Katy Perry's stunning Interview magazine cover

by Dimitris Ioannou

A stunning, almost unrecognizable Katy Perry is on the March issue cover of Interview magazine. It is said that revenge is a dinner best served cold and the 27-year-old singer definitely agrees. Earlier this week and only two months after they announced their divorce with former husband actor Russell Brand, he made his first appearance with a new girlfriend. Now, the sexy photo shoot might remind him what he is missing.

The black-and-white cover, shot by photographer Mikael Jansson and styled by Karl Templer, is accompanied with an interview made by the comedian Kristen Wiig. The fabulous Californian singer seems to be wearing only a bejeweled bra, long, black gloves and chandelier earrings.

Two days ago, Perry attended Elton John's annual Oscar viewing party with light blue coloured hair, unlike the black, teased, bedhead hair she has on the photo. She recently released a new single called “Part Of Me”, a breakup anthem which is currently topping the Billboard charts.

65th Cannes Film Festival pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe

by Dimitris Ioannou

It's been 50 years since the death of Marilyn Monroe and the Cannes Film Festival pays tribute to the legendary Hollywood actress by selecting the iconic blonde for the festival's 65^th anniversary poster.

According to a festival statement, “Fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure in world cinema, an eternal icon, whose grace, mystery and power of seduction remain resolutely contemporary. Each of her screen appearances sparks the imagination. The Festival poster captures Marilyn by surprise in an intimate moment where myth meets reality – a moving tribute to the anniversary of her passing, which coincides with the Festival anniversary. She enchants us with this promising gesture: a seductively blown kiss. The Festival is a temple of glamour and Marilyn is its perfect incarnation. Their coming together symbolizes the ideal of simplicity and elegance.”

The American actress who became a major sex symbol in the '50s, died on August 5, 1962 at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. At the age of 36, the woman born Norma Jeane Mortenson, ended her life by an overdose of barbiturates.

The CW casts young Carrie Bradshaw

by Dimitris Ioannou

The name AnnaSophia Robb may not ring you a bell for the moment, but the beautiful actress who according to The Hollywood Reporter will portray the young Carrie Bradshaw in the new prequel to HBO's “Sex and the City”, is willing to at least capture your attention. The project, based on Candace Bushell's novel “Carrie Diaries”, goes back in time when the young Carrie was still in high school exploring love, sex and friendship.

Since last September, HBO's corporate cousin CW is one hundred per cent committed to the project, and is about to start shooting for the pilot episode very soon. “The Carrie Diaries” as the title of the show will be, follows the heroine in the 1980s Manhattan through her relationship with Sebastian Kydd and rivalry with popular girl Donna LaDonna.

Fake Empire's Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein (Gossip Girl, Hart of Dixie) will executive produce alongside Warner Bros. Television. Former “Sex and the City” scribe/co-producer Amy B. Harris will adapt the book and serve as showrunner. Miguel Arteta will direct the pilot. Stefania Owen (Running Wilde), is going to play Carrie's 14-year-old sister.

AnnaSophia Robb best known for the role of Violet in the 2005 Tim Burton film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” also starred in movies like “Because of Winn-Dixie”, “Bridge to Terabithia” and “Jumper” among others.

Now, the 18-year-old actress should only hope for the series to have the same impact to her career as the original “Sex and the City” did for Sarah Jessica Parker's.

Alan Ball to step down as “True Blood's” showrunner

by Dimitris Ioannou

Only a few months before the highly anticipated premiere of “True Blood's” season five this June and the rumors have finally been confirmed! The shows creator Alan Ball is stepping down from his duties as showrunner if the HBO hit series returns for a sixth season next year. However he will still have a supervisory role according to the network's statement: When we extended our multi-year overall deal with Alan Ball in July 2011, we always intended that if we proceeded to “True Blood’s” sixth season that Alan would take a supervisory role on the series and not be the day-to-day showrunner.If we proceed to season six, the show will remain in the very capable hands of the talented team of writers and producers who have been with the show for a number of years.This is the best possible world for both HBO and Alan Ball. Alan will remain available as executive producer to consult and advise on “True Blood” and he will be free to develop new shows for both HBO and Cinemax. “Banshee”, on which Alan serves as executive producer, is the first in house series for Cinemax and is expected to begin production this spring.

