TRAILER: The Book Thief

Oscar season is just around the corner and this film is high on my list. The Book Thief, starring the divine Geoffrey Rush and Emily Mortimer, opens on November 15. It has Oscar written all over it. The movie is based on the New York Times bestselling book by Markus Zusak. Watch the trailer and let me know what you think in the comments below.

I am already counting the days until this film opens.

The Oscars: 5 Things You Didn't Know

As you know, I've been around Oscar activity all week long. I've been sleuthing around trying to find a few details about the show. Here's what I dug up so far.  Remember, things could change at the last minute because there is a rehearsal tomorrow morning, but as of Saturday afternoon, this is what I heard:

1.  Barbra Streisand is performing the Marvin Hamlisch-written "The Way We Were" as a tribute to the deceased composer and all of the other artists we lost in 2012.

2. Barbra is being dressed by her longtime friend and designer, Donna Karan, who has been buzzing around the star's house getting her outfit red carpet ready.

3.  They are restaging "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago with Catherine Zeta-Jones leading the way. (One of my favorite numbers ever in a musical theatre piece.)

4.  Seth MacFarlane will be crooning at some point during the show. Rumor has it, he sounds just like Frank Sinatra.

5.  The orchestra will not be housed at the Dolby Theatre. There just wasn't enough space for them. They will be playing at the Capitol Records building down the street. (This has been confirmed by WSJ  Online.)

I also released the names of the SYTYCD kids who are performing at this year's show.

For more inside scoop on this year's show and the behind the scenes shenanigans, watch my appearance on Film Snobbery.

Photos of Oscar Week

I'll let the photos speak for themselves...see you on the red carpet!

Photos courtesy of Tyrone Roberts

My Oscar Shoes...I Think...

We are less than a week away from the big night and besides covering events, I am busy trying to help coordinate my overall look for Sunday with my stylist, Roni B. I think I have my shoes.  I say "think" because my dress is long and the heels need to be high...sky high.  I really love the pair that I have, but we may have to go in another direction if I need more height.

After I mentioned that I finally had shoes for the Oscars, I received this tweet from one of my followers, Ronnie:

I responded with, "Height, comfort, fashion. In that order."

I wish it were easy to just select any old random shoe, but this year, my shoes count. I am showing a lot of leg in my dress and you are going to see my shoes. However, I've always worn broken-in shoes to the big day and this year, I am wearing brand new shoes with a little trepidation.  I don't want blisters!  I know my feet will hurt after a long day, but blisters are the worst.

I will be in those shoes from 10am PT until I can slip them off my feet when I am backstage in the press  room.  So, wish me well and tell the shoe gods to be good to me.

I also have to say that it was the first pair of shoes I have bought in a store in ages. I am a huge online shopper, so it was unusual to be in a mall on a Monday night trying on shoes. As a part of the #MySmarterCommerce campaign with IBM, I felt a little old school being in a store instead of behind a keyboard for that purchase.

Let's take a sneak peek at my shoes for Sunday.  May I present...Stuart Weitzman's Gloso shoe.  While I would like to call these an "investment shoe," I will say I bought my first pair of Weitzman's in 2007 and I haven't regretted a second of that purchase.  While they are not a shoe I wear every day, they have served me well on the red carpet. In fact, you can see the shoe here and here.  I am not showing you the dress until Sunday, but there is a little glimpse of the dress in yesterday's post if you are curious.

So, what do you think of the shoes?  Give me your honest opinion in the comments below.

Media Mondays

 Totally excited by my new iPad Mini to carry me through the rest of awards season.

Last week felt busy and not so busy all at once.  Does that make sense? It was rainy in LA and a lot of my work involved my laptop, writing, broadcasting, and sitting on the couch.  I wore pj bottoms and then would have to do hair, makeup, and wear a cute shirt for my Spreecasts. I was a hot mess of contradictions.

Here's what happened in the media last week.

Full spread of lobster, caviar, and truffle mac and cheese at 9am.

Governors Ball Preview: If you missed my coverage of the Governors Ball Preview--the official party of the Oscars, head here.

Slamdance Film Festival: If you want to see my fun interviews with the filmmakers of Slamdance, click here.

