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 80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSParty pics: See how the stars celebratedGovernors Ball: One big love-festParty like a rock star: Inside Elton's bashGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksReview: What did Bianco think of the show?Photos: See what happened backstageMore 
NEW YORK (AP) — The Oscars are a ratings dud. Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast are 14% lower than the least-watched ceremony ever.

Nielsen said Monday that overnight ratings are also 21% lower than be unconsumed year, when The Departed was named best picture.

The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, at the time there were 33 million viewers.

Nielsen has no estimate yet on in what state many people watched Sunday ignorance, but based on ratings from the nation’s biggest markets, the Oscars will be hard-pressed to avoid an ignominious record.

The show had a 21.9 rating and 33 share.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Mark J. Terrill, AP

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 80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSParty pics: See how the stars celebratedGovernors Ball: One big love-festParty like a rock star: Inside Elton's bashGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksReview: What did Bianco think of the show?Photos: See what happened backstageMore 
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY Maybe settling the strike in time for the Oscars wasn’t such a good idea after all.

True, Oscar has been smaller quantity than scintillating before, mete has it ever felt allied more of a padded bore than it did Sunday night? If so, blame the writers’ strike, which left the producers with only a few weeks to prepare for the ABC broadcast and persuaded them to lean less on the host and more on old clips.

The goal, no indecision, was twofold: to distract us from a crop of nominees who, to put it nicely, failed to stir much popular interest; and to make up for the writers’ inability to create more high-wrought, host-driven bits.

That left Jon Stewart, back for his second get you gone as host, as an amusing but underemployed bystander, dropping by now and then to poke fun at the show and the people in the audience. Granted, the host always recedes into the background after his prefatory monologue, but Stewart’s intro was shorter and he vanished faster.

Even his jab at the show’s clip-dependence, a mock “salute to binoculars and periscopes,” served only to remind you that his role was undernourished. Nor did it back that his joke montage was nay smaller quantity superfluous than the later Bee Movie salute to movie bees. It’s as if the producers were determined to shoehorn in every pre-settlement contingency thwack they made.

Stewart’s monologue hit on the strike, the grim regular course of things of most of the nominated films, and politics, with Stewart making fun of Hollywood’s Democratic leanings while playing to them. Some will feel the electoral jabs were out of place, but they were funny and hardly unanticipated: If you don’t want political jokes, don’t hire the host of The Daily Show.

Like many non-Hollywood hosts, Stewart does come across as a little aloof and apart, which is a risk. Still, if he lacks a natural rapport with the crowd, he does seem to recognize that his role is to keep them happy — to tease gently, without inhaling blood — and to stay fast on his feet.

Unfortunately, even had he been the warmest, funniest host to the end of span, there wasn’t much he could have done to add drama to the parade of mainly unknowns. That’s no slam on the winners, a few of whom were famous, some of whom were charming (such as Marion Cotillard), and all of whom may be deserving. But for the wide Oscar audience, the show works best when there’s a rooting interest in the nominees and an emotional connection to the winners.

What did work? Some of the pretaped bits, particularly the interviews with past winners and the application of soldiers to present the documentary succinct award (though if the academy was trying to counter its left-leaning image, the two winning documentaries probably short-circuited that effort).

What didn’t? It might have occurred to someone that as amusing as the Enchanted songs were in the film, they made no sense out of context. But then, after such many years of terrible songs and worse production numbers, it might also have occurred to someone to cut the time devoted to the category. We would have enjoyed Stewart bringing back the winner to finish her speech, one of his finest moments, without having to sit through full-blown performances of all five songs.

You know those clip montages Oscar loves so much? This would be a good place to use person.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

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 80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSParty pics: See how the stars celebratedGovernors Ball: One big love-festParty like a rock star: Inside Elton's bashGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksReview: What did Bianco think of the show?Photos: See what happened backstageMore 
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY HOLLYWOOD — The Oscar night drama didn’t start by the onstage presentation of trophies. USA TODAY’s tells the backstage story as it unfolded Sunday in the wings of the Kodak Theatre.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: In the wings at the Oscars

Countdown to the show

As the announcer’s voice called out the 45-minute mark, nominees and presenters sipped Champagne and nibbled appetizers in the swank lobby of the Kodak Theatre. Show host Stewart, clad in his casual rehearsal clothes, popped out briefly to greet friends Heidi Klum (Project Runway) and her singer husband, Seal, who were among the stars in designer gowns and tuxedos. As Stewart slipped into the corridors of the backstage area, he greeted producer Gil Cates and jerked his thumb to the host’s dressing room.

“I’m gonna go shave. Shouldn’t I shave?” Stewart asked. Cates shrugged and replied, “Nah.” One of the crewmembers, apparently taking them seriously, reminded them both that the telecast would be in high definition.

But the joke turned into a last-minute scramble to find shaving cream. When Stewart emerged from his dressing play in his tuxedo, hair combed and makeup freshly applied, he said, “Can you believe I couldn’t find any Barbasol?”

afterward for the benefit of a couple of security guards, he staged a mock introduction in the hallway. Straightening his back and putting a hand to his chest, he intoned formally, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 80th Academy … Awar …” He puffed out his cheeks and covered his mouth, pretending to be sick with anxiety.

Just then, supporting-actor nominee Casey Affleck rounded the corner, exclaiming, “Nervous?” Stewart immediately regained his composure, laughing, “No, no — you?” And the two patted each other’s shoulders as Affleck zipped away.

The proof’s in the printing

As Michael Clayton’s Tilda Swinton walked off the stage carrying her Oscar for supporting actress, presenter Alan Arkin, last year’s winner, chased after her through the wings of the stage. “Tilda! Tilda!” he said. As she turned around, he held out the winner’s envelope. “Tilda, would you like this as well?” Tilton’s shoulders sagged and she smiled and cocked her head to one side. Accepting the envelope, she said, “Oh, yes. This is the proof, isn’t it?”

Day-Lewis’ lucky charm

Best-director presenter Martin Scorsese was waiting for Daniel Day-Lewis as the There Will subsist Blood actor walked offstage with his best-actor trophy. The sum of two units are old friends. Day-Lewis starred in Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York. Scorsese claimed to be Day-Lewis’ good luck charm as the two shook hands backstage.

“This is the second time that I’ve been here (presenting), and it’s the second time you’ve won,” Scorsese told Day-Lewis. “The elementary time was for My Left Foot, remember?”

Audience through the ‘Queen’

Diablo Cody, the former exotic dancer turned screenwriter who became a sensation with Juno, seemed baffled by the surreal experience of winning an Oscar. Waiting in the wings to greet her first was last year’s lead actress winner, The Queen’s Helen Mirren. “Oh, we love her!” she said. since Cody walked backstage, the elegant British actress called out congratulations, and the tattooed, hard-living writer wrinkled her brow in surprise. In a stunned and shaking voice, she said, “Ah, thank you Helen Mirren.”

Beauty has its price

Sweeney Todd lead-actor nominee Johnny Depp greeted film editing presenter Renee Zellweger backstage as the actress tiptoed around in bare feet. “I like your shoes,” he said, tapping the glittering high heels she held in her hand. She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Well, thanks man. … I used to likely these shoes, too,” she said, wrinkling her sore toes after a dilatory night of walking. “Ah, yes,” Depp said, nodding with understanding. “Past tense, now.”

Cheers and tears for Bardem

Like his assassin character in No Country for Old Men, supporting-actor winner Javier Bardem was a man of few words as he was whisked offstage after his acceptance speech and hasty back into the theater by pages so he could appear in televised shots as the film’s other nominations were announced.

But he brought the urgency to a halt when he saw any man lingering near the entrance to the theater. The man opened his arms as Bardem swallowed him in a bear hug. Then both men cried and whispered to each other in Spanish. When the actor finally was pulled gone, he pointed at the man: “That’s my brother.” Carlos Bardem, who said he is six years older, was overcome and simultaneously laughed and cried as his brother disappeared into the theater.

No words are necessary

Another extended embrace followed another top award. Best-actress winner Marion Cotillard held onto presenter Forest Whitaker, squeezing him with all of her might. “Merci, merci, merci,” the French actress said when she stopped at the ABC “thank you” camera, where winners can name all of the people they wish without any time restraints.

But Cotillard found she no longer had any words. “I think I can’t talk anymore,” she exclaimed. As she was escorted to the press room by Whitaker, the grinning actor said, “This is huge. It’s magical, isn’t it?”

“It’s crazy,” she said. Whitaker, who won last year for The Last King of Scotland, told her, “It’s meant to be. It’s beautiful.”

For all 20 twentysomethings

After presenting the sound editing and mixing awards, Superbad star Jonah Hill and Knocked Up star Seth Rogen were asked to describe the experience for all of the twentysomething fans who were watching. “Do you think there were a lot of twentysomething guys watching the Oscars?” Rogen said, laughing. Hill replied: “I thought he meant there were 20 people watching.”

Appearing at the Oscars was something neither expected. “The coolest part was right before, just looking at each other right behind these huge pillars,” Hill said. “It’s a freakout of excitement. I felt if I’m going to eat it, at least I’m doing it with one of my best friends.” Rogen shot back: “At least neither one of us messed it up.”

Oscar brings out the best

When No Country for Old Men collected the evening’s ultimate prize, Cormac McCarthy, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based, was the first out of his seat to give directors and producers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen a standing ovation.

