Paula Abdul Verifies X Factor Exit

Paula Abdul And also the housekeeping continues: Paula Abdul is departing The X Factor.Shake-up in the X Factor: Steve Johnson and Nicole Scherzinger out"Yes, it's correct I will not be coming back towards the X Factor next season," Abdul stated inside a statement Tuesday."I have learned through my durability within this industry that business choices frequently occasions override personal factors. Simon [Cowell] and that i, together with Fox and Fremantle, happen to be interacting relating to this for some time now, and that i have absolute knowledge of the problem.Simon is, and can remain a dear friend and I have treasured my experience working earlier this season with my relatives at Fox and Fremantle. I would like simply for that X Step to exceed All their craziest dreams.This truly is a blessing and i'm most grateful."Abdul's exit occurs the heels of host Steve Jones' and select Nicole Scherzinger's departures, that have been introduced Monday, with what is turning to be considered a massive overhaul for that Fox series. Only Cowell and L.A. Reid remain."I wish to say an enormous thanks to Paula, Nicole and Steve for being a member of The X Factor this past year," Cowell stated inside a statement. "We'd an enjoyable experience making the show together and importantly, we found some real talent and stars. You need to do develop relationships using the people you train with and Paula, particularly, is an extremely good friend and that i be prepared to work together with her on another project soon. I am sure the 3 will have massive success in the things they're doing next, but this is the time by way of thanking all of them for everything they did this past year."Added Mike Darnell, Fox's leader of alternative entertainment: "We like Paula. Sheis a amazing talent and that we appreciate all her contributions. We are lucky that they is an element of the Fox family, and that we anticipate dealing with her again soon."Steve Johnson weighs in at in around the good and the bad of hosting The X FactorCowell introduced Abdul aboard towards the X Factor after acknowledging he skipped dealing with her on The American Idol Show, but Abdul didn't sign her contract before the day auditions began in La. Abdul seemed to be the very first judge to determine all her final functions removed in the competition.It's not yet been determined who'll fill the vacant slots for Season 2, that will premiere within the fall. Exactly what do you think about Paula's exit? Who would you like to see on the program?

Pilot Season: ABC Builds up Three More Comedy Aircraft aircraft pilots

ABC logo design design ABC has acquired comedy aircraft aircraft pilots depending on how to reside in Along With Your Parents for your Relaxation from the Existence, Only Fools & Horses plus an untitled project from Due Date's Adam Sztykiel. The best way to Live concentrates on a recently divorced, single mom who moves in along with her eccentric parents who've no restrictions. Accidentally on Purpose's Claudia Lonow created the project and may work as executive producer alongside John Grazer and Francie Calfo. Have the latest news on all the pilot pick-ups here Using the legendary British series, Only Fools & Horses tales the misadventures of two streetwise brothers and sisters in addition to their aging grandfather. The trio concoct crazy and morally questionable get-wealthy-quick schemes inside their mission being riches. Happy Being and Scrubs scribes Steven Cragg andBrian Bradley will write the pilot. The Sztykiel project can be a raw look behind the curtain of recent 20-something associations. Sztykiel will write and co-executive-produce. Sean Perrone and Aaron Kaplan will executive-produce. ABC formerly acquired comedy aircraft aircraft pilots The Manzanis, White-colored Van Guy, Counter Culture, the untitled Serta Fogelman project together with a Kari Lizer comedy.

