Harvey Weinstein says “The Artist” is just the beginning.

“France is about to have a golden age of cinema,” said the Hollywood titan, who produced the French-born silent film that captured the world’s attention and five Academy Awards, including best picture.

Weinstein told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his optimism is driven in part by a French law cracking down on the Internet piracy that has strangled the U.S. movie and music industries.

The expansive New Yorker was feeling particularly well-disposed to France after a Paris party celebrating “The Artist” this week and getting the esteemed Legion of Honor award from French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday.

Sarkozy turned out to be a big movie buff, and Weinstein said that when they met, the French leader quoted from a five-hour documentary Weinstein and Martin Scorsese once did and praising Danish silent filmmaker Carl Dreyer.

“He sees a movie almost every day. … He understands that movies can change somebody’s life,” Weinstein said. Read the full story

By DERRIK J. LANG

Kim Novak is clarifying why she used the word “rape” to describe how she felt about “The Artist.”

The 79-year-old “Vertigo” actress, who will be honored next month at the TCM Classic Film Festival, said during a phone interview Monday that hearing the score from the Alfred Hitchcock film used in the recent Oscar-winning homage to the silent-film era reminded her of the same feelings she experienced when she was raped as a child.

“It was very painful,” said Novak. “When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn’t use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it.”

Novak, who played the dual role of both a suicidal trophy wife and a morose working girl opposite Jimmy Stewart in the 1958 thriller, said in a statement released in January by her manager that she “wanted to report a rape” and that the filmmakers of “The Artist” had no reason “to depend on Bernard Herrmann’s score from ‘Vertigo’ to provide more drama.”

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Jean Dujardin is hugged by Berenice Bejo, his co-star from 'The Artist', after Dujardin won the Best Actor Oscar. (AP)

By SUSAN KING and RENE LYNCH

“The Artist,” the black-and-white silent film about Hollywood’s rocky transition to the “talkies,” took the biggest honors at the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday night, including best picture, director and lead actor.

It was a night filled with firsts — and an especially good night for the French.

“The Artist” was the first silent film to nab best picture honors since the first Academy Awards were held in 1929, when “Wings” took the top prize. And for the first time in Academy Awards history, a French actor (Jean Dujardin) and a French filmmaker (Michel Hazanavicius) took the academy’s top acting and directing awards.

Full list of winners | Photos from the 84th Academy Awards | Live blog: The Oscars, they’re live, we’re blogging | Baron Cohen spills ‘ashes’ on Seacrest at Oscars

“I love your country!” said Dujardin as he accepted the award for playing a famous silent film star whose career tanks when talkies take over.
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There were many new fashion faces on the red carpet at the 84th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night, but they brought with them a lot of old Hollywood glamour.

Rooney Mara in white Givenchy, Emma Stone in red Giambattista Valli and Jessica Chastain in Alexander McQueen were among those making bolder-than-normal choices at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.

“I picked it because I loved it,” said Mara of the Riccardo Tisci custom-made gown made of mixed laces and multilayered chiffon.

Some seasoned style stars stepped up their game, too, including Michelle Williams in burnt-orange Louis Vuitton, Jennifer Lopez in a crystal-covered Zuhair Murad, Cameron Diaz in Gucci and Penelope Cruz in a smoky-blue Armani Prive.

Angelina Jolie did her simple, sexy thing in black strapless gown with a high slit.

Gwyneth Paltrow went sleek and chic in Tom Ford, and Stacy Keibler was statuesque in gold lame Marchesa. Viola Davis’ emerald-green, corset-style gown by Vera Wang had a little beading on the bustline and a chiffon pleated skirt. She matched her earrings to the jewel tone of the gown, which seemed a popular trend. Melissa McCarthy also did it, pairing her rose Marina Rinaldi with crystal neckline and waistband with 10-carat diamond earrings decorated with pink diamonds by Chopard and a pink tourmaline cocktail ring. Read the full story

Outfitted extravagantly in character, Sacha Baron Cohen ran amuck on the Oscars’ red carpet Sunday night and all over E! host Ryan Seacrest’s tuxedo.

After initially being dis-invited by the academy, Baron Cohen was allowed to attend the ceremony acting as the kind of Moammar Gadhafi parody he plays in his upcoming film, “The Dictator.” As expected, he brought his unique brand of publicity stunt and method comedy.

It came at Seacrest’s expense, though.

Flanked by two flower girls, he jokingly claimed to be carrying the ashes of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, whose face was displayed on the container.