Kate Danley:  I had the opportunity to interview author, Kate Danley, who has done extremely well with her fantasy-genre novel, The Woodcutter.  She gave me the inside scoop on big and small screen plans for the book as well as Maggie for Hire.  You can watch the Spreecast below:



Tom Barnard Podcast:  Holy cow!  This was a crazy show.  Tom had comedian Steve White on the show and I am not sure I got a word in edgewise.  That's okay, White ruled the show....he's funny.  Listen at the 20:00 mark.

Metro News Hotline with Dave Weekley:  I am proud to announced that I am joining the WCHS family in West Virginia on Mondays at 1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET for a weekly entertainment segment.
You will be able to listen live here.

SAG Awards:  I may never do this again, but I revealed my votes for the nominees in the movie categories.  I then broke down the red carpet with my Top 11 thoughts.  Finally, you can watch my Spreecast with James Molnar of The Gold Knight about what the SAG wins mean to the Oscars.



SheKnows:  Some of my favorite stories from last week.
Adele to perform "Skyfall" at the Oscars--Will all 6 James Bonds appear too?
The Oscars will honor the movie musical--Will Jennifer Hudson sing?
Natalie Portman says "au revoir" to the US--She's moving to Paris!

The Radio Dish:  Oh My!  This was one hilarious appearance. We talked about the lack of underwear in Hollywood and Jon Hamm's uhhhhh.....gifts?  Check it out.

I also hit the press junket for Safe Haven with Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough, but those interviews will hit the week of Valentine's Day.  

You have 3 opportunities to join me today:
1:30pm Metro News Hotline with Dave Weekley
5:00pm Spreecast with DWTS Troupe Member Henry Byalikov
6:35pm Driving with Gass on KWSS.org

All times are PT.  Hope to hear from you at one of my media appearances!

SAG Awards: I Reveal My Movie Votes

Normally, I wouldn't do this, but I think it's been such an interesting awards season race.  With The Academy changing the timeline of the entire season by announcing the nominations on January 10 this year, it created a ripple effect that has been felt through every show since.  From the Critics Choice Awards to the Golden Globes to last night's Producer's Guild Awards, the crammed nominations period has left many pundits scrambling to guess a few categories.  Normally, we know exactly who is going to win come Oscar night by now.  I love that a few categories still remain open.

When I voted for the SAG Awards on Thursday night, I even surprised myself with some of my choices.  A couple were purely emotional reactions to the film and performance, so I don't believe all of my choices will win.  So will win and should win, while I think others got left behind by stronger campaigns....not necessarily by stronger performances.

I'm just going to talk about the movie categories even though SAG is honoring TV as well on Sunday.

Here were my picks for the SAG Awards:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:
Argo

I know all bets are on Lincoln in this category and the performances in this movie were excellent.  However, I've said this all season long, Steven Spielberg is not my favorite director.  He makes important films, but I feel like I'm being told as an audience member that it is important and I don't like that.  Argo took me more on an adventure and the juxtaposition between what was happening with Alan Arkin and John Goodman in Hollywood versus Ben Affleck and company in Iran had me riveted the entire time. Argo wins my vote.  Will it win overall?  Hmmm, I would be surprised.  I think the SAG voting body is going with Lincoln. (I wrote this before the PGA Awards were given out and Argo won last night.  It makes me think that SAG could go the same way, especially after talking to a few SAG voters. So here's a good question:   Did the Best Director Oscar nomination snub work in Argo's favor?)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
John Hawkes, The Sessions

This was a purely emotional vote.  I admit it.  He's one of my favorite actors year in, year out.  From Winter's Bone to Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene, I just find him interesting. I loved his portrayal of Mark O'Brien and his true story of finding love even though his body works a little differently than the most of us.  It was a beautiful tale and I loved the sweetness between Hawkes and Helen Hunt.  I'm sorry to see he wasn't nominated for an Oscar this year.  He won't win the SAG Award.  This is Daniel Day-Lewis' award, hands down.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Okay, I think Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence were both excellent in their respective films, but nothing moved me more this Oscar season than Naomi Watts.  I was haunted by her performance for days after watching The Impossible.  I'm kind of flabbergasted that she isn't in the mix more for that Oscar this year.  In the meantime, Chastain and Lawrence are running neck and neck for the Academy Award.  The SAG Award will clarify who will probably go home with that gold statuette on February 24th.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin, Argo

