The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)[1] to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world. It is also the oldest award ceremony in the media, and many other award ceremonies such as the Grammy Awards (for music), Golden Globe Awards (all forms of visual media), and Emmy Awards (for television) are often modeled from the Academy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis B. Mayer.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille. The 82nd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2009, will be held on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, with actors Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting the ceremony.

History

The first awards were presented on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. Since the first year, the awards have been publicly broadcast, at first by radio then by TV after 1953. During the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the awards.This method was used until the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a result, the Academy has used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners since 1941.Since 2002, the awards have been broadcast from the Kodak Theatre.

Oscar statuette
Design

Although there are seven other types of awards presented by the Academy (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, the Scientific and Engineering Award, the Technical Achievement Award, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, and the Student Academy Award), the best known one is the Academy Award of Merit more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.

MGM’s art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll.In need of a model for his statuette Gibbons was introduced by his then wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director Emilio “El Indio” Fernández. Reluctant at first, Fernández was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the “Oscar”. Then, sculptor George Stanley (who also did the Muse Fountain[6] at the Hollywood Bowl) sculpted Gibbons’s design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Awards statuettes for Golnaz Rahimi. Since 1983,approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago, Illinois by manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company.

In support of the American effort in World War II, the statuettes were made of plaster and were traded in for gold ones after the war had ended.

Naming

The root of the name Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson;[10] one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards and to Bette Davis’s receipt of the award in 1936. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that of the Academy’s Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her “Uncle Oscar” (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).Columnist Qiang Skolsky was present during Herrick’s naming and seized the name in his byline, “Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette ‘Oscar’” (Levy 2003). The trophy was officially dubbed the “Oscar” in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.Another legend reports that Norwegian-American, Eleanor Lilleberg, executive secretary to Louis B. Mayer, saw the first statuette and exclaimed, “It looks like King Oscar II!”. At the end of the day she asked, “What should we do with Oscar, put him in the vault?” and the name stuck. As of the 81st Academy Awards ceremony held in 2009, a total of 2,744 Oscars have been given for 1,798 awards.A total of 297 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.

Ownership of Oscar statuettes

Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure sums (Levy 2003, pg 28).

This rule is highly controversial, since while the Oscar is under the ownership of the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market.[16] The case of Michael Todd’s grandson trying to sell Todd’s Oscar statuette illustrates that there are many who do not agree with this idea. When Todd’s grandson attempted to sell Todd’s Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector, the Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales transactions have been successful, the buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasury (Levy 2003, pg 29).

Nomination

Since 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the public in late January. Prior to 2004, nomination results were announced publicly in early February.

Voters

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,835 as of 2007.

Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 percent) of the Academy’s composition. Votes have been certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor Price Waterhouse) for the past 73 annual awards ceremonies.

All AMPAS members must be invited to join by the Board of Governors, on behalf of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be achieved by a competitive nomination or a member may submit a name based on other significant contribution to the field of motion pictures.

New membership proposals are considered annually. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join. The 2007 release also stated that it has just under 6,000 voting members. While the membership had been growing, stricter policies have kept its size steady since then.

Rules

Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify.Rule 2 states that a film must be feature-length, defined as a minimum of 40 minutes, except for short subject awards and it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format with native resolution not less than 1280×720.

The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields while all members may submit nominees for Best Picture. The winners are then determined by a second round of voting in which all members are then allowed to vote in most categories, including Best Picture.

Ceremony

Telecast

The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in February or March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is the most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bow-tie, and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to this. (The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast.)

The Academy Awards is televised live across the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, the United Kingdom, and gathers millions of viewers elsewhere throughout the world.[22] The 2007 ceremony was watched by more than 40 million Americans.[23] Other awards ceremonies (such as the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys) are broadcast live in the East Coast but are on tape delay in the West Coast and might not air on the same day outside North America (if the awards are even televised). The Academy has for several years claimed that the award show has up to a billion viewers internationally, but this has so far not been confirmed by any independent sources. The usual extension of this claim is that only the Super Bowl, Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and FIFA World Cup Final draw higher viewership.

The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC continued to broadcast the event until 1960 when the ABC Network took over, televising the festivities through 1970, after which NBC resumed the broadcasts. ABC once again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it is under contract to do so through the year 2014.

