February 4th - February 11th,2010

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Clock Keeps Ticking!

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An Oscar Field worthy of it's own award.

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ABC News - AP Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock are early favorites to win Oscars in the top acting categories at the Academy Awards, oddsmakers said Tuesday.

MTV - The 27-year-old actor's Jeep careened off a Wisconsin highway and he was thrown from the vehicle. By Eric Ditzian Former "Boston Legal" actor Justin Mentell has died, according to a multiple press reports and the actor's personal Web site.

NY Times - The pop star Taylor Swift found that it was not easy to hang on to her haul of four awards, including album of the year, at the Grammys on Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

LA Times - The network doesn't have to cut its rates to unload the last spots for Sunday's big game. Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan will star in Volkswagen's Super Bowl commercial.

The Clock Keeps Ticking!: WASHINGTON — Iran has taken steps to blunt possible future global and US sanctions, notably seeking out new sources of gasoline in China and Venezuela, the top US intelligence official said Tuesday. US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told key lawmakers that Tehran was "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons" but that existing sanctions had harmed the Islamic republic's struggling economy. But "Iran has made contingency plans for dealing with future additional international sanctions by identifying potential alternative suppliers of gasoline -- including China and Venezuela," said Blair. "Tehran also has

resorted to doing business with small, non-Western banks and dealing in non-US currency for many financial transactions," he told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing on global threats to US interests. Blair said Iran's opposition press had reported Iranian forces were involved in smuggling in crude oil "as a way of both skirting and profiting from sanctions. "Despite these activities and Iran's gasoline subsidy cuts, which could in part serve to mitigate some effects of the embargo, we nonetheless judge that sanctions will have a negative impact on Iran's recovery from its current economic slowdown," he said. His comments came as the US Congress weighed a sweeping package of sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to freeze its suspect nuclear program, including steps meant to hurt Tehran's ability to import refined petroleum goods like gasoline. The United States and its Western allies fear Iran is secretly developing fissile material for nuclear weapons under the cover of its uranium enrichment program -- a charge denied by Tehran. As a close ally of Iran with oil interests in the country, China -- a permanent member of the UN Security Council -- is reluctant to support sanctions.

Mediabistro - Nelson Lewis has accepted the Senior Producer position of the Laura Ingraham Show beginning February, 1st. Lewis has worked in the weekend booking unit of the Fox News Channel ... (Nelson will be a guest on The Southern Star Network Feb.20)

An Oscar Field Worthy Of It’s Own Award: LA Times - With about 24 hours of distance from, and clarity on, the Oscar nominations, it's as refreshing as a glass of lemonade to find that the choices look as diverse and sprightly as they did in the bleary hours of Tuesday morning. It's not just that nearly every major genre -- the action epic, the coming-of-age love story, the science-fiction saga, the uplifting drama, the dark drama, the cartoon romp and the war movie -- is represented but that the best examples of the form made the cut. That's clear from the triumph of "District 9" over "Star Trek," but it's true right on down the line, with "Up," "Precious" and pretty much every nominee with an (inferior) analogue, including "Blind Side" over its less worthy inspirational-sports-movie counterpart, "Invictus." Some argue that the extra five slots mean little, a chance for the academy to make a naked play for viewers.

But there's something to be said for simply making sure -- in a way that's organic, not name checking -- that films that are executed well get their best picture due regardless of genre, just as the academy (mostly) used to do, before it went all dark and niche and ignored entire categories. And that's exactly what the group did this year. Even those who rolled their eyes at "The Blind Side" were hard-pressed, when pressed, to come up with a convincing alternative."The Hangover" is probably the best counterexample. And it's a fun movie. But it's not a perfect comedy even by its own standards, more anarchic and outrageous. Besides, the academy is always going to adhere a little to tradition, and a story of a spitfire woman fighting an intractable social problem follows in the footsteps of "Erin Brockovich" and other worthy films. You need to look a lot harder to find an Oscar precedent for "The Hangover." Comedies are hard, say its defenders. And they are. But playing hockey is hard too, yet you won't see Alexander Ovechkin making any acceptance speeches at the Kodak.) It's not fashionable to react to an Oscar announcement with an absence of complaining. Which is why some are intent on keeping the kvetching alive. Most of the movies that round out the bottom five, bray the naysayers, have a snowball's chance in Fiji of actually winning. (That's actually true. The voting system works such that you need a broad consensus of voters, not just die-hards, to capture the top prize, so even if a few hundred academy members are moved to vote for "District 9" as their No. 1 choice, the film won't win.) So why, they say, did the academy even bother? The race that will unfold in the next few weeks is no different from the race in any previous years between a couple of elite films. But the fact that the bottom five face long odds only validates that the Oscars are doing something right. No one is saying "The Blind Side" should be singled out as best movie of the year, just that it deserves to take its place among that field. From the other side, there are also those who want the academy to embrace populism but who complain that this version of populism is misguided. One critic friend noted that the ghosts of "The Dark Knight" and "Wall-E" are angry today, hovering above "The Blind Side," wondering, "This is what we died for?" But this seems like a clever exercise in selective reasoning. "The Blind Side" may be heartfelt and sincere (i.e., not a typical academy movie), but it's basically a perfect example of the form. Which pretty much echoes what defenders of "The Dark Knight" said -- yes, it's a superhero movie with flying villains and cars that turn into motorcycles (i.e., not a typical academy movie), but it's basically a perfect example of the form. When it comes to including the best movies of the year, a well-done film is a well-done film. You can't pick your populism. by steven zeitchik

Obama pitches aid for struggling small businesses: NASHUA, New Hampshire - President Barack Obama's bid to sell his economic agenda and re-energize voters picks up in politically significant New Hampshire, where he is again promoting an idea to free up money for small businesses that are hurting. Obama's trip to New Hampshire comes two weeks after Democrats suffered the stunning loss of a Senate seat in neighboring Massachusetts that had been held for decades by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Democratic Party stalwart. The president is working to shore up his party's

standing this year to avoid heavy losses in the House of Representatives and the Senate in November's national elections. "Jobs will be our No. 1 focus in 2010," Obama said in excerpts from his prepared remarks, which the White House released early. "And we're going to start where most new jobs do-with small businesses. These are companies that begin in basements and garages when an entrepreneur takes a chance on his dream, or a worker decides it's time she became her own boss." The $30 billion in loan financing would come from money repaid by big banks that were helped by the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the vastly unpopular bailout for those on Wall Street some of whose actions led to the economic downturn. That $30 billion would be used to create the Small Business Lending Fund, separate and distinct from TARP. "When you look at what's causing the problem, the problem is that small community banks might lack capital, and how are we going to get them to send money out to small businesses," Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills told reporters traveling with Obama aboard Air Force One. The fund would be open to banks with assets of $10 billion or less. About 8,000 such small and community banks would be eligible.