Giovanni Ribisi on Playing Villains and Ways to Tell Stories

Giovanni Ribisi on Playing Villains and Ways to Tell Stories By Jenelle Riley January 11, 2012 Photo by Sebastian Piras From all appearances, Giovanni Ribisi is a really nice guy. He's polite and soft-spoken and can talk at length about the importance of values and family. He's described by co-stars as a dedicated and generous actor. He insists on paying for lunch. So why is he so good at playing such vile characters onscreen?When asked this, Ribisi laughs good-naturedly. "I don't know; it's a funny question," he says. "Maybe I'm so nasty onscreen, I get it out of my system." He takes it as a compliment that one interview described his "Avatar" character, corporate slimeball Parker Selfridge, as "the world's biggest douchebag." But in his new film "Contraband," Ribisi's lowlife drug trafficker Tim Briggs makes Selfridge look like a Boy Scout. Adorned with menacing tattoos on his face and body, Briggs sports a scruffy goatee and hair slicked back with God only knows what. Briggs would just as soon run into someone with a truck than bother to talk things out, and he isn't above inflicting violence on women and children to make his point. Though the star of the movie is Mark Wahlberg as a smugglerturnedfamily man lured back into one last heist, Ribisi's loathsome villain steals the film. Ribisi almost talked himself out of the role. When Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormkur set out to adapt his 2008 hit "Reykjavik-Rotterdam" for American audiences, he asked Ribisi to audition. "I said I would love to meet with him, but I couldn't read for it because it was going to take time to prepare the character," Ribisi says. "If you had another actor familiar with this type of experience, maybe they could come in and do a read. But I would like to build this from the ground up." Ribisi was a little surprised when he got the call to do the film. "He really put his trust in me," he says. "And it went from there." Briggs was originally written as a more physically intimidating specimena "bigger, more oafish" sort. "I felt like I had seen that before," Ribisi says, "and didn't want to do something clich. I wanted somebody who was a little bit more severe in all aspectshis violence, his intellect, where he comes from."When the actor arrived in New Orleans for the shoot, he set about finding Briggs' voice. He worked on the accent with dialect coach Carla Meyer, who helped form the alien language in "Avatar," and used recordings from Tim Monnich, who worked with Leonardo DiCaprio on "Blood Diamond." Adds Ribisi, "But the most helpful thing is when you find an individual who has your accent and you can record it. It can take days, weeks, monthsbut when you find the right guy, you do everything you can to get them to read the script." In this case, Ribisi found his right guy in a bar. The stranger agreed to record his dialogue on a tape recorder for him. Before shooting began, Ribisi tried out his character in public, complete with the accent and 18 tattoos. "It was interesting because I'm not the biggest, most muscular guy on the planet, but I saw what a psychological thing it was to walk as this guy," he says. "And people definitely crossed the street when they saw me like that." Early Influences Ribisi has been acting for more than 30 years. He was born into an artistic family; his father was a member of the one-hit-wonder band People!, which had a hit song in 1968 called "I Love You," and his mother was an artist who became a manager and now represents actors such as Jason Lee and Elisabeth Moss. Ribisi describes his household as having a "hippie mentality" and encouraging the arts, though he says he was never pushed into acting. Rather, when he was 4 he began begging his mother to let him go on auditions. "About five years later, she finally acquiesced and we went looking for an agent," he says. Ribisi says he believes he began booking roles pretty quickly, not because of his talent but because of a lack of competition. "Back then, there really weren't as many child actors, so it was kind of in demand," he says.Ribisi says he was just having fun at first, not thinking of acting as a career. After appearances on such series as "Married With Children" and a recurring role on "My Two Dads," Ribisi went through a rebellious phase during which he didn't want to act anymore. "You know how it is when you're 13 or 14," he elaborates. "I was trying to figure out who I was, and I didn't like being forced to wear certain things and told what to do." Then he met aspiring filmmaker Lightfield Lewis, brother of actor Juliette Lewis, who introduced him to a whole new world of actors. "He showed me the films of Marlon Brandospecifically 'Streetcar Named Desire'and Laurence Olivier, and all these people I'd never heard of," Ribisi says. "And I began to see