I first checked off Javier Bardem for Skyfall.  That was completely a wrong choice.  This category is so strong and everyone is so good in their roles.  No Christoph Waltz to mess with the equation for the SAG Awards, so it will probably be Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln.  I honestly won't be upset if anyone wins in this category, that's how tight the race is.  Arkin just made me love Argo that much more.  He won't win, but he got my vote.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables

Even though she annoyed me at the Golden Globes by hijacking the Les Mis acceptance speech,  I really did love her performance in the film.  This film received so much criticism, but I saw it early before opinions had been formed.  I think she created such sorrow and pain in Fantine and mark my words.....no one else is going home with that Oscar in this category.  As good as Sally Field is, it's not going to happen.

Now, I realize some of my choices are nothing more than pipe dreams, but I voted more for who I wanted to win this year.  Other years, I have voted with who was going to win because the field was locked in so early.

What do you think is going to happen at the SAG Awards?  I would love to hear your thoughts...chime in below!

I will also be hosting a Spreecast immediately following the show at 7:15pm PT/10:15pm ET.  James Molnar of the Toledo Free Press and Gold Knight Blog will be joining me for our immediate reactions.  RSVP and join us live here.


Disclosure:  Clearly, I'm a SAG member who voted in this year's race.  I checked the rules of the SAG Awards and nothing in the rulebook prevents me from revealing who I voted for.  It's probably the only time I will do this, but I thought it might be interesting to get into the mind of a voter during a surprising season.  I chose not to reveal my TV votes, so at least some of my ballot remained private.  

My 2013 Oscar Nominations Coverage

Well, the longest day of the year has officially come and gone.  Yep, Oscar Nominations Day is always   a fun, but tough day to get through. This year, I woke up at 1:30am so I could get to the theatre in time to set up at 3am.  By 4am, I was happily eating bacon and a Jamba Juice in preparation for the big announcements. (By the way, Jamba Juice and Coffee Bean sponsored the beverages this morning.  That's a first and it was totally appreciated.)

No heels until showtime.  A girl has to be comfy at 4am.

As always, the nominations came at a fast and furious pace for a total of 8 minutes.  Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone were completely charming and I am excited for Seth's hosting gig.  Then the nominations came and wow!..... there some major snubs.

Here's my article on the Snubs and Surprises for SheKnows.

It's great catching up with old friends.  Megan Telles from ABC Las Vegas.

This year, after giving my video assessment with The Academy's nominations, I was lucky enough to interview legendary film critic Leonard Maltin and the executive producers for this year's show, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan.  The producing duo gave me some great inside scoop on what to expect for this year's show.

Here's my video coverage for Starpulse.

And my pal Luz Peña from MundoFOX

Finally, my favorite thing to write is the behind the scenes scoop that you miss while watching the nominations on TV.

So, here's what you missed this morning with my Top 5 for SheKnows.

The dress was $74.99 retail, but I used Ebates to get additional money off.

The Dress:

This was the winning dress! Congrats to Robin who picked this "Luck Be a Lady" dress from Modcloth.  It fit like a glove and the PR team from Modcloth agreed after they saw my photo on Twitter.  Robin gets a $25 gift certificate to the store of her choice. (By the way, I added a thicker belt versus the skinny belt the dress came with to slim down my waistline on camera.)

As for the Shabby Apple dress, Jennifer picked a beautiful dress for me.  However, the one that was sent to me was not the champagne color, it was gray.  The lining of the dress didn't match up with the lace, so it was poorly constructed.  I was pretty disappointed in the overall quality.  So, Jennifer has great taste, I just wish the Shabby Apple dress was exactly the same as what we saw online. The good news is that Jennifer can relish in the fact that she won the popular vote.  Her pick received 58% of the vote.


Finally, I had fun with James Molnar of Gold Knight Blog who assessed the Oscar Nominations in a fan chat for Spreecast.  Do you agree with our picks?

 My awesome cameraman, AJ, who did a great job shooting all of the videos today.

