Daily News Channel
Heath Ledger won best supporting actor for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight" at the 81st annual Academy Awards on Sunday. His parents and sister accepted the award for the actor, who died in January 2008
Penelope Cruz won the first Oscar of the night at the 81st annual Academy Awards, a best supporting actress honor for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Cruz paid tribute to writer-director Woody Allen, who oversaw “Vicky Cristina,” and Pedro Almodovar, who gave her some of her best roles, and thanked “everyone who has helped me from the beginning.” True to the producers’ promise to give the Academy Awards more of a “party” tone, Hugh Jackman led off the show with cracks about downsizing — “Next year,” said the “Australia” star, “I’ll be starring in a movie called ‘New Zealand’ ” — then segued into a song-and-dance number he said he assembled in his garage. Performing songs about each best picture nominee in various musical styles, with “homemade” backgrounds behind him, at one point he reached into the audience and physically lifted Anne Hathaway on stage to play Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon.” Then the gregarious host paid tribute to various celebrities in the audience as if pointing out VIPs in a nightclub.
After decades of good times, the Beaujolais winemaking region has been suffering a killer hangover. In the ’80s and ’90s, Beaujolais Nouveau was a global phenomenon, but abuses in overproduction and dubious vinification practices by some growers sullied the brand