things in a different light. I began to see acting as something that might be a potential challenge and worthy of working towards something." So at 16, after years of working in the business, Ribisi decided he wanted to be an actor. His first step was to find an acting class. A family friend recommended Milton Katselas of the Beverly Hills Playhouse. "I ate it up," Ribisi says. "I don't know what happened; there was a light that turned on in me, and I just became devoted to that. Milton was like a second father to me; he was such an intelligent, perceptive person." Ribisi credits Katselas, who died in 2008, with teaching him to embrace the audition process. "I hated it; it was so nerve-racking and odd," he says. "But while studying with Milton, my mentality changed so that I looked at it as an opportunity to get to do what I love, which is act."Role Call As Ribisi was about to enter his 20s, he wanted to move away from television and get into film. "It was a time when people like Quentin Tarantino were really stretching the boundaries of film," he says. "And I sort of got this attitude that I wouldn't do television; I didn't care if I was homeless. Luckily, I got a movie, so that didn't happen." The film was "The Grave," and the then-19-year-old Ribisi played a convict on a chain gang who had three lines, one being "Hey, man." His biggest break came a couple of years later, when Richard Linklater was adapting Eric Bogosian's play "SubUrbia" for the big screen. "I went in and auditioned, and they said no," Ribisi says. "And Milton had said to me that the auditioning process was not over until you say it's over. So I basically begged and convinced them to see me, to give me five minutes of their time. They were already in NY, so I took the last $800 I had in my bank account, and I bought a ticket." Ribisi says he stayed up all night, pacing the aisles of his red-eye flight, working on the scene. After his second audition, he was told he got the part.A variety of roles followed, and Ribisi seemed to never repeat his work. Highlights included playing the sensitive medic in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," scoring an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "The Gift," and last year's adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel "The Rum Diary," with Johnny Depp. A fan of Thompson and Depp, Ribisi had a great time making the film and says the late Thompson maintained a presence on the set. "There was a chair that had 'Hunter Thompson' on it on set, with a bottle of Scotch and a cigarette holder," Ribisi says. "It was there every day. We would be up in the mountains; that chair would be there." Of course, there was "Avatar," the highest-grossing movie of all time. Perhaps most interesting about Ribisi's involvement is that it didn't end with his performance. A few years back, Ribisi had taken a break from acting to study computer graphics at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. In 2008, he formed a small visual effects company called Stereo D. When "Avatar" director James Cameron's company, Lightstorm Entertainment, was looking for houses to convert a shot from "Avatar" to 3-D, it contacted several companies. "We delivered five versions of the shot in 24 hours," Ribisi says. "Other companies were taking a week to do one version." Cameron, unaware that one of his stars was involved with the company, hired Stereo D to convert several more shots. "It was one of my proudest moments," Ribisi says. "I've since moved on, but the company remains, and it's actually doing the 3-D conversion on 'Titanic.' " Lest anyone think Ribisi wasn't hands-on, he personally spent hours converting the shots. "The first shot we converted is one of the first things you see in the movieit's Sam Worthington's eyeball," he reveals. "I can officially say he has 53 lashes on his bottom left eye." Ribisi has more interests on the other side of the lens; he recently directed a music video for Cat Power's "King Rides By," featuring boxer Manny Pacquiao. He's directing a film about youth culture and skateboarding with Steve Berra and Eric Koston, the founders of the private skate park The Berrics. But Ribisi says he will never leave acting behind. "My focus has always been on film, and I'll participate in different ways," he says. "I just want to be a part of telling great stories." Outtakes Other films include "Cold Mountain," "Middle Men," and "Lost in Translation" also made memorable appearances on "Friends" as Phoebe's brother and "My Name Is Earl" opposite his good friend Jason LeeSays his most difficult role was in the 2002 Tom Tykwer film "Heaven," in which Ribisi had 12 days to learn to speak Italian and was dealing with a lot of stress in his personal life. As a result, he has not seen the final film: "From what I hear, it's a good movie; I'm just not ready."Has two French