On the other Ball on his statement says, “True Blood has been, and will continue to be, a highlight of not only my career but my life. Because of the fantastic cast, writers, producers and crew, with whom I have been lucky enough to work these past five years, I know I could step back and the show will continue to thrive as I look forward to new and exciting ventures.”

The HBO's vampire pop culture phenomenon is based on Charlaine Harris’ best selling books about the charismatic waitress Sookie Stackhouse and the charming vampire Bill Compton. Placed at the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the book adapted by Ball into the television series in September 2008. The high ratings every summer made “True Blood” the network's most popular series since “The Sopranos”. It's not the first time that Ball works for HBO, as he is the creator of the drama “Six Feet Under” run from 2001-2005.

About a month ago the first teaser of season five broadcasted online. The 37 seconds video has the title “Buried” and introduces us to next season without actually saying nothing at all. Take a look...

“The Artist” sweeps the Oscars with five awards, including best picture

by Dimitris Ioannou

“The Artist”, the French black-and-white film about Hollywood's silent era, took the top honors at the 84^th Academy Awards on Sunday night, including best picture, best director for Michel Hazanavicius and lead actor for Jean Dujardin. “The Artist” is the first silent film to claim best picture honors in 83 years, since the first Academy Awards back in 1929, when William A. Wellman's “Wings” took the top prize. Also, this is the first time in Academy Awards history that a French filmmaker and a French actor took the Oscar in both their categories.

Meryl Streep as expected took the best actress award for her great performance as Margaret Thatcher in the film “The Iron Lady”. This was the third Oscar for the actress, who has been nominated for seventeen times since the beginning of her career. In the supporting categories, Christopher Plummer became the oldest actor to win an Academy Award, at the age of 82 for his role in the “Beginners”. The show turned into emotional when Octavia Spencer got on stage to receive the award in her category for the movie “The Help” and the actress started crying and shaking. “Thank you, world!” Spencer said to the audience.

Martin Scorsese and “Hugo” also took five awards of the 11 they were nominated for, tying with “The Artist”, but they were all in technical categories: cinematography, art direction, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. The award for best original screenplay went to Woody Allen and his “Midnight in Paris” and the Oscar for best adapted screenplay got the filmmaker of “The Descendants” Alexander Payne and his team, who thanked his mother in Greek!

The host of the evening Billy Crystal, achieved to deliver a funny and interesting show. In his opening montage, Crystal appeared in some of this years biggest movies, such as “The Artist”, “Hugo”, “The Descendants”, “The Help” and “Moneyball” among others, while in the almost five minutes video Tom Cruise, Octavia Spencer, Justin Bieber and George Clooney -who kissed Crystal- appeared as guests. At the ceremony also performed the acrobats and aerialists of Cirque du Soleil, for the first time after 10 years at the Oscars.

The ceremony held at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California and broadcasted live on ABC.

Complete list of winners:

Best Picture

The Artist

Best Actress

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Best Actor

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Director

Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist

Best Original Screenplay

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best Foreign Feature

A Separation (Iran)

Best Animated Feature

Rango, Gore Verbinski

Art Direction

Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Hugo

Cinematography

Robert Richardson, Hugo

Costume Design

Mark Bridges, The Artist

Documentary Feature

Undefeated, TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary Short Subject

Saving Face, Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Film Editing

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Makeup

Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland, The Iron Lady

Music (Original Score)

Ludovic Bource, The Artist

Music (Original Song)

"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets, Bret McKenzie

Sound Editing

Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty, Hugo

Sound Mixing

Tom Fleischman and John Midgley, Hugo

Visual Effects

Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning, Hugo

Short Film (Animated)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

Short Film (Live Action)

The Shore, Terry George and Oorlagh George

And the Oscar goes to...

by Dimitris Ioannou

The waiting is about to be over as in a few hours from now, the 84^th Oscar Academy Awards ceremony will take place at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California. With Billy Crystal hosting for ninth time the ceremony, after Eddie Murphy who was originally scheduled to host the awards stepped down due to an inappropriate joke his producer Brett Ratner made earlier this year, everybody already speaks for a worth watching show.

