Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit with approximately fifty other journalists to interview the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominees at the annual Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. It is a terrific opportunity for all of the honorees to celebrate their accomplishments in film for 2010 without the pressures of the red carpet, a global audience, and the fact that only one person will go home with that coveted Oscar statuette. The luncheon is a very private and supportive event where nominees individually receive a certificate honoring their nomination. The interview room is pretty...

Actress Melissa Leo has defended posing for a provocative photograph to rally for Oscars votes, insisting the "awards process" is about "pimping yourself out."

The star is nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming ceremony, and is facing competition from her The Fighter co-star Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom).

Leo donned a tight low-cut black dress to pose for a sexy promo shot, which ran in a number of Hollywood trade magazines and online with the tagline 'Consider' in a bid to gain votes ah...

Helena Bonham Carter looked forward to childbirth when she was pregnant with her son and daughter, because the epidurals she received put her in a calming, "blissed-out" state.

The star and her partner Tim Burton welcomed Billy in 2003 and girl Nell in 2007.

And the British actress insists the experience of going into labour was made so enjoyable by the painkillers, she would happily give birth to a baby "every day".

She says, "I would love to have a baby every day. I'm just talking about childbirth. I love childbirth, I did. It's so underrated!

"I think it was wonderful for me. It's th...

Natalie Portman once again was the star of the evening. Last night she took home the Best Actress award at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards for her performance in "Black Swan." But she also gets an award from us for being one of the Best Dressed actresses of the night.

The pregnant star wore a white, strapless Azarro gown and a staggering $2 million worth of Tiffany jewels. A baby bump never looked so good!

Check out the fashion from last night's event, and tell us who YOU think was the best and worst dressed!

(And check out the winner's list here!)

THE GOOD

"Glee" star Dianna Agro...

Helena Bonham Carter cheated as she researched her role as Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech - she "sped-read" through history books because there was so much material on the royal.

The Planet Of The Apes star portrays King George VI's wife Elizabeth in the Oscar-nominated drama, opposite Colin Firth as the stammering monarch.

But Bonham Carter confesses she took a short cut through Elizabeth's early years up until 1939 because she didn't have enough time to properly learn all about Queen Elizabeth II's mother, who died in 2002 at the grand old age of 101.

She says, "I just pretended ...

I was lucky enough to be inside the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre this morning while the 83rd Annual Academy Award Nominations were announced. Here is a timeline and some insider information on how the morning played out:

2 AM : Time to wake up and get ready for the announcements. Since the nominations are coordinated with morning shows on the East Coast, I knew I would have to try and get some sleep before I had to be up in the middle of the night. My bed time? 5:37 PM. Just enough beauty sleep for this 2 AM wake up call.

3:30 AM: My official call time over at the Academy's headquarters i...

The Oscar nominations are in! The King's Speech dominated with 12 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor for Colin Firth, and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter. "True Grit" wasn't far behind with 10 nominations.

Also nominated for best picture were "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "Inception," "The Kids Are All Right," "127 Hours," "The Social Network," "Toy Story 3," "True Grit" and "Winter's Bone."

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be held on February 27, 2011. Check out all the nominees below:

Actor in a Leading Role

* Javier Barde...

The King's Speech has picked up momentum in the race towards Oscar glory after winning the top prize at the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards on Saturday.

The film's producers, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, were awarded the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer Of The Year Award at the ceremony.

The movie, starring Colin Firth as the stammering British King George VI, was among 10 nominees including The Social Network and Black Swan.

Other winners at the 22nd annual PGA Awards, which took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, included Toy Story 3 in the Best Animate...

Critically-acclaimed "The King's Speech" is set to dominate the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards next month, after scoring a massive 14 nominations.

The Tom Hooper movie, about stammering British monarch King George VI, has picked up nods in the Best Film and Best Director categories, while Colin Firth is tipped for Best Actor and his co-star Helena Bonham Carter will compete for the Best Supporting Actress prize.

The picture is facing a challenge from Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, which has picked up 12 nominations, including nods for its star Natalie Portman, ...

Helena Bonham Carter has called for her American partner Tim Burton to receive an honorary knighthood, because his love of all things English has helped provide thousands of jobs for British film workers.

The California-born Edward Scissorhands director has lived in the U.K. ever since he fell in love with London while scouting for locations for Sleepy Hollow in 1999.

Since his relocation, Burton shoots many of his big budget movies in the U.K., helping keep country's tight-knit film industry in business. And his long term partner Bonham Carter is adamant he should be made a honorary kn...