bulldogs, Mona and Abuela Giovanni Ribisi on Playing Villains and Ways to Tell Stories By Jenelle Riley January 11, 2012 PHOTO CREDIT Sebastian Piras From all appearances, Giovanni Ribisi is a really nice guy. He's polite and soft-spoken and can talk at length about the importance of values and family. He's described by co-stars as a dedicated and generous actor. He insists on paying for lunch. So why is he so good at playing such vile characters onscreen?When asked this, Ribisi laughs good-naturedly. "I don't know; it's a funny question," he says. "Maybe I'm so nasty onscreen, I get it out of my system." He takes it as a compliment that one interview described his "Avatar" character, corporate slimeball Parker Selfridge, as "the world's biggest douchebag." But in his new film "Contraband," Ribisi's lowlife drug trafficker Tim Briggs makes Selfridge look like a Boy Scout. Adorned with menacing tattoos on his face and body, Briggs sports a scruffy goatee and hair slicked back with God only knows what. Briggs would just as soon run into someone with a truck than bother to talk things out, and he isn't above inflicting violence on women and children to make his point. Though the star of the movie is Mark Wahlberg as a smugglerturnedfamily man lured back into one last heist, Ribisi's loathsome villain steals the film. Ribisi almost talked himself out of the role. When Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormkur set out to adapt his 2008 hit "Reykjavik-Rotterdam" for American audiences, he asked Ribisi to audition. "I said I would love to meet with him, but I couldn't read for it because it was going to take time to prepare the character," Ribisi says. "If you had another actor familiar with this type of experience, maybe they could come in and do a read. But I would like to build this from the ground up." Ribisi was a little surprised when he got the call to do the film. "He really put his trust in me," he says. "And it went from there." Briggs was originally written as a more physically intimidating specimena "bigger, more oafish" sort. "I felt like I had seen that before," Ribisi says, "and didn't want to do something clich. I wanted somebody who was a little bit more severe in all aspectshis violence, his intellect, where he comes from."When the actor arrived in New Orleans for the shoot, he set about finding Briggs' voice. He worked on the accent with dialect coach Carla Meyer, who helped form the alien language in "Avatar," and used recordings from Tim Monnich, who worked with Leonardo DiCaprio on "Blood Diamond." Adds Ribisi, "But the most helpful thing is when you find an individual who has your accent and you can record it. It can take days, weeks, monthsbut when you find the right guy, you do everything you can to get them to read the script." In this case, Ribisi found his right guy in a bar. The stranger agreed to record his dialogue on a tape recorder for him. Before shooting began, Ribisi tried out his character in public, complete with the accent and 18 tattoos. "It was interesting because I'm not the biggest, most muscular guy on the planet, but I saw what a psychological thing it was to walk as this guy," he says. "And people definitely crossed the street when they saw me like that." Early Influences Ribisi has been acting for more than 30 years. He was born into an artistic family; his father was a member of the one-hit-wonder band People!, which had a hit song in 1968 called "I Love You," and his mother was an artist who became a manager and now represents actors such as Jason Lee and Elisabeth Moss. Ribisi describes his household as having a "hippie mentality" and encouraging the arts, though he says he was never pushed into acting. Rather, when he was 4 he began begging his mother to let him go on auditions. "About five years later, she finally acquiesced and we went looking for an agent," he says. Ribisi says he believes he began booking roles pretty quickly, not because of his talent but because of a lack of competition. "Back then, there really weren't as many child actors, so it was kind of in demand," he says.Ribisi says he was just having fun at first, not thinking of acting as a career. After appearances on such series as "Married With Children" and a recurring role on "My Two Dads," Ribisi went through a rebellious phase during which he didn't want to act anymore. "You know how it is when you're 13 or 14," he elaborates. "I was trying to figure out who I was, and I didn't like being forced to wear certain things and told what to do." Then he met aspiring filmmaker Lightfield Lewis, brother of actor Juliette Lewis, who introduced him to a whole new world of actors. "He showed me the films of Marlon Brandospecifically 'Streetcar Named Desire'and Laurence Olivier, and all these people I'd never heard of," Ribisi says. "And I began to see things in a different light. I