Hours earlier, while the Kodak Theatre lobby bustled with stars, the famously reclusive author quietly slipped into the theater and sat alone with young son John. Approached tentatively because he is famously averse to interviews, McCarthy proved to be gracious and outgoing. His thoughts about all of this? “What’s there to say — I’m at the Oscars and I’m not even in the film business!” His son nodded enthusiastically. “It should be fun. It should be trippy.”

McCarthy said he was amazed that Hollywood decided to adapt the book with its unconventional ending. “I’m just glad people didn’t run screaming from the theater,” he said, giggle.

The Coens’ reaction to the night? “They really don’t get any greater than this,” Joel Coen said.

Second shot at a thank-you

As best-original-song winners Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were escorted etc. the usual passage to the press extent in the adjacent Renaissance Hotel, they were taken on a detour to an isolated spot in the wings of stage left where host Jon Stewart waits when he’s not onstage.

Stewart greeted them with unprecedented news: When the show returned from a commercial, Irglova would get a second chance at the mike. As Stewart explained to her, “They were going to let you say something and (the place for musicians) cut you facing by mistake.” He turned to Hansard, “I wanted to let Marketa say her thanks.”

As they waited for the telecast to resume, Hansard leaned over and held his Oscar near Irglova’s. “Mar, let’s make ‘em kiss.” She laughed and said, “They are two guys.” “But it’s Hollywood,” Hansard joked.

After Irglova gave a heartfelt speech, Stewart’s next joke was a verbatim repetition of the kissing exchange he had just heard.

So Stewart gave her another shot at the stage and Irglova gave him a brand-new joke.

In line for laughs

Before he presented the second Oscar of the night, Steve Carell waited outside the restroom for his wife. John Travolta and Kelly Preston approached to speak hello. “What one are you?” Travolta asked. “I’m No. 2, animated feature,” Carell said. After a beat, Travolta pointed at the two restroom doors. “No, I meant these. Which one are you in line for?” Carell, Preston and Travolta all laughed. “Oh, I’m No. 1, this one,” Carell said as his wife, Nancy Walls, emerged.

That’s Jack

Jack Nicholson, who is notorious for prowling the backstage area over the years, made only a brief appearance before the show, walking through wearing his signature sunglasses and giving a quick nod to everyone as he passed.

“Gents,” he said to two security guards flanking the entrance to the stage. Heads turned his way, but he never slowed his pace and slipped back into the main theater as the program got underway. Moments later, some of Stewart’s comedy writing team came through and talked with Stewart about meeting the great and mysterious Jack.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include celebrity, phone number, city and state for confirmation.  Enlarge By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

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 80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSParty pics: See how the stars celebratedGovernors Ball: One big love-festParty like a rock star: Inside Elton's bashGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksReview: What did Bianco think of the show?Photos: See what happened backstageMore 
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY Coens, clips and memories. It was an emotional evening in honor of the Academy Awards’ 80th birthday, and one where Hollywood’s premier filmmaking brothers, somewhat reluctantly, basked in the glow.

•For a while it looked as if The Bourne Ultimatum, which took three technical honors, might peculate the Oscar thunder on a night where no one film seemed to dominate. But the spy thriller was not up for any big academic distinctions.

Instead, the Coen brothers finally got their full due with four Oscars for their Western No Country for Old Men, considered the apex so far of their 23-year, 12-movie career. They previously won just formerly before: original screenplay for 1997’s Fargo, their only other best-picture nominee.

The wins were populace pleasers, not that you could tell from the bookish pair’s awkward reactions on stage. They have at no time been ones to covet Hollywood’s attention, and that didn’t change Sunday night.

For Ethan, 50, saying “thank you” was all the address he needed. Joel, 53, did attempt an anecdote about how as kids, they shot a film about Henry Kissinger at their hometown airport in Minneapolis. The title? Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go.

“What we are doing now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then,” he deadpanned.

Next up: Burn After Reading, a comedy about gym employees who find a CIA agent’s memoirs; and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, based on Michael Chabon’s novel about the murder of an heroin-addicted chess player in Alaska.

•Oscar might have just become an octogenarian, but it has nothing on this year’s honorary winner, Robert Boyle, the 98-year-old wizard of production design and art direction on more than 100 movies.

Looking frail yet dapper in a long white scarf that matched his snowy beard and hair, Boyle earned the longest applause of the night as flow as a standing ovation.

“That is the good part of acquisition old,” he said after the enthusiastic reception. “I don’t recommend the other.” The four-time nominee who worked with Alfred Hitchcock on four films, including 1959’s North by Northwest, thanked the late master of suspense for introducing him to his screenwriter wife, the late Bess Taffel.

•Javier Bardem, with most propriety supporting actor for his scary-good psycho killer in No Country for Old Men, was during the time that much of a lock as Daniel Day-Lewis’ lead-actor trophy for his There Will Be Blood oil baron. But you wouldn’t know it from his Oscar show performance.

Bardem kissed his actress mother, Pilar, his date for the evening, and co-star Josh Brolin in that order before running up to the stage with the spiritedness of a Olympian sprinter.

Previously nominated for best actor as AIDS-striken Cuban imaginative thinker and novelist Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls, the 38-year-old Spaniard hurried through his thank-yous before dedicating his Oscar to his mom in a straw of impassioned Spanish — emblematic of the international flavor of many of the honorees.

And, last night, his hair was perfect.

Next up: the musical Nine.

•La vie was very rosy, indeed, for France’s Marion Cotillard, 32, who triumphed over front-runner Julie Christie and was declared best actress for her emotionally wrenching portrait of tragic singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.

She wept. She laughed. And she struggled to come up with the right English altercation to express her emotions. She thanked her “maestro,” director Olivier Dahan, saying, “You have truly rocked my life.”

Declaring herself speechless, Cotillard nonetheless managed to end her speech with a celebrated statement: “Thank you, living beings. Thank you, love. It is true there is some angels in this city.”

Next up: Michael Mann’s Public Enemies and the musical Nine.

•Even tattooed strippers in Betty Page leopard print cry in the appearance of Oscar. Diablo Cody, who loaded her original Juno script with snappy pop-culture one-liners, has played the quippy-bad-girl-made-good role to the hilt while promoting her first film.

But she was suitably humbled after winning, thanking “superhuman” actress Ellen Page, who played her pregnant heroine Juno, as well as her family “for fond me exactly the way I am. Up next: horror film Jennifer’s Body.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

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Innovative action movie Vantage Point has topped the US box office after an impressive opening weekend of $24 million (£12.2 million) grossed.

The Pete Travis film, starring Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt and Forest Whitaker, tells of an assassination attempt on the US president while speaking at an anti-terrorism summit in Spain.

Aping the structure of the classic Akira Kurosawa picture Rashomon, Vantage Point pieces together the story of the assassination bid using the different points of view of eight witnesses, including secret service agents, a tourist, a TV producer and the president himself.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office assessor Media By Numbers, said the luck of Vantage Point was down to its clever content and intricate structure.

"Audiences really love it when they get a summer-style popcorn movie at a time of the year when they don’t expect it," he added.

Jumper, last week’s number undivided movie, blood-thirsty to second place, while Paramount family film The Spiderwick Chronicles took third place with $12.6 million (£6.4 million) in box office takings.

Be Kind Rewind, a surreal Michel Gondry comedy starring Jack Black and Mos Def, was the only other new entry in the top ten, sharing seventh place with Oscar-winner Juno.

The top ten movies at the US box office are:

1 Vantage Point - $24 million (£12.2 million)
2 Jumper - $12.7 million (£6.5 million)
3 The Spiderwick Chronicles $12.6 million (£6.4 million)
4 Step Up 2 the Streets - $9.8 million (£5 million)
5 Fool’s Good - $6.3 million (£3.2 million)
6 Definitely, Maybe - $5.2 the public (£2.6 million)
7 Be Kind Rewind - $4.1 million (£2.1 million)
7 Juno - $4.1 million (£2.1 million)
9 Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins - $4 million (£2 million)
10 There Will Be Blood - $2.6 million (£1.3 million)
 

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By Mike Clark, USA TODAY No Country for Old Men was the big winner at the 80th Academy Awards. It captured best picture and three other top prizes. Beating out a field that featured several highly decorated directors with outstanding catalogs of work. Here’s a look at some other DVDs by those filmmakers that might be worth checking out:

‘No Country for Old Men’

In a year not completely cut-and-dried for best-picture Oscar prognostication, there’s still a gut feeling that best-picture winner No Country for Old Men represents a time that has finally come for its makers: Minneapolis-born Joel and Ethan Coen (53 and 50, respectively).

Not that one didn’t come, to more extent, on the 1996 Oscarcast as well. That was when the duo, — known everywhere aside from their official fence credits simply as “the Coen Brothers” — took the original screenplay Oscar for Fargo (on DVD; MGM/Fox, rated R, $15). It was a win matched by a win for Frances McDormand, married in real life to Joel.

Though the intentionally mirthless No Country isn’t totally without precedent in the Coens’ career, Fargo’s droll-to-twisted humor is far more typical of their output. Think of McDormand’s pregnant police officer investigating multiple homicides — yet still taking time to pick up some nightcrawlers for her husband on the way home.