Hanging with Oscar

Media Mondays

It's hard to get back into the swing of things after the holidays, but I'm doing it big.  It's going to be a busy 10 days with stops in Vegas, Chicago, LA, and Detroit.  Currently, I am in Vegas for the New Media Expo, CES, and the IAWTV Awards.  Don't forget though, I will be bringing you all of the Oscar nominations on Thursday, so make sure to stop by to see what happened and what dress I picked.

In the meantime, here were a few of my media appearances from the first week of 2013:

If you live in LA, you have probably seen me in your living rooms. I am currently the spokesperson for Kia of Cerritos, so thank you for all of the tweets, texts, and emails!  This the commercial that is running right now:



Cocktails and Conversation:  My first show of the year with Robin and Erika...and it was good one.  We talked a lot about the use of the N-word in the film Django Unchained and a little exchange Samuel L. Jackson had with a reporter friend of mine.  I come in around the 15-minute mark, listen here.

The Radio Dish:  Ahhh, we talked celebrity babies and the one bump we are going to hear about all year.  No, not the royal baby.......the Kardashian baby. Sigh.  Join me at the 18:00 mark here. (I was also sick as a dog that day...you can hear it in my voice. UGH!)

SheKnows:  My favorite articles from last week:
Website Reveals Possible Oscar Nominee--I got the exclusive on this one.  Find out the answer!
Reality Steve Sues again by The Bachelor's producers--Yep, another exclusive quote from Steve himself.
Jenny McCarthy wants you to choose her NYE kiss--This was my most popular article last week...guess you all wanted a say in her midnight kiss.

Don't forget that tonight is the first #RadioBurtt night of the year!  Listen in at 6:35pm PT/9:35pm ET at KWSS.org.

And if you happen to be at #NMX in Vegas, I will be moderating a panel on Monetization in Web Series at the Rio Hotel today at 10:30am PT.  See you there!

Behind The Red Carpet: I Went Commando!

It's here, it's here!  My first episode of Behind The Red Carpet is live.....finally!  You asked the questions and I delivered the juicy answers, so keep asking each and every week so I can give you the inside scoop on Hollywood.  This is a work in progress, so I hope each and every episode gets better and better.  This week, we talk about:

1.  Keeping your naughty bits under wraps on the red carpet.
2.  Revealing the secrets to becoming a star.
3.  Finding out if the grass is really greener for celebrities.



Join the conversation in the comments below and on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.  I want your feedback!

JJ, Shannon, and Leanne, contact me here, so I can send you a gift from the prize closet.  Thanks for your questions on my first episode of Behind The Red Carpet.

Flawless Fashion: Reese Witherspoon

Photo Credit:  Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Updated With Dress Designers:
Reese Witherspoon in Monique Lhuillier with Irene Neuwirth earrings.
Kate Hudson in Jenny Packham (My favorite designer of late.) with an Edie Parker clutch.
Leslie Mann in Naemm Khan


Can you say flawless?  Reese Witherspoon is in her second trimester and she looks glowing and beautiful as she arrives at the White House Correspondents Dinner as a guest of Newsweek/Daily Beast.  As I mentioned before in this post, Reese is dressed by Leslie Fremar who ranked number two this year on The Hollywood Reporter's Top Stylist List.  I don't have information yet on who the designer of the dress and jewels are, but stay tuned for a breaking update as soon as I have the inside scoop.  By the way, the top to this dress reminds me of another famous Nicole Kidman dress the year she won the Oscar for The Hours. The year was 2003 and the designer was Jean-Paul Gaultier.  Take a look at the similarities.  Nicole always leads the fashion way for the younger generation.

Here are my two runner-up choices:

Kate Hudson, who is styled by Rachel Zoe,  in a stunning sequined purple gown.  Uh, she had a baby 9 months ago.  Impressive.

Finally, one of my favorite actresses to interview, Leslie Mann.  She's just a gal you would like to kick back and have cocktails with because she's darn funny.  Her dress choice is a bit unexpected for the White House Correspondents Dinner, but I think it's the perfect spring gown-fresh, floral, and colorful.  

  

Who do you think looked best at this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner?  Chime in here, on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus.