Awards Watch: Oscar House Rules

Two of the always-controversial Oscar categories are affected by some new rule changes at the Academy, announced today.

First up, the award for Original Song has streamlined their "sing off" procedure, but the biggest change in the category is that, from now on, only two songs per film will be able to reach the final nominations ballot. Presumably, this is in response to the last two years, when Dreamgirls and Enchanted dominated the nominees with three tunes each.

And for the annual rules change in the Foreign Language Film category, judging of the nine finalists will now be altered so that three of those will be selected by a special committee. One can easily assume that this will eliminate such embarrassments as last year's snubs of expected shoo-ins 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Persepolis. Those two films in particular were acclaimed as the best foreign films of 2007 by every other awards group ... except the Oscars.

No other changes, such as in the confusing "native language" clause or the archaic "one film per country" rule, were made at this time. Nominations for the 81st Annual Academy Awards will be announced January 22, 2009, followed by the presentation of the Oscars on February 22.

Bye Bye Baby

Despite a surprise Best Musical nomination from the Tony Awards, Cry-Baby on Broadway will soon be no more. The musical, based on the John Waters cult film favorite, will close after this Sunday's matinee performance.

The good news is the show is promised to tour. The bad news is that a cast album, at least by the original Broadway performers, is now unlikely. And that is enough to make the show's fans a little upset.

Do You Solemnly Swear ...

Brian de Palma's Scarface, recently named one of the top ten gangster movies of all time by the American Film Institute, will get the audience participation treatment in a unique way with a special presentation at the Los Angels Film Festival this week.

Taking a cue from the concept of such far more wholesome offerings as the "Sing-a-Long" Sound of Music, would-be Tony Montanas will get to drop all of the many-many F-bombs along with their idol with the "Swear-a-Long" Scarface, screening Friday night.

All together now: "Say hello to my little friend!"

Women We Love: Anne Hathaway

Object of our affection: Anne Hathaway, actress.

- After a short-lived television series (Get Real), she gave a star-making performance as Princess Mia Thermopolis in the Disney romantic comedy The Princess Diaries.

- More ingénue roles followed with Nicholas Nickleby, Ella Enchanted and the Princess Diaries sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. She also voiced characters in the animated features The Cat Returns and Hoodwinked!

- She broke through to adult roles with her topless scene in the landmark Brokeback Mountain, playing the wife of Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist.

- Another hit, The Devil Wears Prada (where she held her own opposite Meryl Streep's title character), cemented her stardom.

- Recently, she portrayed author Jane Austen in the biopic Becoming Jane, and co-stars as the sexy Agent 99 in this week's big screen version of the classic TV comedy Get Smart.