Though the Coens usually take individual credits (No Country’s joint billing was an exception), they work as a writing/directing unit and even edit their films under a pseudonym: Roderick Jaynes. Known for being organized, budget-conscious and technically proficient on an almost rapturous level, their scripts are usually originals (which makes No Country, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, a rare departure).

The Coens’ career has flourished from the home viewing market. While too many (then as now) preoccupied themselves with which of the week’s screen ephemera was placing No. 1 or No. 5 at the box office, the Coens slogged away constructing a body of work that vastly outpaced its theatrical success in living rooms — over a long haul.

For a thumbnail DVD overview, try dividing their career into three categories:

Country cousins: These are the team’s non-comedic murder melodramas, which isn’t to deny their stinging doses of the humorously macabre. Adultery revenge piece Blood Simple (1985; director’s cut from 2000 available used online) marked the Coens’ screen debut and also McDormand’s. Headlined by Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney, Miller’s Crossing (1990, Fox, R, $10) is a crime boss/corrupt city saga that doesn’t stop with double-crosses when tripling or quadrupling proves more effective.

Prototypically Coen: Which titles most come to mind while the Coens’ brand of humor is a discussion point? Fargo for sure, but also Raising Arizona (Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter and babies galore; 1987, Fox, PG-13, $15). And, of course, Barton Fink (John Turturro, John Goodman, Hollywood getting its Golden Age tarnished; 1991, Fox, R, $10). My own favorite Coen scene: a brilliant set piece in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994, Warner, PG, $15) that chronicles, fancifully, the ’50s Hula Hoop phenomenon.

Cults within a cult: There was a usual feeling that the Coens had gotten off their game in the decade between Fargo and an unambiguous No Country comeback, but a youthful fan coterie has draw near to embrace The Big Lebowski (Jeff Bridges, slacker high jinks, surprisingly coarse scripting; 1998, Focus/Universal, R, $13). Skewing toward older disciples is O Brother, Where Art Thou? (’30s convicts in the Deep South; 2000, Touchstone, PG-13, 20), which spurred an enormously popular bluegrass soundtrack CD.

A look at the other best-picture nominees and the filmmakers’ pedigrees:

‘Atonement’

At 35, Atonement director Joe Wright has pulled off a best-picture Oscar nomination with only his stand by theatrical feature. But there’s a rub, the same one that uncuts somebody roughly once a year.

Unlike Jason Reitman (whose own second big-screen salvo —Juno— is a picture nominee as well), Wright is the odd filmmaker without in 2007’s best picture/director match-ups. “His” nomination for direction went to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’s Julian Schnabel, who won whole hog at the Golden Globes.

Set before and during World War II England and turning on a dreadful sibling misunderstanding, Atonement (due on DVD March 18 from Focus/Universal) is adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel, which was a major critical and popular good luck. With seven nominations, the movie is firmly set in what seems to be Wright’s literary wheelhouse, given the director’s previous big-screen credit.

This was 2005’s Pride & Prejudice (Focus/Universal, PG, $20 and $40 editions), starring Atonement’s Keira Knightley. Though it places her front and center enough as Austen heroine Elizabeth Bennet to have earned Knightley an Oscar nomination, Wright’s version of the oft-filmed favorite spreads the wealth in terms of its characterizations, including some delightful dynamics between Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn as Elizabeth’s parents.

Atonement’s screenplay is by Christopher Hampton, who has an even bigger credit line on his library card. Limiting his literary revamps merely to those films on DVD, he’s adapted the Claire Bloom-Anthony Hopkins rendering of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1973, MGM/Fox, G, $15) and the Michael Caine version of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (2002, Miramax, R, $15). Hampton also turned a famed Pierre Choderlos de Laclos novel into the play Dangerous Liaisons, whose Oscar-nominated screen version (1988, Warner, R, $15) won Hampton the year’s adapted screenplay award.

Atonement’s conversation piece is the logistically imposing continuous tracking missile on the beaches of Dunkirk. Film folk debating societies called it either bravura or full of itself, but it’s the obliging of unbroken shot where even the 1,200th extra can’t possibly hiccup, sneeze or get an itchy shoulder blade. For famous long-take precedents, check out Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948, Warner, PG, $20); Robert Altman’s The Player (1992, New Line, R, $20); and the entire opening of Orson Welles’ reconstructed Touch of Evil (1958/98 Universal, unrated, $15).

Next up for Wright is The Soloist, currently in production and starring Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener and Jamie Foxx.

‘Juno’

The little movie that could (make audiences feel good) is a dual creative triumph for director Jason Reitman and especially for first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody.

