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It's Oscar nominations morning
Witching hour is 5:30 am Hollywood time. Find out if you were nominated at the official site. For post-game analysis, take your pick of these or a dozen other sites: Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Envelope, Hollywood Joe, Deadline Hollywood Daily. And for a little academic atmosphere, UCLA and Harvard looked at 20,000 films and found which traits lead to Oscar nominations.
For a Sundance fix
Keep up with the festivals and the scene with, among others, Variety.com managing editor Michael Jones's blog, Anne Thompson, The Hollywood Reporter, The Envelope and All the Rage. Even UCLA Magazine is on the scene with a blog.
Nikki Finke back in the chair
The LA Weekly's Hollywood blogger took time off from the WGA strike grind to manage her diabetes. She vows to resume normal posting today.
Hollywoodsters for Huckabee
The Republican hopeful returns to SoCal on Jan. 30 for a fundraising reception at the Thousand Oaks home of "Passion of the Christ" producer Steve McEveety and his wife, Susan. The host committee includes real estate mogul Fred Wehba, producer Cindy Bond and music executive Don Griffin. McEveety had been in the Sam Brownback camp. Wilshire and Washington Also, Hollywood for McCain and Giuliani. Politico
Defamer adds another editor
Two, at least, in a month. The newest staffer is associate editor Molly Friedman, formerly at Video Hits One, Allure and the late Absolute Magazine. Writer Liane Bonin is also guest-blogging for the site. And I finally notice that founding genius Mark Lisanti sits below managing editor Mark Graham, the other newbie, on the masthead. Defamer
Bo, we hardly knew ya
Bo Steffan Eriksson, the Swede who crashed that million-dollar Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway two years ago, has been moved to the federal detention facility at the Port of Los Angeles to prepare for deportation back to Sweden, his wife tells a newspaper there. Wires
What elected officials drive
A Daily News chart.
Non-Oscar photo op of the day
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will kick off dineLA Restaurant Week with chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger at Grace on Beverly Boulevard.
Where Conan will live
Conan O'Brien is buying a $10 million gated compound in Brentwood with "screening room; a 1,500-bottle wine room; a paneled library with a bar; a 60-foot veranda; a pool; a spa; a pavilion with a fireplace; an outside kitchen; and canyon views. Inside are gracious public rooms, 10-foot ceilings and six fireplaces," says Hot Property maven Ruth Ryon. LAT
Criminal justice conference opens
Sheriff Lee Baca, LAPD chief William Bratton, DA Steve Cooley, state Sen. Gloria Romero, former DA and AG John Van de Kamp, LAT Opinion Editor Jim Newton and LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky are among the speakers at a USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism conference entitled "A 21st Century Criminal Justice System for Los Angeles: A Look at the Present, A Model for the Future and A Blueprint for Media Coverage." I'm on a media panel at lunch on Wednesday. IJJ
Coachella lineup revealed
Ninth time around for the April festival in the desert. Coachella.com.
Promotion at Daily News
Rich Hammond moves up from reporter to deputy sports editor. It doesn't make Kings fans very happy. Inside the Kings
'Off-Ramp' keeps kicking ass
Saturday's Off-Ramp on KPCC had Charlie LeDuff talking about being a full-time dad and missing the NYT swirl, the LAT's Steve Hymon revealing who gives the best (and worst) quote at City Hall, Marc Haefele on Aldous Huxley in L.A., a reprise of those MLK tapes at a Hollywood temple, a tribute to Vampira and another segment with me and John Rabe at large in the Valley.
Philip Conisbee, former LACMA curator was 62
Conisbee was the curator of European paintings and sculpture who oversaw the museum's popular 1991 exhibition, "Monet to Matisse: French Art in Southern California Collections," and who acquired the Cézanne landscape, "Sous Bois." He was a top curator at the National Gallery in Washington when he died last week of lung cancer. LAT