Kathryn Bigelow … you’ve come a long way, baby! As I’m sure many of y’all are well aware, director Kathryn Bigelow made Academy Award history last night at the 82nd Oscars by becoming the FIRST WOMAN to win the coveted Best Director Oscar … and her film, The Hurt Locker, went on to win the biggest award of the night — Best Picture! Here is a lovely photo of Bigelow and the 2 shiny new men in her life basking in the triumphant glow of victory last night after she won her awards:

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director award at last night’s Oscars. The film-maker beat ex-husband James Cameron’s 3-D epic ‘Avatar’ to claim the prestigious honour for Iraq war movie ‘The Hurt Locker’, which took home a further five awards including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. She said: “It’s the moment of a lifetime. And thanks got to my fellow nominees who have inspired me for decades.” Speaking before the ceremony, Cameron paid to tribute to his former spouse, saying: “I’ve extolled her virtues to the world and supported her as a film-maker. I’d be tremendously proud if she won.”

You may recall that Kathryn Bigelow already made film-making history back in January when she became the first woman to win the top prize at the Directors Guild Of America Awards when she became the first woman to win but this Oscar win cements her standing in Hollywood … I couldn’t be more thrilled!! What I find TOTALLY fascinating is that The Hurt Locker became the movie with the lowest grossing box office EVER to win the Academy Award for Best Picture … AND that it beat out the HIGHEST grossing film ever, Avatar, for many of the big important Awards Show prizes (including BAFTAs, etc.). Talk about your David and Goliath. I’ve been pulling for Bigelow and The Hurt Locker ever since I saw the movie last year … I found it vastly superior to Avatar (which was a good movie but hardly the groundbreaking spectacular that the media tried to make it out to be). I think it’s safe to say that Kathryn Bigelow is truly the Queen of the World!! And she deserves all her accolades. Congrats again!!

I’ll have a full Academy Awards post coming up … but I wanted to start the day with the focus solely on Bigelow and her historic achievements last night :)

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Today is the day … Hollywood’s biggest party takes place at The Kodak Theater in Hollywood, CA for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards and the finishing touches are taking place at Hollywood and Highland to prepare the way for the big to-do. The forecast this week has been for rain today but as I type these words, the beauteous sun is shining thru my window … teasing that Hollywood may avoid the rain today? Even still, the folks who put together the Oscars are taking no chances and have erected a huge tent to cover the entire red carpet … just in case:

Many of the Academy Award nominees are gettin’ ready for the big night RIGHT NOW as they start putting together their red carpet looks, make last minute changes to their hopeful acceptance speeches and (very likely) are wringing their hands with nervous anticipation. I know who I’m picking for Oscar wins this year … and very soon, we’ll know which actors and actresses gave the best performances of the year, which director gave us HER or his best work and which film will be named the BEST PICTURE of the year. Living in LA, it’s hard not to get sucked into the excitement. David and I will be meeting up with members of The Turtle Party: Book Club this evening to watch the Academy Awards together before we hold our monthly book club meeting … it shall be a blast.

It shant be long now! The 82nd Academy Awards will be handed out in mere hours … are you ready?

While The Hurt Locker film and lead actor Jeremy Renner were completely shut out of the Film Independent’s Spirit Awards last night, there are very good chances that neither the film nor Renner will be shut out at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards tomorrow night. The Hurt Locker is seen by many (including me) as the front-runner for Best Picture, director Kathryn Bigelow has a serious shot at becoming the first female to win Best Director and Jeremy Renner himself has a great shot at winning Best Actor. Whether or not Renner wins an Oscar tomorrow is irrelevant in the long run because the actor is sure to blow up in a big way in Hollywood as a result of his nomination … but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Jeremy Renner seems surprisingly calm, considering he’s going through a breakup with his girlfriend, moving into a new house he renovated and preparing to attend the Oscars as a best-actor nominee. “I feel like my life was busier before all of this happened,” says Renner, looking relaxed on a recent sunny afternoon in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and a pair of jeans at a cafe overlooking the Sunset Strip. “I was trying so hard to get awareness for the film. Once that happened, it’s been like a breath of fresh air. I’m just coming down off that high.” After some 15 years in show business, Renner, 39, captured the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with his performance as a risk-taking bomb disposal technician in “The Hurt Locker,” the tense Iraq war drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who is also nominated for an Oscar. The film has already won awards from the Producers Guild of America, National Society of Film Critics, Directors Guild of America and British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Renner and Bigelow have been making the rounds on awards shows, spending more time together than they did most days on the set of “The Hurt Locker” in Jordan. “I rarely saw her throughout the day,” Renner says. “The sets were so big, and the cameras were so far away. I would maybe see her once in the daytime. There were days we would see the cameras more if we got into close quarters, but it was so hot and so intense that you just didn’t realize you were shooting a movie half the time.” Renner’s list of credits include “Dahmer” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” He’ll be seen alongside Ben Affleck in the upcoming crime drama “The Town.” His most unsavory role was his first major part: He played a stoner in the comedy “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip.” “I was just proud to be in a film that would play in movie theaters in Modesto,” he says of his California hometown. His schedule is filled with meetings about potential projects, but he’s also developing his own material. “I personally don’t feel any pressure, but people keep asking, `What are you going to do next?’” Renner says. “I don’t know. I’ll find out when it happens. I just want to take this time and savor it before moving on to the next thing.”