The parallel here is probably 1991’s Thelma & Louise, another feminist script from a first-timer that caught a wave to multiple Oscar nominations (and a win for its writer, Callie Khouri). otherwise than that it’s always a surprise to remember that Thelma was only a medium box office hit at the time (though certainly stable completely the years) despite some of the year’s heaviest Op/Ed ink. Meanwhile, Juno already has cracked the $125 million mark in North America, on top of what has to be a money-minting DVD future.

Reitman is son of the once commercially surefire boss Ivan (Kindergarten Cop and a slew of one-word titles: Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, Junior, Dave). On his own, Jason has one directorial credit, a satire (like Juno) that displayed a disinclination to be off for the jugular. Adapted from Christopher Buckley’s novel about a tobacco lobbyist, it was 2006’s Thank You for Smoking (Fox, R, $20), and the cast was substantial: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy and Katie Holmes.

In Juno’s case, the instructional antecedent comes not from its filmmakers but from its star. If you haven’t seen Ellen Page as victim-turned-barracuda in the creepy pedophile drama Hard Candy (2005, Lionsgate, R, $15), it puts the comparatively disproportionate praise for Juno into perspective.

Both Cody and Reitman are involved with Steven Spielberg’s coming Showtime TV series The United States of Tara starring Toni Collette (Cody wrote the pilot). Page will next be seen in Miramax’s comedy Smart People, out April 11, with Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church.

‘Michael Clayton’

A class-act Oscar honoree despite its long-shot win, Michael Clayton is the directorial debut of seasoned screenwriter Tony Gilroy. approve Juno director Jason Reitman and There Will have beingBlood’s Paul Thomas Anderson, Gilroy has showbiz genes. Playwright father Frank D. Gilroy won a Pulitzer for The Subject Was Roses, whose 1967 film reading won Jack Albertson a supporting Oscar.

Writing and directing in tandem can either be dangerous or, when it works, the natural way to go. In Clayton’s case, every scene seems perfectly weighted, and Gilroy comes off as his own best director. This said, he has previously been involved in all three Matt Damon Bourne thrillers, either laboring solo (once) or co-adapting with another writer (twice).

On DVD, Universal has released the Bourne hits (both critically and commercially) individually and in variously priced combo packages. Doug Liman directed 2002’s The Bourne Identity, while Paul Greengrass followed with The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Those are two filmmakers of notably contrasting styles working with the same writer, which is unceasingly interesting. But beyond this trio, Gilroy the writer has been most associated with director Taylor Hackford, for whom he written or co-written:

•Dolores Claiborne (1995, Warner, rated R, $10): Recalling the grade-A domestic potboilers from Joan Crawford’s late period, this Maine-based mood piece has abused matron Kathy Bates struggling to bankroll opportunities for a daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) whose well-earned neuroses may negate all labors. Meanwhile, two deaths dog a nosy inspector in one of the screen’s best (if relatively unheralded) Stephen King adaptations, which also casts David Strathairn atypically as a heavy.

•The Devil’s Advocate (1997, Warner, R, $7; co-scripted with Jonathan Lemkin): The joke here is that the devil is a lawyer; old news or not, the movie is fun until it begins to feel like eternal damnation as it passes the 2 1/4-hour mark. Keanu Reeves plays a Florida courtroom hotshot hired by a posh New York firm headed by Al Pacino. Charlize Theron (good here) is Reeves’ wife, and Gladiator’s then-unknown Connie Nielsen made an instant screen impression instigating some devilish raunch.

•Proof of Life (2000, Warner, R, $7): Russell Crowe plays any expert in K&R — that’s kidnap and ransom — sent to locate the abducted oil-company husband of Meg Ryan in an unnamed Latin American country. This is the project that sparked the two stars’ brief real-life romance, though there’s no wealth of chemistry between them on screen. David Morse plays the husband whose fate is in the hands of Crowe and, of course, his rebel group assailants.

It’s left to David Caruso (Crowe’s wisecracking cohort) and Pamela Reed (some peppery scenes as Morse’s sister) to steal the show.

Next up for Gilroy as writer/director is Duplicity, a corporate-spy drama with a killer cast: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Wilkinson.

‘There Will Be Blood’

Making five good-or-better movies in a row is among the rarest writing/directing feats, but Paul Thomas Anderson has amazed by doing it in his first five tries, finally earning best paint, screenplay and direction nominations with There Will Be Blood. The film had eight in all, including a win for Daniel Day-Lewis’ completion that is already regarded by many as among the greatest ever.

A teenaged movie junkie bred by VHS, Anderson, 37, is besides the son of the late ABC announcer Ernie Anderson, who, in the early 1960s, was also the most revered TV personality/jester in the history of Cleveland (though not always by management). As movie host “Ghoulardi,” the senior Anderson would make a great screen subject for his son, whose camera virtuosity and paramount skill with actors is matched only by his eclectic choice of projects.

The filmmaker’s utmost surprising career move of all was to craft Blood from just a portion of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, resulting in one those movies, like Chinatown, with the socio-political savvy to know where a lot of early 20th-century California bodies are buried. No future Anderson project has been announced, but Blood— itself Anderson’s first movie in five years — is the kind of exhausting project that perhaps beckons a intermission.

There Will Be Blood comes to DVD April 8 (Paramount, $35)

Movie enthusiasts can easily trace Anderson’s entire career, and every title is highly recommended. They are:

•Hard Eight (1997, Sony, rated R, $20): A weary pro blackleg mysteriously befriends a broke drifter (John C. Reilly) and a Reno cocktail waitress moonlighting as a hooker (Gwyneth Paltrow in shock casting that works). Much of the movie is muted with long stationary takes, which sets up the potency of occasionally elaborate camera moves and jolting spurts of violence. Rounding out a primarily four-character drama is Samuel L. Jackson as a short-fused cottage security chief tolerated by naive Reilly to no good end.

•Boogie Nights (1997, New Line, R, $27): A critical sensation and prodigious cult movie that broke halfway into the mainstream, Anderson’s knowing portrait of the 1970s porn industry traces the career trajectory of a busboy (take notice Wahlberg) whose 13-inch natural endowment becomes a national some on the big screen. Oscar nominations went to Anderson’s script and supporting players Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore (cast as, respectively, a porn-movie director and star). Reynolds took a Golden Globe as well.

•Magnolia (1999, New Line, R, $27): Emblematic, perhaps, of its Southern California setting, Anderson’s 3 1/4-hour epic has lots of sprawl yet is brilliant enough most of the time to burn in the memory. Before a supernatural climax that’s among the great go-for-broke scenes ever, Anderson’s Oscar-nominated script links several stories together Robert Altman-style, some springing off a TV quiz show: What Do Kids Know? Another conversation piece is Tom Cruise’s dark, Oscar-nominated performance as a seminar guru who instructs revved-up male losers on ways to humiliate women into sexual submission.

•Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Sony, R, $15): As the lone male among seven smothering sisters, Adam Sandler is always on the verge of exploding in this protect surprise from both director and star — and a few times we see him do it. But Sandler is endearingly quirky when he buys cartons and cartons of pudding in mad pursuit of frequent-flier miles — and is sweet with the one woman who might understand him (Emily Watson, completing a terrific acting match). The movie only suggests how domineering the sisters are, but a deleted seven-minute sequence (an amazing DVD extra) spells it out.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Mike Blake, Reuters

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 80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSParty pics: remark how the stars celebratedGovernors Ball: One big love-festParty like a rock star: Inside Elton's bashGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksReview: What did Bianco have one opinion of the show?Photos: See what happened backstageMore 
A round-up of host Jon Stewart’s best Oscar jokes:

These past 31/2 months accept been very tough. The town was torn apart by a bitter writers’ strike. I’m happy to say that the fight is covering. So tonight, welcome to the makeup sex.

Does this town need a hug? What happened? No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood. All I can say is, thank God in quest of teen pregnancy.

(Away From Her) was a moving story of a woman who forgets her own married man. Hillary Clinton called it the feel-good movie of the year.

I was happy to see Atonement nominated this year for best picture. Finally, a story that captured the passion and the raw sexuality of Yom Kippur.

Diablo Cody … used to be an exotic dancer, and now she’s an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. I hope you’re enjoying the pay cut.

Even Norbit got a nomination, that I think is great. … Too often, the academy ignores movies that aren’t unfeigned.

Oscar is 80 this year — which makes him now automatically the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

The Democrats do have one historic race going. … Normally, if you see a black individual or a woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication reason in the newspaper, send comments to correspondence@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and rank for verification.  Enlarge By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

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No Country for Old Men’s Javier Bardem thanked directors Joel and Ethan Coen for decking him in "one of the most horrible haircuts" in cinematic history.”> EnlargeBy Bob Riha Jr., USA TODAYNo Country for Old Men’s Javier Bardem thanked directors Joel and Ethan Coen for decking him in “any of the most horrible haircuts” in cinematic history.  80TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDSGallery: Rate your favorite red carpet looksWinners: Who's already picked up an Oscar?News: The latest updates from the ceremonyJack's back: Nicholson reflects on Oscars pastPost-strike: Writers scramble, but show goes onOscar box office: Modest films reshape HollywoodStewart's show: Funnyman takes his role seriouslyAwards Central: All your awards season news  OTHER VOICES FROM THE WEB
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY HOLLYWOOD — The rains fell, traffic was a mess and some groused that this year’s slate of movies was too wind-swept and un-commercial, even for an Academy Awards.

But nothing dampened spirits at Sunday’s Oscar ceremonies, which finally brought together stars, writers and fans after a 100-day writers’ strike.

While no movie took more than four Oscars, the evening’s biggest prize went to the bloody contemporary Western No Country for Old Men, what one. took best picture and best monitor Joel and Ethan Coen. Javier Bardem took best supporting actor for his merciless killer Anton Chigurh (and thanked the brothers for decking him with the overpower haircut in cinematic history). The movie also won best adapted screenplay.

Daniel Day-Lewis completed his award-season sweep by taking the best actor Oscar for There Will Be Blood. The film also won for best cinematography.

Marion Cotillard won what many considered the most hotly contested race of the night by taking best actress for the Edith Piaf biography La Vie en Rose, striking out Julie Christie’s performance as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Away From Her. “I’m totally overwhelmed with transport and sparkles and fireworks,” Cotillard aforesaid back stage. La Vie was another double winner, also taking the makeup prize.

Perhaps the biggest surprise came in the supporting actress race, which went to Tilda Swinton for the political thriller Michael Clayton. The favorite had been Cate Blanchett’s gender-bending turn as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There.

There was room for light-hearted films. Former exotic dancer Diablo Cody won the best original screenplay for the comedy Juno. And the Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille took the first major Oscar of the night, for best animated feature.

For the first term in three months, award winners took the spotlight. Gone were the strike-charged speeches and buttons supporting writers that distinguished earlier ceremonies. Back were the issues stars felt more pleasant addressing: who they were wearing and what an womanly honor it was just to be nominated.

Oscar organizers had just two weeks to tinker with a show that would incorporate stars who had threatened to honor the writers’ picket lines. And the pace around the Kodak Theatre was frenetic to the moment the show began: Chris Rock, for instance, rushed hastily written material to local comedy clubs to try it out in front of a live audience.

Host Jon Stewart, nevertheless, is used to quick monologues thanks to his Comedy Central hit The Daily Show. And he opened the show not only with a tribute to the writers, on the contrary also with a little political edge: In referring to Away From Her, the drama with respect to a woman who forgets her husband, Stewart joked that Hillary Clinton considered it “the feel-good movie of the year.”

Ultimately, though, the studios and stars were the ones feeling good, having finally gotten their chance to party and back-slap.

The Bourne Ultimatum, the Matt Damon thriller that many thought was overlooked because of its late-summer release, took three Oscars: film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Other awards were spread around:

•Falling Slowly, from Once, for best original song.

•Taxi to the Dark Side, documentary item.

•Atonement, original score.

•Elizabeth: The Golden Age, costume design.

•The Golden Compass, visual effects.

•Sweeney Todd, art direction.

•Freeheld, documentary short.

•The Counterfeiters, foreign film.

“There’s always a lot of politicking and campaigning that goes into the Oscars, and it ain’t as fun as it used to be,” says presenter Jack Nicholson. “But it’s still the best party we got.”

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, launch comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

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By Alicia Chang, Associated Press LOS ANGELES — The political thriller Vantage Point secured the top spot at the weekend box office, earning an estimated $24 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous No. 1 movie, 20th Century Fox’s Jumper, dropped to second with $12.7 million, raising its domestic total to $56.2 million in two weeks. Paramount’s family fantasy The Spiderwick Chronicles was a close third with $12.6 million. Disney’s toss up and down saga Step Up 2 The Streets and Warner Bros.’ romantic comedy Fool’s Gold rounded thoroughly the top five.

BOX OFFICE TOP 10: Which films soared and which sunk?

Vantage Point, a Sony Pictures action-drama about a presidential assassination seen from the viewpoints of different characters, included a star-studded ensemble cast that featured Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox as Secret Service agents.

“Audiences really love it when they get a summer-style popcorn movie at a time of the year when they don’t expect it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers.

The studio said Vantage Point appealed to a broad auditory — 52% of moviegoers were male and half were subordinate to age 30.

“It’s renewed with lots of twists and turns. Audiences become very invested in it,” said Rory Bruer, Sony president of distribution.

The only other new release to crack the top 10 was the Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind, which took in $4.1 million and was tied at No. 7 with Juno. The Fox Searchlight pregnancy comedy has rung up $130 million since opening 12 weeks ago.

Paramount Vantage’s oil saga There Will Be Blood moved up two slots to No. 10 with $2.6 million for a total of $35 million in nine weeks.

The weekend’s other two debuts, Lionsgate’s Witless Protection and MGM’s Charlie Bartlett, came in at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively.

Box office revenues were down for the second straight week. The vertex 12 movies grossed $90 million, down 23% from last weekend and 10% from the same weekend in 2007.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not subsist published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge Columbia Pictures