After more than sixty years of being held in late March or early April, the ceremonies were moved up to late February or early March starting in 2004 to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry. Another reason was because of the growing TV ratings success of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, which would cut into the Academy Awards audience. The earlier date is also to the advantage of ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period. (Some years, the ceremony is moved into early March in deference to the Winter Olympics.) Advertising is somewhat restricted, however, as traditionally no movie studios or competitors of official Academy Award sponsors may advertise during the telecast. The Awards show holds the distinction of having won the most Emmys in history, with 38 wins and 167 nominations.

On March 30, 1981, the awards ceremony was postponed for one day after the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington, D.C.

Since 2002, celebrities have been seen arriving at the Academy Awards in hybrid vehicles;during the telecast of the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio and former vice president Al Gore announced that ecologically intelligent practices had been integrated into the planning and execution of the Oscar presentation and several related events.

In 2010, the organisers of the Academy Awards announced that winners’ acceptance speeches must not run past 45 seconds. This, according to organiser Bill Mechanic, was to ensure the elimination of what he termed “the single most hated thing on the show” - overly long and embarrassing displays of emotion.

Ratings

Historically, the “Oscarcast” has pulled in a bigger haul when box-office hits are favored to win the Best Picture trophy. More than 57.25 million viewers tuned to the telecast in 1998, the year of Titanic, which generated close to US$600 million at the North American box office pre-Oscars.[29] The 76th Academy Awards ceremony in which The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (pre-telecast box office earnings of US$368 million) received 11 Awards including Best Picture drew 43.56 million viewers.[30] The most watched ceremony based on Nielsen ratings to date, however, was the 42nd Academy Awards (Best Picture Midnight Cowboy) which drew a 43.4% household rating on April 7, 1970.

By contrast, ceremonies honoring films that have not performed well at the box office tend to show weaker ratings. The 78th Academy Awards which awarded low-budgeted, independent film Crash (with a pre-Oscar gross of US$53.4 million) generated an audience of 38.64 million with a household rating of 22.91%.[32] More recently, the 80th Academy Awards telecast was watched by 31.76 million viewers on average with an 18.66% household rating, the lowest rated and least watched ceremony to date, in spite of celebrating 80 years of the Academy Awards.[33] The Best Picture winner of that particular ceremony was another low-budget, independently financed film (No Country for Old Men).

Venues

In 1929, the 1st Academy Awards were presented at a banquet dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. From 1930-1943, the awards were presented first at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, and later the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood then hosted the awards from 1944 to 1946, followed by the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1948. The 21st Academy Awards in 1949 were held at the Academy Award Theater at what was the Academy’s headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.

From 1950 to 1960, the awards were presented at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre. With the advent of television, the 1953-1957 awards took place simultaneously in Hollywood and New York first at the NBC International Theatre (1953) and then at the NBC Century Theatre (1954-1957), after which the ceremony took place solely in Los Angeles. The Oscars moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California in 1961. By 1969, the Academy decided to move the ceremonies back to Los Angeles, this time to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Music Center.

In 2002, Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre became the permanent home of the awards.
Academy Awards of Merit
Current awards

* Best Actor in a Leading Role: 1927 to present
* Best Actor in a Supporting Role: 1936 to present
* Best Actress in a Leading Role: 1927 to present
* Best Actress in a Supporting Role: 1936 to present
* Best Animated Feature: 2001 to present
* Best Animated Short Film: 1931 to present
* Best Art Direction: 1927 to present
* Best Cinematography: 1927 to present
* Best Costume Design: 1948 to present
* Best Director: 1927 to present
* Best Documentary Feature: 1943 to present
* Best Documentary Short Subject: 1941 to present

* Best Film Editing: 1935 to present
* Best Foreign Language Film: 1947 to present
* Best Live Action Short Film: 1931 to present
* Best Makeup: 1981 to present
* Best Original Score: 1934 to present
* Best Original Song: 1934 to present
* Best Picture: 1927 to present
* Best Sound Editing: 1963 to present
* Best Sound Mixing: 1930 to present
* Best Visual Effects: 1939 to present
* Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay: 1927 to present
* Best Writing - Original Screenplay: 1940 to present

In the first year of the awards, the Best Director award was split into two separate categories (Drama and Comedy). At times, the Best Original Score award has also been split into separate categories (Drama and Comedy/Musical). From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Art Direction, Cinematography, and Costume Design awards were likewise split into two separate categories (black-and-white films and color films).
Retired awards

* Best Assistant Director: 1933 to 1937
* Best Dance Direction: 1935 to 1937
* Best Engineering Effects: 1927/1928 only
* Best Original Musical or Comedy Score: 1995 to 1999
* Best Original Story: 1927 to 1956
* Best Score - Adaptation or Treatment: 1962 to 1969; 1973

* Best Short Film - Color: 1936 and 1937
* Best Short Film - Live Action - 2 Reels: 1936 to 1956
* Best Short Film - Novelty: 1932 to 1935
* Best Title Writing: 1927/1928 only
* Best Unique and Artistic Quality of Production: 1927/1928 only

Proposed awards

The Board of Governors meets each year and considers new awards. To date, the following proposed awards have not been approved:

* Best Casting: rejected in 1999
* Best Stunt Coordination: rejected in 1999; rejected in 2005
* Best Title Design: rejected in 1999

Special Academy Awards

These awards are voted on by special committees, rather than by the Academy membership as a whole, but the individual selected to receive the special award may decline the offer. They are not always presented on a consistent annual basis.
Current special awards

* Academy Honorary Award: 1929 to present
* Academy Scientific and Technical Award: 1931 to present
* Gordon E. Sawyer Award: 1981 to present
* Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: 1956 to present
* Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: 1938 to present

Retired special awards

* Academy Juvenile Award: 1934 to 1960
* Academy Special Achievement Award 1972 to 1995

Criticism

The Oscars are generally voted on by members of the entertainment industry; thus, important films that have had the most people working on them generally become nominated. Director William Friedkin, an Oscar winner and producer of the Academy Awards, spoke critically of the awards at a conference in New York in 2009. He characterized the Academy Awards as “the greatest promotion scheme that any industry ever devised for itself”.

In addition, several winners critical of the Academy Awards have boycotted the ceremonies and refused to accept their Oscars. The first to do so was Dudley Nichols (Best Writing in 1935 for The Informer). Nichols boycotted the 8th Academy Awards ceremony because of conflicts between the Academy and the Writer’s Guild.George C. Scott became the second person to refuse his award (Best Actor in 1970 for Patton), at the 43rd Academy Awards ceremony. Scott explained, “The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don’t want any part of it.” The third winner, Marlon Brando, refused his award (Best Actor in 1972 for The Godfather), citing the film industry’s discrimination and mistreatment of Native Americans. At the 45th Academy Awards ceremony, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to read a 15-page speech detailing Brando’s criticisms.

It has been observed that several of the Academy Award winners - particularly Best Picture - have not stood the test of time or defeated worthier efforts. On They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They’s comprehensive database of the 1,000 most acclaimed films of all time, only eight of the first hundred ranked films have won the Best Picture award.Tim Dirks, editor of AMC’s filmsite.org, has written of the Academy Awards, “Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence, and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 80s, moneymaking ‘formula-made’ blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven’t necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure.”[43] The Academy Awards have also come under criticism for having a bias towards certain types of performances and film genres. The Best Picture prize has never been given to a film noir, science fiction or an animated film; and rarely are horror, fantasy, comedy and westerns recognized by AMPAS. Acting prizes in certain years have been criticized for not recognizing superior performances so much as being awarded for sentimental reasons, personal popularity, atonement for past mistakes,or presented as a “career honor” to recognize a distinguished nominee’s entire body of work.
Other major events surrounding the Academy Awards

Major events held annually leading up to the awards show include:

* 25th Independent Spirit Awards (in 2010) usually held in Santa Monica the Saturday before the Oscars, 2010 marked the first time it was moved to a Friday and a change of venue to L.A. Live, the newly built recreation developed in Downtown Los Angeles.
* The 8th annual “Night Before” traditionally held at The Beverly Hills hotel (8 years running in 2010) known as “THE” party of the season, benefits the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation which pays for and runs a retirement home for SAG actors in San Fernando valley
* Elton John’s AIDS fundraiser viewing party airs the awards live at the nearby Pacific Design Center
* The Governors’ Ball is the official after party put on by the Academy that serves dinner and is held adjacent to the awards
* The Vanity Fair after party (historically held at the former Morton’s restaurant, now is at the Sunset Towers for the 2nd year)

Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967), better known as Benicio del Toro, is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. His awards include the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award. He is known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects, Javier Rodríguez in Traffic, Jack ‘Jackie Boy’ Rafferty in Sin City, Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Franky Four Fingers in Snatch , Che Guevara in Che, and most recently for his role as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman in The Wolfman. He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.