began to see acting as something that might be a potential challenge and worthy of working towards something." So at 16, after years of working in the business, Ribisi decided he wanted to be an actor. His first step was to find an acting class. A family friend recommended Milton Katselas of the Beverly Hills Playhouse. "I ate it up," Ribisi says. "I don't know what happened; there was a light that turned on in me, and I just became devoted to that. Milton was like a second father to me; he was such an intelligent, perceptive person." Ribisi credits Katselas, who died in 2008, with teaching him to embrace the audition process. "I hated it; it was so nerve-racking and odd," he says. "But while studying with Milton, my mentality changed so that I looked at it as an opportunity to get to do what I love, which is act."Role Call As Ribisi was about to enter his 20s, he wanted to move away from television and get into film. "It was a time when people like Quentin Tarantino were really stretching the boundaries of film," he says. "And I sort of got this attitude that I wouldn't do television; I didn't care if I was homeless. Luckily, I got a movie, so that didn't happen." The film was "The Grave," and the then-19-year-old Ribisi played a convict on a chain gang who had three lines, one being "Hey, man." His biggest break came a couple of years later, when Richard Linklater was adapting Eric Bogosian's play "SubUrbia" for the big screen. "I went in and auditioned, and they said no," Ribisi says. "And Milton had said to me that the auditioning process was not over until you say it's over. So I basically begged and convinced them to see me, to give me five minutes of their time. They were already in NY, so I took the last $800 I had in my bank account, and I bought a ticket." Ribisi says he stayed up all night, pacing the aisles of his red-eye flight, working on the scene. After his second audition, he was told he got the part.A variety of roles followed, and Ribisi seemed to never repeat his work. Highlights included playing the sensitive medic in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," scoring an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "The Gift," and last year's adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel "The Rum Diary," with Johnny Depp. A fan of Thompson and Depp, Ribisi had a great time making the film and says the late Thompson maintained a presence on the set. "There was a chair that had 'Hunter Thompson' on it on set, with a bottle of Scotch and a cigarette holder," Ribisi says. "It was there every day. We would be up in the mountains; that chair would be there." Of course, there was "Avatar," the highest-grossing movie of all time. Perhaps most interesting about Ribisi's involvement is that it didn't end with his performance. A few years back, Ribisi had taken a break from acting to study computer graphics at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. In 2008, he formed a small visual effects company called Stereo D. When "Avatar" director James Cameron's company, Lightstorm Entertainment, was looking for houses to convert a shot from "Avatar" to 3-D, it contacted several companies. "We delivered five versions of the shot in 24 hours," Ribisi says. "Other companies were taking a week to do one version." Cameron, unaware that one of his stars was involved with the company, hired Stereo D to convert several more shots. "It was one of my proudest moments," Ribisi says. "I've since moved on, but the company remains, and it's actually doing the 3-D conversion on 'Titanic.' " Lest anyone think Ribisi wasn't hands-on, he personally spent hours converting the shots. "The first shot we converted is one of the first things you see in the movieit's Sam Worthington's eyeball," he reveals. "I can officially say he has 53 lashes on his bottom left eye." Ribisi has more interests on the other side of the lens; he recently directed a music video for Cat Power's "King Rides By," featuring boxer Manny Pacquiao. He's directing a film about youth culture and skateboarding with Steve Berra and Eric Koston, the founders of the private skate park The Berrics. But Ribisi says he will never leave acting behind. "My focus has always been on film, and I'll participate in different ways," he says. "I just want to be a part of telling great stories." Outtakes Other films include "Cold Mountain," "Middle Men," and "Lost in Translation" also made memorable appearances on "Friends" as Phoebe's brother and "My Name Is Earl" opposite his good friend Jason LeeSays his most difficult role was in the 2002 Tom Tykwer film "Heaven," in which Ribisi had 12 days to learn to speak Italian and was dealing with a lot of stress in his personal life. As a result, he has not seen the final film: "From what I hear, it's a good movie; I'm just not ready."Has two French bulldogs, Mona and Abuela