I can’t say I’ve been a huge Jeremy Renner fan for long but I deffo loved him in Hurt Locker and I’m pullin’ for him to win (tho, the odds on favorite is Jeff Bridges to win for his work in Crazy Heart). This article doesn’t mention it but Renner was also in 28 Weeks Later, which is the first movie I remember seeing him in. But, as I said, it doesn’t matter if he wins or loses on Sunday (tho winning is better) because his future in Hollywood looks bright!! We are just over 24 hours away from the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. There are bound to be LOTS of smiling faces on the red carpet tomorrow … but in the meantime, you can click HERE to look back on some of the sparkling smiles from the red carpet last year ;)

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The 82nd Academy Awards are just 2 days away and today celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck unveiled to the media his plans for the fancy eats he’ll be presenting to attendees of the Governor’s Ball on Oscars night … cuz forget about those little trophies, you know the vast majority of folks will be all about the food come Sunday night. Here are some photos of Puck and his peeps showin’ off some of the food creations that will be made available on Oscars night:

Wolfgang Puck will arguably be busiest man in Hollywood once the best motion picture Oscar is handed out Sunday night in Hollywood. The 60-year-old celebrity chef must ensure the expected 1,600 guests who attend the post-Oscar Governors Ball, given by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will be fed within 90 minutes. “Most of them haven’t eaten all day long because they had to go the hairdressers and (do) make-up,” Puck said. The Governors Ball is one of the premier Academy Award bashes where award winners and celebrities of various stripes kick off a night of revelry after the world’s top film honors. All the nominees are expected to be there, from George Clooney and Sandra Bullock to Quentin Tarantino and Meryl Streep. “There’s not a bigger party than the Oscars here,” Puck told Reuters in a phone interview. And beyond the Governors Ball, Puck will juggle two more affairs the same night — an AIDS fund-raiser for singer Elton John and a bash at his own flagship restaurant, Spago. Still, Puck’s first priority will be the Governors Ball, an event he has catered for the past 16 years. To ensure everything runs smoothly, nearly 1,000 people including 300 chefs begin working around the clock starting Saturday, the Austrian-born chef said. This year, guests will dine on crispy potato pancakes with smoked salmon and caviar, followed by black truffle chicken pot pies. They will end their meals with baked alaskas served along espresso ice-cream, chocolate sorbet and hazelnut meringue. To end the three parties a high note, guests can take home their own Oscar statuettes made of chocolate and dusted in 24-carat gold. Puck and his staff are preparing 3,500 of them. “Everybody is a winner if they come eat with us,” he said. But when asked to name his Oscar pick for best movie, Puck admitted he saw none of the 10 nominated films.

LOL!! Forget about the fact that many of the Academy Award attendees wouldn’t have eaten all day … I’m guessing many of the lovely ladies who want to look their best for the red carpet haven’t been eating for weeks now! I’m certain that the food that Wolfgang Puck provides will be the highlight for a great many of the Oscars attendees. I really love the salmon sushi in the shape of Oscar trophies … that’s an idea that anyone could adapt for their Oscars parties. WHICH REMINDS ME … if YOU host an Oscars party, make sure you snap a bunch of fun photos to send in and share with all of us! I wanna see YOUR Oscars eats this weekend!! Send your fun photos to pinkisthenewblog @gmail.com

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]