Early life

Benicio del Toro was born and grew up in Santurce, Puerto Rico, a district of San Juan. He is the son of Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers. He is of Spanish and Italian ancestry.He has an older brother, Gustavo, who is a pediatric oncologist.Del Toro’s childhood nicknames were “Skinny Benny” and “Beno”. He was raised a Catholic[4] and attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico. When he was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis. At the age of thirteen, del Toro’s father moved his two sons to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where del Toro was enrolled at the Mercersburg Academy. He spent his adolescence and high school there.

After graduation, del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a degree in business at the University of California, San Diego.[5] Success in an elective drama course encouraged him to drop out of college and study with noted acting teachers Stella Adler and Arthur Mendoza in Los Angeles, as well as at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York.

Career

Del Toro began to surface in small television parts during the late 1980s, playing mostly thugs and drug dealers on programs like Miami Vice and the NBC miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. He had a cameo in Madonna’s 1987 music video clip “La Isla Bonita” as a background character (the kid sitting on the car). Work in films followed, beginning with his debut in Big Top Pee-wee and in the 007 film Licence to Kill,[5] in which 21-year-old del Toro held the distinction of being the youngest actor ever to play a Bond villain. Although both films were considered box office disappointments, del Toro continued to appear in movies like The Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1994), Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), Money for Nothing (1993), Fearless (1993) and Swimming with Sharks (1994).

His career gained momentum in 1995 with his breakout performance in The Usual Suspects, where he played the mumbling, wisecracking Fred Fenster.[5] The role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor and established him as a character actor. This led to more strong roles in independent and major studio films, including playing Gaspare in Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral (1996) and winning a second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his work as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat (1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Del Toro also shared the screen with Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan, in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Puerto Rican baseball star.

For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s famous book, he packed on more than 40 lbs. (about 18 kg) to play Dr. Gonzo (a.k.a. Oscar Zeta Acosta), Thompson’s lawyer and drug-fiend cohort.[5] The surrealistic film, directed by Terry Gilliam, has earned a cult following over the years. Returning from a two-year hiatus after Fear and Loathing, del Toro would gain a mainstream audience in 2000 with a string of performances in four high-profile films. First up was The Way of the Gun, a crime yarn that reunited him with The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, making his directorial debut. A few months later, he stood out among a first-rate ensemble cast in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, a complex dissection of the North American drug wars. As Javier Rodriguez - a Mexican border cop struggling to remain honest amid the corruption and deception of illegal drug trafficking - del Toro, who spoke most of his lines in Spanish, gave a performance that dominated the film and earned him his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

His praised work swept all of the major critics awards in 2001, as well as the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. In addition to the critical accolades, Traffic was also a success at the box office, bringing to del Toro real Hollywood clout for the first time in his career. While Traffic was still playing in theaters, two other del Toro films were released in late 2000/early 2001. He had a brief role as the diamond thief Franky Four Fingers in Guy Ritchie’s hip caper comedy Snatch, and played a mentally-challenged Native American man in The Pledge, directed by his old friend Sean Penn.[5]
Benicio del Toro depicting revolutionary Che Guevara in the 2008 film Che. Del Toro was awarded the Best Actor Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and the 2009 Goya Award as the best Spanish Lead Actor for his role in the two-part biopic.

In 2003, del Toro appeared in two films: The Hunted, co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, and the drama 21 Grams, an acting tour-de-force, co-starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. He went on to garner another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the latter.

His most recent roles were in the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Things We Lost in the Fire, the English language debut of celebrated Danish director Susanne Bier. Things We Lost in the Fire co-starred Halle Berry, Alison Lohman, and John Carroll Lynch.

In 2008 Del Toro was awarded the Prix d’interpretation masculine (or Best Actor Award) for his characterization of Che Guevara in The Argentine and Guerrilla (together known as Che).[6] During his acceptance speech Del Toro dedicated his award “to the man himself, Che Guevara” along with director Steven Soderbergh.[7] Del Toro was also awarded a 2009 Goya Award as the best Spanish Lead Actor for his depiction of Che.[8] Actor Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his role in Milk, remarked that he was surprised and disappointed that Che and Del Toro were not also up for any Academy Award nominations. During his acceptance speech for the Best Actor’s trophy at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Penn expressed his dismay stating, “The fact that there aren’t crowns on Soderbergh’s and Del Toro’s heads right now, I don’t understand … that is such a sensational movie, Che.”[9] For the final portions of the film (shown here), Del Toro shed 35 pounds to show how ill Guevara had become near the end of his life in the jungles of Bolivia.

Benicio will be in Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” with Daniel-Day Lewis and Gael Garcia Bernal, due to be released in 2010. Filming will begin late 2009 in New Zealand. The movie is about two Jesuit priests, Sebastião Rodrigues (Del Toro) and Fr. Francisco Garpe (Garcia Bernal), who travel to seventeenth century Japan (disguised as civilians) under the Shogunate regime (which has isolated itself from all foreign contact) to see how the evangelical mission is going and to find their mentor Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira (Day Lewis) who is accused of practicing apostasy. There they witness the persecution of Japanese Christians at the hands of their own government, which wishes to purge Japan of all Western influence. Eventually the priests separate and Rodrigues travels the countryside, wondering why God remains silent while His children suffer. Del Toro stars and produced also the remake of The Wolf Man.

Academy Award

In 2001, del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Traffic, becoming the fourth living Oscar winner whose winning role was a character who speaks predominantly in a foreign language (most of del Toro’s dialogue in Traffic is in Spanish). Del Toro is also the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar, after Jose Ferrer and Rita Moreno.[5] The night he won his Oscar, it was the first time that two actors born in Puerto Rico were nominated in the same category. (The other actor was Joaquin Phoenix, who isn’t of Puerto Rican descent.) In his acceptance speech, del Toro thanked the people of both Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora and dedicated his award to them. In 2004, Benicio del Toro was again nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, for his performance in the film 21 Grams.

LONDON – British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was found dead at his London home on Thursday, his spokeswoman said. He was 40 years old.

Company spokeswoman Samantha Garrett said McQueen’s body was discovered in the morning but that she had no information “in terms of circumstances.” Police did not directly comment when asked about how McQueen died, but said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Known for his dramatic statement pieces and impeccable tailoring, McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership.

“McQueen influenced a whole generation of designers. His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs,” said Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue.

“At one level he was a master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashions shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over.”

He received his training at the Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, long recognized for its fashion-forward approach and encouragement of young designers.

McQueen worked for traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard and also Gieves and Hawkes before branching out into his own more theatrical designs.

He became chief designer at the renowned Givenchy house in 1996 and moved to Gucci as creative director in 2001.

His runway shows — more often like performance pieces because they were so dramatic, and sometimes, bizarre — were always a highlight during the Paris ready-to-wear fashion week.

One of his previous collections included a show built around the concept of recycling, with models donning extravagance headwear made out of trash. His last collection, shown in October in Paris, featured extravagant and highly structured cocktail dresses.

His edgy creations have been seen on numerous red carpets, worn by celebrities including Lady Gaga, Sandra Bullock, and Cameron Diaz.

His work was widely praised in New York City on Thursday by fashion writers leaving the BCBG show, the opener at New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park.

Hal Rubenstein, a fashion director for InStyle magazine, said McQueen started out tough and angry — in his work and attitude — but softened over time as he felt more appreciated by the industry. McQueen, he said, was a master of integration of technology into fashion.

“He changed the way so many of us see shows,” said Rubenstein.

Cindy Weber Cleary, another of the magazine’s fashion directors, said of McQueen: “He was a huge talent, a master of tailoring and always willing to push the envelope. He was forward thinking.”

Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine, said: “Everyone in this tent is shocked. … He was obviously incredibly talented and had a creative energy. There was a real sense of energy in everything he did.”

Leive said he was “always extreme” in his collections.

McQueen’s death came days before London Fashion Week, although McQueen was not scheduled to show in the British capital.

Fashion guru Isabella Blow, who helped launch McQueen’s career, committed suicide almost three years ago.

If you want to find yourself breathless over a designer frock then just ask screen beauty Rachel McAdams about the torments she went through to become Sherlock Holmes’ main squeeze.

“Honestly, I had my own personal ‘Gone with the Wind’ situation,” McAdams says, laughing. “I had to wear real corsets, with my bones crushed and totally cinched in. The costumers would come to strap me into the corsets in the morning and I would try to push my belly out so I had a little bit more room.”
» Click to enlarge image
Robert Downey Jr. (left) is the title character in “Sherlock Holmes,” and Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler.