Jennifer Lawrence to unveil Oscar noms

LawrenceJennifer Lawrence will show the nominations for that 84th Oscars with Academy of movement Picture Arts & Sciences leader Tom Sherak at 5:30 a.m. PT on Jan. 24.Sherak and Lawrence will unveil the nominations in 10 from the 24 groups in a news conference in the Acad's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hillsides, where 100s of media reps from around the globe is going to be collected. Noms information for those groups is going to be distributed concurrently to press attending and online around the official Oscars website, Oscar.com. Contact Christy Grosz at christy.grosz@variety.com

Netflix, Lovefilm enter U.K. cost war

LONDON -- Blighty's subscription VOD marketplace started to warm up on Monday as Netflix released its streaming-only package for five.99 ($9.25) within the U.K. and $8.91 in Ireland, combined having a one-month free trial offer for those customers to sweeten the offer. The launch, that is expected to become a pricey and competitive one for that U.S.-based home theatre service, motivated a cost-cut from Amazon . com-possessed Lovefilm, that has centered the SVOD space in Blighty for a long time. Lovefilm will offer limitless streaming just for $7.71 monthly. Both services happen to be contributing to their product offer within the territory previously six several weeks, very competing for content streaming deals. Since Netflix introduced it might be starting in Blighty, Lovefilm has inked numerous costly handles indie distribs, including eOne and Studiocanal, that will begin to see the service offer game titles from both distribs -- including "The Twilight Saga" and "Mess Tailor Soldier Spy," correspondingly -- solely throughout the pay TV window. Lovefilm, which already has 2 million customers, boasts numerous handles content companies including The new sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and lately, ITV and BBC Worldwide. Netflix has to date stated it'll offer customers in Blighty content from companies such as the BBC, ITV, Funnel 4, Disney, MGM, Miramax, Vital and The new sony Pictures. Furthermore, Netflix has inked exclusive distrib handles Momentum Pictures and Lionsgate U.K., although more knowledge about the deals haven't yet been revealed. The appearance of Netflix is really a welcome one for content companies, particularly independent film marketers, because the service and Lovefilm have both been offering indies more profitable options than coping with pay TV operator BSkyB, that has typically offered indies much more compact deals -- if any -- compared to Hollywood majors.However it looks set to become a constant fight for Netflix: At the end of October, Netflix Boss Reed Hastings stated inside a letter to investors that the organization "expect the expense in our entry in to the U.K. and Ireland will push us to become unprofitable on the global basis that's, domestic profits won't be big enough to both cover worldwide opportunities and purchase global G&A (general and administrative costs), technology and development."After the organization saw a significant customer exodus within the U.S. this past year following its 60% cost hike, Hastings stated: "We're beginning 2012 in the perfect way: By providing clients within the U.K. and Ireland an incredible entertainment experience."When preparing for that Netflix arrival, Lovefilm has plowed money right into a large-scale advertising campaign within the territory, with glossy TV advertisements and billboard advertisements. "Clients inform us they love Lovefilm due to the worthiness, choice and innovation we provide in subscription film and television entertainment," stated Lovefilm Boss Simon Calver. "We provide clients an unequalled selection of game titles." Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com

The Firm's Josh Lucas Is Engaged

Josh Lucas Josh Lucas is engaged, he introduced round the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Lucas, 40, revealed handful of particulars about her (like, uh, her title), but he did tell Leno in regards to the special Large Sur retreat that made him realize his girlfriend was the primary one. Josh Lucas to star in NBC's The Firm "I hear two large breathing, and six foot above me, I start to see the very slight glint in the eyes of the large [mountain lion] which i literally visit do a few things i had just read inside the instructions," he referred to on Friday's show. "Which I started screaming and yelling and literally being as crazy after i may be, it padded off and basically progressively disappeared which i labored my distance to some clip which i acquired in which i made a decision in those days this lady was the woman personally.In . Lucas, most broadly noted for roles in Sweet Home Alabama together with an attractive Mind, was formerly connected with Rachel McAdams and Salma Hayek. He next stars inside the TV adaptation in the Firm, which premieres Sunday at 9/8c on NBC. Watch Lucas discuss his new fiancée:

Acad sets scientific, tech honors

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced today that eight scientific and technical achievements will be honored at the annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation, to be held Feb. 11 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2011. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures. The Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements will go to 28 individuals in eight different categories. An Academy Award of Merit (Oscar statuette) will go to Franz Kraus, Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the Arrilaser Film Recorder. A technical achievement award (Academy certificate) will go to Andrew Clinton and Mark Elendt for the invention and integration of micro-voxels in the Mantra software. A scientific and engineering award (Academy plaque) will go to Radu Corlan, Andy Jantzen, Petru Pop and Richard Toftness for the design and engineering of the Phantom family of high-speed cameras for motion-picture production; Dr. Juergen Noffke for the optical design and Uwe Weber for the mechanical design of the Arri Zeiss Master Prime Lenses for motion picture photography; Michael Lewis, Greg Marsden, Raigo Alas and Michael Vellekoop for the concept, design and implementation of the Pictorvision Eclipse, an electronically stabilized aerial camera platform; E.F. "Bob" Nettmann for the concept and system architecture, Michael Sayovitz for the electronic packaging and integration, Brad Fritzel for the electronic engineering and Fred Miller for the mechanical engineering of the Stab-C Classic, Super-G and Stab-C Compact stabilizing heads; John D. Lowry, Ian Caven, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly for the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process; Fujifilm Corp., Hideyuki Shirai, Dr. Katsuhisa Oozeki and Hiroshi Hirano for the design and development of the Fujifilm black-and-white recording film Eterna-RDS 4791 for use in the archival preservation of film and digital images. Highlights of the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation will be included in the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 26. Contact Christy Grosz at christy.grosz@variety.com

MTV Movie Brawl 2012: Round One Starts!

