News -- 80th Annual Academy Awards / Ledger Tragedy

The nominations are in! And besides a snub to The Orphanage in any department, I am pretty impressed by all the nominations for this years 80th Annual Academy Awards. Assuming they will actually go on televised as planned, the Oscar's red carpet should be rolling out on the 24th of February. 33 days away, it is far to early to know whether disgruntled writers and activist actors will turn this historic night into another hour long news conference. For the sake of Daniel Day-Lewis and his all but certain Oscar nod, I hope not.

In a much more tragic and unrelated turn of events, young actor Heath Ledger will not be present at the awards, strike or not, after being found dead this afternoon by the New York City Police Department. Ledger was reportedly found near a bottle of "sleeping pills" in his co-celebrity and friend Mary Kate Olsen's apartment. A tragic and unexpected scenario for a very promising actor and person. Rest in peace.