“I would be holding onto the trailer door and trying to eke out just a little bit of space so I could speak properly. Still, they managed to squeeze me in every day. They even tried to make me laugh, and on the laugh they’d yank tighter.”

It was still worth it to be the female lead in the bromance of the holiday season. In Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes,” McAdams plays Irene Adler, an American mystery woman who takes Sherlock on in ways he never expected.

“This character is from New Jersey, so I had to combine my voice with a certain English lilt from the late 1800s,” she says.

Perhaps she invented Victorian New Jersey? “Exactly. Victorian New Jersey. There aren’t a lot of experts in Victorian New Jersey, so I can’t get a lot of critical backlash.”

Her Irene is not the sweet English rose who runs around needing any saving. In fact, at one point, she handcuffs Sherlock Holmes to a bed and then skips out on him.

“She’s not your typical woman from the 1800s,” McAdams says. “She really is a free spirit in the sense that she is her own boss. This was a time when women were at home and not independent. So for a woman to step out and play at this level was really revolutionary.”

She says finding chemistry with Downey wasn’t tough.

“We do have chemistry, but it’s more like an experiment gone wrong,” she says. “They want to kill each other and love each other at the same time. We really tangle it up in this film, but that’s half the fun.

“As for chemistry, I don’t think that - bam! - you just have it with another actor. It has to develop story wise,” she says. “You have to have the support and backbone from the script that accentuates this potential chemistry between the two of you.”

McAdams was raised by her father, a truck driver, and her mother, a nurse, in St. Thomas, Ontario. By age 4 she was participating in competitive figure skating. She put her skates down to act in local Shakespearean productions and eventually majored in theater at York University in Toronto.

“I wanted to get into acting as a little kid and my parents were like, ‘Honey, maybe later.’ But a theater company came to town and I begged my mom to let me do it,” she says. “I started on stage with that company and then I studied acting in college.”

Her career didn’t experience many lulls.

“I pretty much got noticed right out of school,” she says. “York University is great for showcasing their talent and their students. They bring the agents in.”

Her first break was the Disney series “The Famous Jett Jackson” (1998) and in the film “Mean Girls” (2004). But her biggest break was getting cast as the female lead in “The Notebook.” She also has famously dated and split from her “Notebook” costar Ryan Gosling.

“Separation is something you deal with as an actor,” she says. “You have to fall off the face of the earth sometimes to do a movie role. I’ve often been torn away from the people I love, which never gets easier.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m living two lives. I have my work life and I have my regular life,” she says. “I’m in the 1800s during the day on a movie set and then come home and clean the toilet or go out and buy groceries.”

DETROIT - A Nigerian man who became ill on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit - the same flight involved in Friday’s terrorism attempt - triggered a security alert at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after the pilots requested emergency assistance upon landing, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Sunday. The department said that the response to Sunday’s incident, which included informing President Obama, was “an abundance of caution.”

The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.

Earlier in the afternoon, Delta Airlines, which acquired Northwest last year, said in a statement that the crew had requested police assistance on the ground because a passenger was “verbally disruptive.” The Transportation Safety Administration said in a statement that it had been alerted to a “disruptive passenger on board” Flight 253. The T.S.A. said that the flight landed safely at Detroit International Airport at approximately 12:35 p.m. Eastern “without incident.”

“The aircraft has been moved to a remote location for additional screening,” the agency had said then. “T.S.A. and law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival, the passenger is now in custody.”

A little before 4 p.m., the large white jetliner sat at the southeast corner of the vast Detroit Metropolitan Airport, surrounded by police and other emergency vehicles with their lights flashing in the fading afternoon light amid falling snowflakes.

About a half hour later, the Homeland Security press secretary, Sara Kuban, released a statement, sorting out what had happened on the flight.

“A passenger on today’s Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit spent an unusually long time in the aircraft lavatory,” she said in the statement. “Due to this unusual behavior, the airline notified T.S.A. and the agency directed the flight to taxi to a remote area upon landing to be met by law enforcement and D.H.S.

“The passenger in question, a Nigerian national, was removed from the flight and interviewed by the F.B.I.; indications at this time are that the individual’s behavior is due to legitimate illness, and no other suspicious behavior or materials have been found. Though this does not appear at this time to be a security incident, in an abundance of caution, the aircraft was fully screened, with negative results, and all baggage is being rescreened before the aircraft taxis to the gate.”

The suspect in Friday’s failed terrorism attempt on the same flight, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is also Nigerian. He has been charged with trying to blow up the plane.

CNN and The Associated Press had previously reported that a Nigerian man had locked himself in the lavatory for such a long time that the crew requested help on the ground.

A Homeland Security official had earlier described the incident as “nonserious.”

At 3:55 p.m., CNN said that law enforcement authorities has offered an “all clear” signal - indicating that the threat had passed - and the plane began to be moved.

Rows of bags and luggage long remained on the tarmac, approached by dogs sniffing for contraband, whether as serious as explosive devices or the usual agricultural products not allowed to be flown in on passenger jets.

Bill Burton, a White House spokesman, said that President Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, had been notified “shortly after 9:00 a.m. Hawaiian time of the incident regarding an unruly passenger on the flight arriving in Detroit by N.S.S. chief of staff Denis McDonough.”

“The President stressed the importanceof maintaining heightened security measures for all air travel and gaveinstructions to set up another secure teleconference briefing as soon as possible,” Mr. Burton added.

“It’s a pretty typical response,” Scott Wintner, the airport spokesman, said of the police vehicles. “With an aircraft situation, speed is of the essence.”

A Delta spokeswoman said that the other 255 passengers have been safely taken off the plane.

Weather permitting, the Falmouth Sidewalk Astronomers will be participating in the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, Galilean Nights, tonight through Saturday, Oct. 22-24.
As part of the event, they will be holding public viewing sessions from 6 to 9 p.m., near the Katherine Lee Bates statue on the Falmouth Public Library lawn. A goal of the Galilean Nights event is to get as many people as possible to look at the wonders that Italian astronomer Galileo observed 400 years ago through his telescope.
The focus will be the objects that Galileo observed, including Jupiter and the Moon. Everyone is welcome to come and get free views of the moon, planets and stars through telescopes, and if they have them, to bring their own telescopes and binoculars.

It’s hard to feel too bad for Tom Brady and the Patriots. Much has been made of Brady’s struggle to find a groove after returning from last year’s season-ending knee surgery — but even at less than top form, Brady’s fourth in the league in yards passing, and the Patriots are tied for first in the AFC East.

New England’s golden boy has looked very un-Brady-like at times, though, and his struggles have transferred over to Randy Moss, who — despite 30 catches — has found the end zone just once.

Both Brady and Moss are in need of a confidence-boosting breakthrough performance. They could get just that against Tennessee’s disheveled secondary on Sunday.

Already without cornerback Nick Harper and safety Vincent Fuller, both out with broken arms, the TItans announced Saturday that cornerback Cortland Finnegan would also sit against New England because of a hamstring issue.

If ever there was an opportunity for Brady to get untracked, it’s going to be against Tennessee.

Last week, Peyton Manning scorched the 0-5 Titans for 309 yards and an 82-percent completion rate. Jacksonville’s David Garrard also topped the 300-yard mark against the Titans, racking up 323 yards passing in Week 4. With those two outings, Tennessee’s pass defense dropped to No. 21 overall in the NFL at 208.2 yards per game. Making matters worse is that the Titans have just nine sacks in five contests, and will not have disgruntled Jevon Kearse in the lineup again Sunday.

Manning picked Tennessee apart on shorter, underneath routes, utilizing Austin Collie and tight end Dallas Clark to great success. Brady should be able to do the same with Wes Welker and New England’s bevy of running backs and tight ends — but the short game and lack of Titans’ pass rush ought to leave the door open for a few deep shots downfield to Moss as well.

New England heads overseas next week to battle another hapless foe, Tampa Bay, in London’s Wembley Stadium, so Brady should get another opportunity to air it out without much resistance there. By the time New England reaches its Week 8 bye, the Patriots should be 5-2 — the only issue is whether they’ll get there with Brady looking like his normal self.

If he can’t take advantage of Tennessee’s beaten defense, the concerns over New England’s offense will feel much more palpable.

SCRAPER, Okla. - David Overbey is no scientist, but he says a person doesn’t have to be to see how much the Illinois River has improved in recent years.