As reported earlier, the Golden Globe nomination list is out. Among films, ‘The King’s Speech’ leads with seven nods, closely followed by ‘The Social Network’ and ‘The Fighter’ with six apiece. ‘Inception’ and ‘Black Swan’ made strong showings as well among dramas. On the comedy side, ‘The Kids Are All Right’ – which needed a pre-Oscar boost to stay a contender – landed nominations for Annette Bening and Julianne Moore (although, strangely, not Mark Ruffalo) and for Best Comedy – where it’s a surefire winner, unless you can see some brainless foreign journalist voting for ‘RED,’ ‘Alice i...

The King's Speech is leading the charge for the 2011 Golden Globe Awards after landing seven nominations.

The cinematic tale about the British monarchy is heading up the main categories with nominations for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director for Tom Hooper, while Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush have all received acting nods.

Boxing film The Fighter and Facebook-inspired movie The Social Network trailed with six nominations apiece, including mentions in the Best Picture (Drama) category, which also saw nods to ballet movie Black Swan and sci-fi blockbuster Inception...

Check out Helena Bonham Carter at the Moet British Independent Film Awards in London over the weekend. Can you believe she made Vanity Fair's "Best Dressed" list?

The British actress was amused when she received the accolade because she's usually on "worst dressed" lists.

She told the New York Daily News: "It was a triumph! It made me laugh because I thought it was a joke when I found out. But when I saw the article, I thought, 'Oh, the photos they've chosen are as bad as the ones they print when I'm worst dressed."

Helena Bonham Carter Photos

'The King's Speech' directed by Tom Hooper, simply put is a beautiful, Oscar worthy film. After the death of his father, King George V (Michael Gambon) and the scandalous abdication of his brother King Edward V111 (Guy Pearce, Bertie (Colin Firth) who has suffered from a debilitating speech impediment all of his life, is suddenly crowned King George V1 of England. With his country on the brink of war and in desperate need of a leader, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) arranges for her husband to see an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). After a rough start...

'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1' is the seventh and final adventure in the Harry Potter film series, told in two parts. It's directed by David Yates and written by Steven Kloves. The crew is back...Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) Helena Bonham Carter (Death Eater) and the unrecognizable, Ralph Fiennes as the super evil Lord Voldemort. Bill Nighy joins the cast as The Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Of all the Harry Potter films, for this one in particular, it helps if you read the book. Basically things are not g...

The King's Speech and The Social Network have emerged as clear Oscars favorites for movie of the year in the first serious odds chart of the upcoming awards season.

Experts at top awards show website GoldDerby.com have ranked their top picks and have suggested "The Social Network" and "The King's Speech" will fight it out for the Best Picture honor in February.

The GoldDerby editors have Colin Firth's "The King's Speech" as the film of the year, just ahead of "The Social Network" and James Franco's gripping new survival movie "127 Hours."

They have Firth as the favorite to win Oscar gold...

Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. And only a few days after that, critics groups will start doling out year-end best-of movie awards. Oscar season is officially underway.

This is the time of the season where anything could happen. But in just five weeks or so, most films’ Oscar prospects will be much, much clearer. Only a few things are virtually certain: ‘The Social Network’ will ride its buzz to a Best Picture nomination, and Jeff Bridges will be in the Best Actor race for the second consecutive year. Oh, and Sandra Bullock will not be so lucky.

Let’s break it down by the majo...

Director Tim Burton delivers a visually dazzling take on the classic Lewis Carroll tale in "Alice In Wonderland."

Nineteen-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is attending party at a lavish country estate when she sees a white rabbit with a pocket watch dart into the bushes. Curious, she follows the rabbit to an enormous tree, and tumbles down a hole that takes her to Underland, a strange world inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures in search of someone to save them from the dreaded Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who has assumed control of the kingdom by decapitating anyone who dares disag...

No one is more “curioser and curioser” than goth cinematic artist Tim Burton. The 51-year director resembles many of his strangely wonderful, yet tragic characters. Born in sunny Burbank, California, Burton, who idolized monsters and grim poet Edgar Allan Poe, often hides behind a camera or oversized indigo-hued glasses. Whether surrounded by hungry paparrazzi in Los Angeles or strolling with his wife Helena Bonham Carter near their home in the UK, he’s often hunched over with wide eyes staring back. Burton, always decked in coal black garments with a crow’s nest resting on his head...

Drunk men, vampires, werewolves and blue aliens will compete for the top prizes at this year's MTV Movie Awards - "The Hangover" leads the pack with six nominations, while "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Avatar" have landed five nods apiece.

Sandra Bullock's romantic comedy "The Proposal" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" both received four nominations.

"The Hangover," the "Twilight" sequel, "Avatar," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will compete for the coveted Best Film prize when the awards are handed out on June 6.

