Academy Award

By Hugh Hart Hugh Jackman's song and dance kicked off the 81st Annual Academy Awards Show, which quickly got down to business when Penelope Cruz (pictured below, right) picked up Best Supporting Actress Award for her role as Javier Bardem's insanely fiery ex-lover Maria Elena in Vicky Cristina Bar...

By Hugh Hart Additionally, box office champ The Dark Knight is up for art direction, cinematography, film editing, makeup, visual effects and sound editing and mixing. Director David Fincher's Benjamin Button has 13 nominations, and Danny Boyle's Slumdog has a total of 10.

By Hugh Hart Despite the Academy's longstanding bias against popcorn flicks, Ledger is expected to win the Best Supporting Actor trophy Sunday. (The Academy also managed to toss six technical category nominations in the direction of Christopher Nolan's Batman epic.)

By Scott Thill When a screamingly popular film is snubbed for the Best Picture Oscar but some of its principals are nominated for individual Academy Awards, it usually means only one thing. They're going to win them. Until it does, the Oscar is his to lose.