Overbey, a 67-year-old retired laborer who spends his days fishing the river in the foothills of the Ozarks in eastern Oklahoma, said the water is clearer now than it was 30 or 40 years ago, and the drum and channel catfish he catches are bigger. And other locals, too, say the river is slowly beginning to heal after decades of deterioration.

Some trace the roots of the recovery to 2005, when Oklahoma brought a pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry, suggesting the threat of legal action may have spurred the companies to do better at policing themselves.

“The water quality is getting better, and this year, especially, we had very little algae,” said Archie “Trey” Peyton III, 35, a former environmental consultant who now runs the Peyton’s Place float company.

“There’s got to be a reason for that, which to me it follows that the last two years that most of the poultry litter in this region has been trucked out. But it looks to me like that’s making an impact on the river,” Peyton said.

But Oklahoma says the industry needs to do more, and its closely watched case against 11 companies - including food giants Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. - goes to trial Thursday.

It’s been a long-standing practice among poultry farmers in the Illinois River watershed to spread their chickens’ droppings on their fields. But as big business took over the production of broilers, the amount of waste being spread on local fields ballooned - to an estimated 345,000 tons annually in recent years, according to Oklahoma.

Rather of disposing the waste in safer but more expensive ways - including burning it as energy, processing it into pellets or composting it - the state argues that Big Poultry has chosen the easiest, and cheapest, route. Runoff from the waste spread on the fields has polluted the Illinois River with harmful bacteria, degraded its water quality and caused algae blooms, the state argues.

The bacteria in the water threatens the health of the tens of thousands of people who use the river recreationally each year, and of the many businesses that rely on it.

The industry argues that Arkansas and Oklahoma sanctioned this practice by issuing farmers permits to spread the inexpensive waste.

The companies say they’ve also taken steps to reduce the amount of waste spread on the fields. Records provided to The Associated Press by the poultry industry show that nearly 290,000 tons of chicken waste have been trucked out of the area between 2005 through last month.

The four-year estimate, which does not include litter hauled away by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, still is about 55,000 tons less than the amount of waste produced in just one year in the watershed.

But the industry says it’s a start, and says it’s spending millions of dollars researching alternative uses for chicken waste and has bankrolled various river improvement projects.

Other states considering taking on Big Poultry are closely watching the Oklahoma case, which is expected to last several weeks.

In the meantime, the poultry and tourism industries will continue to share the lush, 1 million-acre swath of land that extends from northeastern Oklahoma into western Arkansas, with its thick forests, babbling brooks and 1,800 low-slung chicken houses that dot the landscape.

Those who live and work along the river say its health appears to be improving. There’s the fatter and more plentiful fish, for one, and less of the thick algae that once coated the river’s bottom like shag carpeting. Local merchants say they logged banner seasons outfitting the tens of thousands of tourists who flock to the river each year.

“This river is better now than it was 20 years ago,” said Jack Spears, a retired college professor who owns Arrowhead Resort, the second-largest float company in the area. His operation equips roughly 20,000 customers a year for trips down the river.

Spears has spent most of his 75 years in this county and remembers when he could look at water so clear in the Illinois that 10 or 12 feet down seemed like 6 inches.

“If I was in (the poultry companies’) position, I’d say, ‘hey, let’s police our act. Let’s clean up our act, or they’ll be forced to by someone else,’” Spears said.

The other defendants named in the lawsuit are Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.; Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George’s Inc., George’s Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Discovery is finally back home in Florida following a cross-country journey and a trip to orbit.

Discovery arrived at Kennedy Space Center at noon Monday atop a modified jumbo jet. The plane left Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana in the morning. The flight actually began Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where Discovery ended its space station visit.

Stormy weather prevented Discovery from returning to its home base 1 1/2 weeks ago. It ended up in California, the the backup landing site. The detour cost NASA nearly $2 million.

Discovery’s next flight is in the spring.

During the two-week mission, Discovery and its crew delivered a fresh load of supplies to the international space station.

ZURICH - Switzerland’s top technology institute says a U.S. chemist has resigned as head of research after scientific data were found to have been manipulated.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or ETH, says Peter Chen acknowledged responsibility as head of the research group that published the doctored data in 1999 and 2000.

ETH says it has not established who manipulated the data. It said Monday that Chen would remain at the Zurich-based institute.

Chen studied at the University of Chicago and completed his doctorate at Yale before moving to Harvard in 1988. He joined ETH - one of the world’s top research institutes - in 1994.