"Twilight's" Kristen ...

In celebration of Frabjous Day and the upcoming Blu-ray™ & DVD release of Alice In Wonderland on June 1, Walt Disney Studios is asking America to “Show Us Your Best Futterwacken!”

For those who haven’t seen the film, this is the crazy, awesome dance performed by The Mad Hatter. In the world of Alice’s Wonderland, the Futterwacken is a dance of unbridled joy.

The contest challenges ALICE fans to submit their best interpretation of the Futterwacken dance to www.Disney.com/Alicedance and add their own original twists, turns and dance moves. So start gathering your muchness and go co...

Helena Bonham Carter has received an official apology from a U.K. newspaper for making "unfounded" comments about her home set-up with partner Tim Burton.

In an article published in The Independent on February 27 titled "One big happy family three separate houses", writer Amy Jenkins claimed the Planet of the Apes actress lived in a separate house next door to longterm partner Burton.

She also stated that their two children and the nanny live in a "third house in the same street", and described the situation as "chilling".

Bosses at the newspaper have now issued an apology to the star...

On Friday March 5th, audiences around the world will be falling down a cinematic rabbit hole and feeding their heads with the silver screen delights created by Hollywood’s own mad man. Tim Burton’s fantastically dark take on author Lewis Carroll’s most famous story, Alice in Wonderland, is more of a sequel where Alice returns to a world of nonsense. Tea parties are all the rage, caterpillars smoke hookah, and cats make meowing passé. The children’s tale is a perfect match for Burton, who has brought characters, such as Batman, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands to life, and was set on hav...

Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out” turned out to be a delightful action comedy in the vein of typical buddy cop movies from the 80s and early 90s. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I laughed throughout the film. This was primarily due to hilarious performances from Tracy Morgan and Sean William Scott. To read more about what I thought of “Cop Out” check out my Starpulse review here.

The first week of March delivers to theaters Tim Burton’s long awaited whimsical tale “Alice in Wonderland,” the gritty cop drama “Brooklyn’s Finest,” and the NYC release of the animated feature “The Secret of ...

2009 is starting to wrap up with a few big blockbusters left for the Christmas season, but now it is time to look forward into 2010 to see what's coming up. The early months of a year may usually be quiet for movie goers, but there are some great new films releasing in January, February, and March. Take a look at the films you'll be wanting to buy tickets for in early 2010!

January (in order of release date)

"Daybreakers," rated R, is being released January 8th and stars Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill. This movie is taking advantage of the current vampire popularity, but thi...

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned... Tyler.

Clever, savagely witty and dark, Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition, arrives on Blu-ray Disc (BD) November 17 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, "Fight Club" was directed by acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher and stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, whose characters bond over a mutual disgust for corporate hypocrisy and find release in an eccentric , shocking new form of th...

Courtney Love's teenage daughter Frances Bean Cobain reportedly turned down the chance to star in Tim Burton's new film adaptation of Alice In Wonderland.

The 17 year old was considered for the title role in the new blockbuster alongside Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter.

But Cobain, whose father was late Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain, is said to have rejected the part to focus on her education.

A source tells British newspaper the Mail on Sunday, "Tim thought she would be perfect, but she wants to go to university. She's incredibly focused and sensible."

The ...

Yesterday it was reported that Robin Williams was asked to play "Britain's Got Talent" sensation Susan Boyle, and the actor was apparently excited about the concept. However, he has now responded that he has no plans to play the crooner on the big screen.

So PopEater has made the casting call: Who should play Susan Boyle?

Meryl Streep -- "She can sing and she's already in a biopic mood (Julie & Julia). Also, we're pretty sure she can act."

Helena Bonham Carter -- "The eccentric actress has the hair and quirky streak for it."

Drew Barrymore -- "After old-ing herself up in Grey G...

Get out your wands and your magical cloaks everyone, because Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is on the horizon and it promises to be the best HP film yet! The epic series is almost coming to a close, with only one more adapted book left, and this one is full of major betrayals, coming of age disasters, and the characters we love and hate developing further. One of the hardest parts about putting a book to life on the screen is finding the right actor to portray a beloved character. Fans are some of the harshest critics in the world. Here's a look at some of the most inspired casting ...

"I was ill-equipped as I'd just had a baby. You have pelvic floor problems after having a baby, and bladder control is minimal. Every time I screamed I wore nappies (diapers). Helena Bonham Carter warned her Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince co-stars not to get too close during filming.

In addition to "Potter," Helena recently starred in Terminator Salvation. While filming last year, four of her family members were killed in a car crash in South Africa.

See more photos of Helena Bonham Carter here!

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