Thanks for visiting 2012 and thanks for visiting the Brawl! Voting for round among the MTV Movie Brawl 2012 is formally open, providing you with the opportunity to select the film you are most excited for in next season. Are you currently foaming in the mouth for comic movies like "The Dark Dark night Increases," "Marvel's The Avengers" and "The Astonishing Spider-Guy," or would be the stunning "Twilight" conclusion and also the dying-repel "Hunger Games" more your speed? Possibly it's among the two dueling Snow Whitened projects, or you Kitsch fans have your skills on "Battleship" and "John Carter." Whichever movies you are most searching toward, here's your opportunity to defend your champion before 2012 begins in serious. MTV Movie Brawl 2012 Has Started! Here's how it operates: following the jump, election for that films you are most excited to determine in 2012 from your listing of 32 movies. You'll have the ability to fight for the movie of preference within this play-in round until voting shuts on Sunday (The month of january 8). Beginning in a few days, we'll be lower to 16 movies. This is when our bracket launches and also the 16 movies will begin going mind-to-mind, March Madness-style, in single-elimination contests until just one movie reigns supreme. So, without further ado, click forward to begin voting in your most anticipated movies of 2012! Which film are you currently rooting for in MTV Movie Brawl 2012? Tell us within the comments section or hit us on Twitter!

MTV's Movie Tournament 2012: Round One Begins!

Thank you for going to 2012 and thank you for going to the tournament! Voting for round among MTV's Movie Tournament 2012 is formally open, supplying you using the chance to choose the film you're most excited for in next season. Are you currently presently foaming within the mouth for comic movies like "The Dark Dark evening Increases," "Marvel's The Avengers" and "The Astounding Spider-Guy," or will be the stunning "Twilight" conclusion as well as the dying-repel "Hunger Games" more your speed? Possibly it's one of the two dueling Snow White-colored projects, or else you Kitsch fans have your abilities on "Battleship" and "John Carter." Whichever movies you're most searching toward, here is your chance to protect your champion before 2012 starts in serious. Here's the way it works: following a jump, election for your films you're most excited to find out in 2012 out of your report on 32 movies. You'll be capable of fight for that movie associated with preference in this particular play-in round until voting shuts on Sunday (The month of the month of january 8). Starting in a couple of days, we'll be lower to 16 movies. This is where our bracket launches as well as the 16 movies will start going mind-to-mind, March Madness-style, in single-elimination contests until only one movie reigns supreme. So, without further ado, click toward begin voting inside your most anticipated movies of 2012! Which film are you currently presently rooting for in MTV's Movie Tournament 2012? Inform us inside the comments section or hit us on Twitter!

Brit album sales slip 5.6% in 2011

Despite sales of 3.8 million for Adele's album "21" -- the biggest single-year tally ever in England -- and record singles sales, the BPI reported an overall decline of 5.6% in British album sales during 2011. The U.K. music trade org tied the drop to rampant piracy. Biz's loss came despite a 26.6% increase in digital album sales (to 26.6 million units); 15 albums sold more than 100,000 digital copies. Sales of digital singles climbed 10.4% to 26.6 million units. However, CD album sales slid 12.6% to 86.2 million units. The CD remained the principal format in the U.K., accounting for 76.1% of sales, vs. 23.5% for digital and 0.3% of vinyl. The latter format boomed nonetheless, climbing 43.7% in 2011. Adele single-handedly propped up music in her native country: Her chart-topping album was the year's domestic bestseller, while her renascent 2008 debut "19" placed No. 4 among the year's top titles. Her tunes "Someone Like You" and "Rolling in the Deep" placed first and ninth among the bestselling singles of the year. Still, unrestrained piracy torched Blighty biz, according to BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor. "British artists continue to produce incredible music that resonates at home and around the world," Taylor said in a statement. "But while other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our government is taking too long to act on piracy. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again -- a creative crunch that will destroy jobs and mean the next Adele may not get her chance to shine on the world stage." Nielsen SoundScan is scheduled to release year-end figures for the U.S. on Wednesday. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com