Tonight the winners of the 79th Academy Awards will be announced. We will soon know which of the nominees get to take home a coveted gold statue. Final preparations have been taking place at the Kodak Theatre. This Reuters blog post includes a photograph that shows the red carpet being rolled out. The Oscars have always been a big media event and in the blogosphere it also seems to get bigger every year. Technorati shows about 75,000 posts if you search for the keyword Oscars. There were about 1,000 Oscar posts yesterday and there will be several times that amount today. Here are some highlights from the blogosphere as well as some links to blogs covering the Oscars.
Is Oprah muscling in on Barbara Walter's Oscar turf with her celebrity-celebrity interviews. The New York Post thinks Oprah owns the Oscars.
Oscar swag bags are falling out of a fashion. Now its invitation-only branded retreats that are in style.
Macrumors and Macminute say you might see iPhone ads during the Oscars telecast. Update: Crunchgear weighs in on the iPhone ad rumor.
Language Log is blogging about how to pronounce the name of the film Babel. Even Brad Pitt isn't entirely sure according to an AP story. "Thank you for honoring our film 'Babble.' Or 'BAY-bel' or 'Bah-BELL,'" Brad Pitt said after the film received an earlier award at a film festival in Palm Springs, Calif. "We're still arguing how to pronounce it."
Oscar Green: Lots of stars plan to arrive at the Oscars in green cars. This year there is a hot green sports car called the Tesla Roadster and both Penelope Cruz and Al Gore may be arriving in one.
Sacha Baron Cohen turned down an offer to present because they wouldn't let him present as Borat. Details here and here
A different gold statue: Check out the statue for Oceana's inaugural Masters of Making Mercury in the Environment (MOMMIE) Awards. The awards celebrate America's chlorine plants for outstanding achievement in the field of poisoning our tuna fish sandwiches.
Screenhead debates the Oscar worthiness of Little Miss Sunshine
Dorothy Surrenders on Ellen Degeneres hosting the Oscars: " Hosting the show is an honor for Ellen and a nod of acceptance for all of us. While she may not wave the pride flag as feverishly as some would like, Ellen is still very much family. To have her beam into living rooms across the country and the world as the face of the awards, well, that’s something to feel proud about. So, this Sunday, I can’t wait to root, root, root for the home team. Go Ellen, go team!"
Scorsese is overdue. Will he win? Citizen Brand says he has to: "And perhaps Martin Scorsese will finally win the Oscar for his masterful direction of The Departed. Of course he should have won for Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or Taxi Driver just to name three. When you look at Scorsese's entire body of work, it makes you wonder why he hasn't won two lifetime achievement awards already. He has to win this time."
Thank You For Snubbing: Watchers Watch says, "But of all the slights, we think Thank You For Smoking was the biggest oversight. Aaron Eckhart deserves a Best Actor nod for his brilliant portrayal of a cynical tobacco lobbyist." EW's Popwatch blog agrees in this Thank You for Smokingrant. If you haven't seen Thank You for Smoking you should.
Don't forget the about the Razzies, the awards for the worst acting and the worst films. Update: The Razzies "winners" were dominated by Basic Instinct 2. M. Night Shyamalan also won two Razzies. Details here.
Will social media change Hollywood? After reading an L.A. Timesarticle called "The Magic is Gone," GigaOm says, "Instead, what Hollywood might look like in the year 2020 could have more to do with how studios develop new 'products' ... much like they did with the advent of television (when they created sitcoms, game shows, movies of the week, etc.). But this time, future Hollywood products will probably have to integrate and leverage the virtually unlimited digital resource of self-expression and social media."
Former Vice President Al Gore is thrilled that his documentary An Inconvenient Truth was nominated twice (Best Documentary and Best Original Song). The nominated song is I Need to Wake Up by Melissa Etheridge. The book version of the film is going to be placed in some high-level Oscar Swag bags.
Robert Scoble has embedded a video he found here called Rejected, an Oscar thank you to movie crews throughout the world. Harrison Ford and Sandra Bullock talk about the less noticed people that make films possible.
Tips about what to serve at your own Oscar party from Mindy Weiss.
Oscar Politics: CNN political analyst Bill Schneider speculates whether Al Gore will announce his candidacy for president of the United States during a probably acceptance speech for Best Documentary Film for An Inconvenient Truth.
LAist describes a pre-Oscars gifting suite: "All manner of free food and booze awaits you -- as long as you're willing to drink your cabernet out of a paper cup that promotes Monster energy drinks. That's the thing about these events, there are sponsors for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Sponsors for the tea sandwiches at the snack table, sponsors for the vodka, sponsors for the energy drink, sponsors for the dessert table. I'm only surprised there wasn't a sponsor for the toilet paper you use to wipe your ass. Although who knows. I didn't go to the bathroom, so there might've been."
David Barry admits he hasn't seen many of the films: "I generally see movies with my daughter, and thus am pretty much limited to the genre known technically as 'Movies Featuring Talking Raccoons.'"
The Predictions: Check The Envelope and OscarWatch for interesting
insight into who might win tonight. You could also visit Unreasonable Observations which has come up with a formula for predicting the Best Picture winner (via Carpetbagger).
Tonight the winners of the 