In an interview with Seacrest, he claimed it was Jong Il’s dream “to be sprinkled over the red carpet and over Halle Berry’s chest.” Then, as Seacrest was bending down, he spilled the ashes over Seacrest’s tuxedo. Read the full story

On Oscar weekend, the real-life action stars of “Act of Valor” bested Hollywood’s pretend heroes.

The Relativity Media action flick, starring real, active-duty U.S. Navy SEALs, topped the weekend box office, earning $24.7 million according to studio estimates Sunday. That was a strong opening for a unique film made in collaboration with the Navy, which sought to demonstrate the skill and bravery of the SEALs without Hollywood imitation.

“How often can you repeat the same heroes that are big stars pretending to be heroes?” said Kyle Davies, president of worldwide distribution for Relativity. “I think moviegoers are ready for a new, fresh experience.”

“Act of Valor” led another strong weekend at the box office, as it was up 24.4 percent over the corresponding weekend last year. Attendance this year is up 20.4 percent, a surge that hasn’t been driven by Academy Awards contenders but by new films in a traditionally tepid movie-going season.

“The newcomers this year have just been igniting the box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. “It’s a very competitive marketplace for both the Oscar contenders and the newcomers.”

Lionsgate’s “Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds,” a more dramatic offering for the consistently popular Perry, opened with a healthy $16 million. Its audience was resoundingly female (76 percent) and may have been slightly diminished by the appeal of Denzel Washington in the thriller “Safe House.” That earned $11.4 million, bringing its cumulative total to $98.1 million.

The weekend’s other new releases — the thriller “Gone” and the comedy “Wanderlust” — had weaker debuts. The latter, a comedy with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, earned $6.6 million. “Gone,” starring Amanda Seyfried, took in $5 million.

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Cover of Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler has shattered a Hollywood awards season record.

He’s picked up 11 nominations for the Razzies, an Academy Awards spoof singling out the year’s worst movies. That’s more than twice the previous record of five nominations by Eddie Murphy.

Among Sandler’s acting, producing and writing nominations Saturday: worst actor for both “Jack and Jill” and “Just Go with It” — and worst actress for “Jack and Jill,” in which he plays a family man and his own twin sister.

Sandler also had two nominations as worst screen couple opposite Jennifer Aniston or Brooklyn Decker in “Just Go with It” and opposite Katie Holmes, Al Pacino or himself in “Jack and Jill.”

Razzie nominations were released on the eve of the Oscars. Winners will be announced on April Fool’s Day.

“The Artist” star Jean Dujardin and “Beginners” co-star Christopher Plummer won Spirit Awards honoring independent film Saturday, possible preludes to the same honors a day later at the Academy Awards.

Dujardin won the lead-actor prize for his role as a silent-film superstar whose career tumbles as the sound era takes hold in the 1920s. Plummer won for supporting actor as an elderly widower who comes out as gay.

The supporting-actress prize went to Shailene Woodley for the family drama “The Descendants.”

At Sunday’s Oscars, the 82-year-old Plummer is favored to become the oldest acting winner ever. Dujardin is up for the best-actor Oscar, where he and “The Descendants” star George Clooney star are in a two-man race.

“It’s taken me the longest time to realize the Spirit Awards have nothing to do with booze,” Plummer joked, going on to thank all the spirits that have come his way in his career, “good and evil.”

Dujardin was unable to attend the Spirit Awards. He was traveling back to Los Angeles for Sunday’s Oscars after the Cesar awards in France on Friday, where “The Artist” won six prizes, including best picture.

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7 p.m. It’s Red Carpet time!

Look! Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia! Is he gonna tell the celebrities that he has concerns and they didn’t make it work?

Octavia Spencer is turning it out! She started the season not looking so fab, but her new style team have done wonders. But no one looks as good as Robin Roberts. Can I be her when I grow up?

Jonah Hill looks adorable and brought his mom, because moms “gave birth to you” and qualifies her as the best date.

Maya Rudolph says the secret to the red carpet is snacks and “so much shapewear.” And darling? That’s some good advice. I am 85 percent Spanx. You are not allowed to ask which part.

Full list of winners | ‘The Artist’ earns best-picture, lead-actor Oscars

7:12 p.m.

Rooney Mara has no sense of humor whatsoever.

Jessica Chastain, however, does. And she’s adorable. That dress is butter. On butter. Buttered butter. And she loves her grandma. She looked prettier with the extra weight from “The Help” on her, but she’s still gorgeous.

Tim is talking about the best gowns and what makes them so. I would say “free.” Free makes the best gown. But wearing a glitter spider outfit with no irony like Cher is even better.

Mila Jovavich is stunning, and that dress is “Dynasty”-licious. I am looking for a dress like that for an ’80s gala I am going to. But..you know…free.
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