This year's nominees, which were announced back on January 12 by AMPAS president Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence, indicate that big surprises await us, as the two movies with the most nominations differ so much from one another. Martin Scorsese's “Hugo” leads the field with 11 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay among other. It is a 3D family mystery film about a boy who lives alone in a Paris railway station and the enigmatic owner of a toy shop there. The film uses in the best possible way some of the “coolest” new techniques managing however to reserve the great old fashioned storytelling but with a whole fresh new look.

From the other hand, we have the French black-and-white film “The Artist” by Michel Hazanavicius with 10 nominations such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin. Having won most of the awards it has been nominated for at the Golden Globes, Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals and lately the BAFTAs, the Hazanavicius, staged in the late '20s Hollywood, romantic comedy drama will most likely leave the ceremony as the big winner.

Jean Dujardin who plays the silent film star George Valentin will have to compete with the great George Clooney of “The Descendants” for the Best Actor. The 50 year old Clooney portrays a middle aged man whose life takes a very dramatic turn after an accident that puts his wife into an irreversible come, leaves him as the only parent to deal with his two underaged daughters with which he is not very close to. Alexander Payne's movie is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Though the French actor is very close to the golden statue, the Academy might want to reward Clooney for his efforts the last few years and give him his second Oscar after his Best Supporting Actor for the 2005 film “Syriana”.

Like everybody, Academy Awards love women too, so this year the nominees for Best Actress are women who play passionate characters. Most of the film critics worldwide would bet that 2012 is the year that Meryl Streep will win her third Oscar, as the Hollywoods' “Iron Lady” plays the “Iron Lady” of politics, Margaret Thatcher. The 62 year old actress is planning not to let Viola Davis “steal” her award, although the 46 year old Davis moved everyone with her performance in the drama film “The Help”. Even though Academy loves actors and actresses who take risks, Glenn Close who plays a woman living as a man in “Albert Nobbs” doesn't seem as a difficult opponent.

In the supporting roles categories two are the nominations that have distinguished in both men and women. Christopher Plummer for the “Beginners” and Octavia Spencer for “The Help” are most definitely the winners in their categories. Plummer plays Ewan McGregor's gay father, who after the death of his wife begins to explore that aspect of his life. Octavia Spencer, best known for her role as Constance Grady on the US sitcom “Ugly Betty” plays the feisty and unflappable domestic Minni Jackson, a role that already gave her a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress.

The film industry celebrates and Hollywood is on fire. Just a few hours before the ceremony and the red carpets are already on. The presenters for the main categories are some of the biggest Hollywood movie stars. Tom Cruise is going to present the Best Picture award, Natalie Portman the Best Actor, Colin Firth the Best Actress, Melissa Leo the Best Supporting Actor and Christian Bale the Best Supporting Actress. Other stars who are scheduled to give an award are Halle Berry, Bradley Cooper, Angelina Jolie, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and also on stage will be the whole cast of the “Bridesmaids”.

Best Picture

War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Viola Davis, The Help
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Best Actor

Demian Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Director

Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Original Screenplay

Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants
John Logan, Hugo
George Clooney, Beau Willimon and Grant Heslov, The Ides of March
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, Moneyball
Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Foreign Feature

Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar
A Separation

Best Animated Feature

A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Art Direction

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

Cinematography

The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Costume Design

Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Documentary Feature

Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Documentary Short Subject

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Film Editing

Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Kevin Tent, The Descendants
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Thelma Schoonmaker, Hugo
Christopher Tellefsen, Moneyball

Makeup

Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle, Albert Nobbs
Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland, The Iron Lady

Music (Original Score)

John Williams, The Adventures of Tintin
Ludovic Bource, The Artist
Howard Shore, Hugo
Alberto Iglesias, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Williams, War Horse

Music (Original Song)

"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets, Bret McKenzie
"Real in Rio" from Rio, Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett

Sound Editing

Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
War Horse

Sound Mixing

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
War Horse

Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon

Short Film (Animated)

Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Short Film (Live Action)

Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic