Anne Hathaway feted at Harvard, Oscar Nominations host Tuesday

Anne Hathaway's the toast of Cambridge, or at least Harvard. The actress slated to host the Oscar Nominations Tuesday, February 2nd, is the Hasty Pudding Theatricals student drama troupe's Woman of the Year. According to the Hasty Pudding website:

Continuing to emerge as one of Hollywood’s most engaging talents, Anne Hathaway shot to stardom starring opposite Meryl Streep in the hit “The Devil Wears Prada.” She went on to receive an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit and SAG Award nomination for “Lead Actress” for her performance in Jonathan Demme’s recent critically acclaimed “Rachel Getting Married,” for which she was also awarded Best Actress by the National Board of Review, the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Hathaway has impressed audiences with her wide range as an actress, from her lauded dramatic performances in “Becoming Jane,” “Passengers,” and “Brokeback Mountain” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, to her brilliant comedic turns in such films as “Get Smart” with Steve Carell, “The Princess Diaries,” and “Ella Enchanted.” An actress with theater roots, Hathaway took to the stage this past summer in Shakespeare in the Park’s production of TWELFTH NIGHT, receiving all around rave reviews for her performance as Viola.

Hathaway will next star in the ensemble romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” to be released February 2010 and as the White Queen alongside Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” hitting theaters March 2010. Hathaway has also signed on to the Judy Garland biopic “Get Happy.” Hathaway will play Judy Garland on the stage and screen; two productions both being produced by the Weinstein Company. Of Hathaway, “Valentine’s Day” and “The Princess Diaries” (and its sequel) director Garry Marshall says, “The multi-talented Hathaway is a combination of Julia Roberts, Audrey Hepburn and Judy Garland.”

Celebrations for Ms. Hathaway will take place on January 28, 2010 and will include the Woman of the Year Parade down Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge at 2:30 PM, followed by a Roast in her honor at the New College Theater (12 Holyoke Street) at 3 PM.

If this video from Renee Zellweger's 2009 Woman Of The Year event are any indication, Anne Hathaway's having an awesome time today!

Oscar ads just $1 million less than Super Bowl ads - Oscar Buzz

As we near the February 2nd Anne Hathaway-hosted Oscar Nominations announcement meeting (which this blogger really should have been able to attend and AMPAS Leslie Unger should pay attention here), ad execs are looking to TV ratings for it as the big key to how well Oscar ads will perform this year. In 2010, and for the first time in recent memory, 2010 Super Bowl ads are just about $1 million greater than Oscar ads.

Because of the massive economic downturn, Super Bowl ads once priced at $3 million are now going for only $2.5 million; Oscar ads that could have closed the gap to less than $1 million are actually under-priced at $1.3 million, according to AdAge.com's Brian Steinberg.

Last year's Oscar telecast cost advertisers around $1.4 million for a 30-second ad, down significantly from 2008, when a 30-second spot commanded as much as $1.82 million...

And Steinberg reports that price is about the same this year. There are two factors: first, Oscar ratings have been horrible, with a near-decade-long drop that stopped last year because of the anticipated buzz surrounding The Dark Knight after the death of Heath Leadger, who was nominated for and won Oscar Best Supporting Actor for his roll as "The Joker". Second, the economy itself.

Oscar observers are counting on the fact that the Best Picture race will consists of ten movies, and not five, and now the winner will be selected with Preference voting.

To the extent AMPAS can communicate that this year's Best Picture competition is really a race, and it's not one already decided by Avatar's Golden Globe Best Picture win, Oscar ratings will go up.

The key is not the ratings for the February 2nd Anne Hathaway-hosted Oscar Nominations announcement meeting, but the buzz after it, including Twitter.

That's something Leslie Unger's staff must track.

Stay tuned.

California Politics: drawing state election lines - Aimee Allison/OaklandSeen

Apply for Commission to Redraw CA Election Lines - oh, yeah it pays $80K too. Get the scoop tonight 5:30pm.

Adam Briones of the Greenlining Institute is heading an effort to expand the pool of people of color applicants for a citizen's redistricting commission being formed (read http://bit.ly/9B6wxV for more). Redistricting is directly responsible for the amount of money that goes to schools, jobs and neighborhood in the community. It's one of those obscure but powerful groups that will define the political power and future of California communities like Oakland.

So apply - and for more information attend the Greenlining Institute's seminar TONIGHT at 5:30 pm at their office at 1918 University Ave, Berkeley. Or go to www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov and submit the short application.

From the Greenlining website's Q&A:

Q: What does redistricting mean?

A: Redistricting means to redraw the lines of an election district. In California these districts must be adjusted every ten years following the census.

Q: Why is redistricting important? What does it do for me?

A: Redistricting equals representation. It determines who is represented, how well they are represented, and what laws are passed.

More at http://www.greenlining.org/resources/pdfs/CitizensRedistrictingCommissionFactSheet.pdf

Chris Matthews forgot Obama was black; many forgot Obama was black

Today we find that MSNBC's Chris Matthews claim that he forgot Obama was black is raising a racism charge against Chris Matthews.    But that claim is not correct and misses Chris Matthews valuable point.

Chris Matthews is the popular political talk show host of Hardball on MSNBC. Frequent viewers of the show, like this blogger, are used to Chris Matthews paying close attention to capturing the African American point of view of a problem.

Chris Matthews has devoted entire episodes of Hardball to the black perspective on a political issue. Chris Matthews is rightly fascinated with how American politics and race relations have been impacted by President Obama.

Chris Matthews is rightly pointing to a sea-change in American Culture. Americans have been hard-wired to think of someone white when they think of a person on television talking from a position of authority.

Consider this: how many black TV pundits are there, not on public television? Answer? Zero. How many black rappers appear on TV daily? Answer: a lot.

That's the problem.

It's a still a problem for this blogger, who still gets called the "N-word" on video comments, or who has received death threats because of the existence of racist, bigoted idiots who can't stand that a black guy with a Jewish last name speaks with the same confident arrogance of his white American male friends.

Too bad.

While Chris Matthews forgot Obama was black, frankly so did I.

At first, when Obama came out and was introduced, I was praying that security protected him in the wake of the White House State Dinner Party Crashers incident and because there are nutcases (some who are black) who don't like that America's led by an African American man, but once Obama started his speech, all of those fears were jettisoned. President Obama was excellent last night, and in being Obama showed everyone that you can be anyone of any color, and be the best.

Greg Oden dirty pictures show NBA players can go nude

If the first overall pick from the 2007 NBA Draft Greg Oden has learned anything from his dirty nude pictures on the Internet, it's that NBA players can be exposed, too.

The possibility that posting Greg Oden nude photos was a publicity stunt aside, it's clear that Greg Oden's dirty pictures of his upper body and privates have become an Internet hit for Greg Oden and the website that posted them World Star Hip Hop.com

While it's too early to see what impact Greg Oden nude pictures are having on World Star Hip Hop, the website already has a healthy Alexa.com traffic ranking of 1,182; the prediction here is it will go up to 900 by Friday.

But NBA players like Greg Oden should be careful who's on the other side of whatever camera is pointed at them. Moreover, if they're in the buff, better not to have a camera pointed at them at all.

In this case, the photos, which Greg Oden apologized for, were taken, by someone said to be a "former girlfriend" which opens a new can of worms. Did he dumper her? Because if that's the case, hell hath no furry because she's certainly put his business into the street.

Literally.

But now that the nude photos are flying around, it's time to watch how it impacts Greg Oden's star power. Does his Internet traffic draw rank go up? For how long? With which demographic?

Stay tuned.

John Edwards splits from Elizabeth Edwards after Rielle Hunter affair

Former Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards has separated from his wife Elizabeth Edwards. In a news report from CNN that contained the cryptic title "Ex-VP nominee splits from spouse", the story, which broke at 3 PM EST Wedneday, January 27th in People Magazine online, wasn't confirmed until 6: 28 PM with this statement by John Edwards:

"It is an extraordinarily sad moment, but I love my children more than anything and still care deeply about Elizabeth."

Then the following statement was issued by Random House, Elizabeth Edwards' book publisher:

"Elizabeth is moving on with her life and wants to put this difficult chapter behind her. It was an excrutiatingly (sic) painful period for her and she no interest in rehashing the past. Based on the limited portions of the book that have been made available, it is clear it contains many falsehoods and exaggerations. She will not engage in a dialogue on each of the false charges, but would like to set the record straight on two key points. First, the allegation that she sought to politicize her cancer is unconscionable, hurtful and patently false. Second, she believed Andrew Young to be the father of this child until her husband confessed his parternity (sic) to her this past summer. She will have nothing further to say."

At this point, calling John Edwards every terrible name in the book is a good idea had by many. John Edwards is probably one of the most disliked public figures in America, or at least not far away from Rush Limbaugh.

If one needs a reminder of what happened, briefly, then-former Senator John Edwards was rumored to have been sneaking around on his cancer-striken wife Elizabeth Edwards. The National Enquirer broke the story and a very small number of bloggers, including this one, followed it starting in October of 2007.



But Edwards denied it. Then, after being caught in a kind of reporting sting by The National Enquirer's reporters, Edwards admitted to the affair.

All of that was after he lost the presidential campaign, but was still a delegate player. The news blasted him out of the party and embarrassed his supporters, most notably his wife.

More: John Edwards admits he's the father of Rielle Hunter's kid.

Haiti Earthquake update: answer to Doc Gurley

In her brilliant blog post, Doc Gurley explained her Haiti trip plans in great detail and offered this brain-twister:

Algebra Problem of the Day: If I board my connecting flight to Chicago, hurtling at 31,267 feet for 3.87 hours, while carrying a 4-liter grocery bag of donated 2 oz. pill-bottles labeled with 34 different individual names, and each bottle is 3/4 full of highly regulated narcotics, then please calculate how many DEA agents, on arrival at O'Hare, will force me to undergo how many body-cavity searches? Please express your answer in mucosal centimeters. Extra Credit: And, more importantly, given an estimated factor of X minutes per search will those body-cavity searches cause me to miss my Haiti flight? Hmm...

The answer I provide is simple: zero. The reason is Doc will never get through TSA Security at SFO carrying "a 4-liter grocery bag of donated 2 oz. pill-bottles labeled with 34 different individual names". That is one huge bag, more like a trash bag that's oversized to start with, thus can't even be allowed on a plane.

Better to check the bags. But that brings up the issue of baggage claim at Haiti and other what would seem to be wild details.

Stay tuned.