryan just asked if Al and Tipper hang with Leo and Cameron.
6:39 p.m. There's something unseemly about Jay Manuel drawing an arrow on Portia de Rossi's derriere and saying the word "badonka-donk."
6:41 p.m. "I'll speeeeak slooooowwwwly," Ryan tells Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi (nominated for Babel) as he interviews her on the red carpet. This dude is annoying in every language.
6:47 p.m. Jay Manuel is scribbling on J.Hud's "wings." Yes, they're hideous, but that's beside the point. "You, and you, and you -- you're gonna love them!"
6:50 p.m. Nobody wants to hear you say the Oscars are too self-important, Marc Anthony! Let the J.Lo speak!
6:52 p.m. Why does Ryan feel it's okay to use this forum to ask J.Lo if she's pregnant? Even if he's asking her surreptitiously?
6:53 p.m. "I dyed 'em special," says Jodie Foster when Ryan tells her how nicely her eyes match her dress. I love that she's fantasizing about sneaking out of the ceremony so she can go home and watch the good parts of the telecast on her Tivo, with a pizza.
6:55 p.m. I'm no fashionista, but I love that Penelope Cruz is wearing a crazy pink furry gown that completely puts her at risk for morning-after mockery -- but looks amazingly stupendously awesome. Thank you, Penelope, for not playing it safe. And also for not wearing golden winglets.
'Tis the season when pop-culture pundits start compiling best and worst lists in every conceivable category, and we here at EW.com certainly aren't immune. Right now, we're working on a list of the Worst Style Moments of 2007, and because we 
So Mark Wahlberg, you're coming off an Academy Award-nominated turn in The Departed, and you follow it up with... the sniper-on-the-run action vehicle 
In much the same way as a trip to Taco Bell guarantees you indigestion, taking a musical journey with Meat Loaf guarantees you a whole gordita's worth of bombast. And on that count, "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be," Loaf's new duet with recent Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (
Poor, adorable Abigail Breslin. She was the belle of the ball on Oscar night, even though she didn't win a trophy. So many people were rooting for her — but not her Little Miss Sunshine costar Alan Arkin, the cranky mofo. Didja hear what the Best Supporting Actor winner told Access Hollywood on the red carpet? He said 
While a majority of stars were basking in Oscar glory in sunny California, a number celebrities on the East coast braved a heavy snowfall to attend EW's 13th annual Academy Awards viewing party at New York City's famed Upper East Side restaurant, Elaine's. 
Now it is time to live-blog the Oscars! And tonight I am your man. Me and the Oscars are oldest pals. Obsessive-compulsively, I’ve watched every supercast from start to stop since 1988, when Eddie Murphy handed out the Best Picture award to The Last Emperor. I was ten.
