The King's Rule

The King’s Speech, the story of King George VI’s conquest of a stutter, eloquently spoke Oscar’s language tonight, capturing the Best Picture Oscar. Colin Firth won for Best Actor, Tom Hooper for Best Director.

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Why The Social Network faded well before the wire

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Patrick Goldstein: A triumph of Hollywood’s conservative values

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The winners

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Photo: © 2010 The Weinstein Company

Yo! MC Hathaway is talkin’ Oscars

Anne Hathaway plays against her princess mein in this just-released promo for Sunday’s Academy Awards on ABC. Not your usual Oscar pre-game. But with Ricky Gervais writing the opening script for Hathaway and co-host/best actor nominee James Franco (127 Hours), all bets are off. We may be about to see an Oscars ceremony as off-the-hook as the Golden Globes usually are.

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Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences via The Hollywood Reporter

The King speaks. Or not

For some, Radiohead is a willful enigma and a crashing musical bore. For others, the band is hailed for its ability to tap into the collective unconscious of an uncertain age. Either way, the band’s new record, The King of Limbs, is just out and already generating reaction.

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Two critics from The Guardian offer a video review

Read views from critics at The Los Angeles Times and The Telegraph, in Music

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Photo: © Radiohead

CBS, Netflix in TV streaming deal

CBS inks a pact with Netflix to make classic television shows available to Netflix customers, a deal that one network suit says “recognizes the increasing value of our content in today's marketplace.” The L.A. Times Joe Flint reports

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Logo © 2011 CBS Inc.

Ciudad Juarez: A video draws fire

Officials seek a ban on a video game based on actions of the drug cartels that have killed 6,000 people in the last two years. More in Television + Video

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Photo: From Call of Juarez promotional video: © 2011 Ubisoft Entertainment

Denver: A fresh Midsummer Night

To a critic who’s seen her share of Pucks that miss the mark, the Denver Center Theater Company has a production of Shakespeare’s classic that makes the old favorite “seem fresh and new again.” More in Stage

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Photo: Terry Shapiro

Berlin: Golden Bear to Iran’s Nader

Asghar Farhadi’s study of a family in turmoil, won the Golden Bear on Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival, the first Iranian film to win the prize. More in Movies

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Photo: Sareh Bayat, Leila Hatami, Asghar Farhadi, Sarina Farhadi at Berlinale: Agence France-Presse

Trailer Hitch: Identity issues

In Unknown, the reliable Liam Neeson battles to regain his identity in a film that ricochets between psychological thriller and vengeance quest. Chris Barsanti reviews in PopMatters



In I Am Number Four, visitors from another planet fight to avoid being exterminated by other visitors from another planet. It’s a hunter vs. hunted story, one that Laremy Legel at Film.com calls “an enjoyable romp.”



Martin Lawrence reprises his G-man-in-drag Big Momma franchise with Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. For Michelle Orange at Movieline, “the mood is loose, the jokes gratuitous and yet short of vulgar.”

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All films open today

Seattle: The Brothers Size rises

Tarell McCraney’s play, at Seattle Repertory Theater, borrows from Yoruba mythology and African American culture. The result: A production from a protégé of the late August Wilson that’s “one of the best things at the Rep in ages” (according to The Stranger’s Brendan Kiley). More in Stage

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Photo: Seattle Repertory Theater

Jagger in Twitter hoax

Less than an hour ago, someone tweeted the phrase “RIP Mick Jagger.” It was a hoax but the word was out. Fast. It trended within minutes, generating the expected reaction (and the expected outrage) as the lie was retweeted around the world. “I bet a Bieber fan started this,” someone said. Tweets came thick and fast, at one point topping 150 a minute. They’re tapering off now, finally, as more people learn just how bad a joke can be. Jagger not alive? Please. Anyone who saw him at the Grammys on Sunday knows better than that.

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Photo: From Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, NBC

Never Let Me Go won't let go

Kazuo Ishiguro, author of a novel that’s now a Keira Knightley-Andrew Garfield film, is already laying plans for a theatrical production. (What's next, the video game?) More in Stage

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Photo: The Associated Press

The Arcade Fire this time

Gaga? Nah-nah. Eminem? Not tonight. Lady A? No way. The Grammy for Album of the Year went to Arcade Fire, whose album The Suburbs came out of nowhere to win, in a major upset for the Montreal rock collective we still haven’t paid much attention to in the States. More in Music

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More Grammy winners, in Music

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Michael E. Ross: Is it just my imagination or was this one of the better Grammy shows in recent years? In Music

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CBS/NARAS

SXSW gets fashionable

Introducing SXSW’s new Style X fashion showcase, Joah Spearman explains why style is more Miles Davis than Justin Bieber. More in Fashion

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Logo: © 2011 SXSW Inc.

Olbermann’s Current relationship

That didn’t take long, now, did it? The former Countdown star on MSNBC hitches himself to upstart Current TV with a new one-hour news program that's set to kick off in late spring. He'll have a management role, too. More in Television

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Photo: Getty Images via Current TV

Super Bowl ads? Here’s the best

You’ve seen it already? So see it again. If you haven’t seen it, prepare to enjoy the best ad shown during last night’s Super Bowl. Pop-cultural iconography, the suburbs and car advertising in a pitch-perfect blend. More than 12.5 million YouTube views and counting. Watch. Laugh. Rinse. Repeat. You’re welcome.

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Via YouTube

You've got merger: 

AOL buys HuffPost

Just when you think you know somebody: In what’s being called “a merger of visions,” AOL Inc. announces an agreement to acquire The Huffington Post. For the second time in less than a month, a big media tie-up changes the game. More in Media

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Photo: The Huffington Post

Are you ready for some movie trailers?

Come for the movie trailers, stay for the game (and the other ads). The studios will be blitzing viewers with 14 movie trailers throughout Super Bowl XLV, Sunday on Fox — more than twice the number from last year, TheWrap reports.

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© 2011 Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens May 20.

Handicapping Oscar, statistically

The horse race for the 2011 Oscars continues, and it will right up until the ABC broadcast on Feb. 27. But the betting window is far from closed. Nate Silver of the New York Times offers predictions based less on passion than on probability. More in Movies

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Graphic: The New York Times

NYC: White Stripes pack it in

News with an icky thump: After six albums, the White Stripes, the edgy, trailblazing, Detroit-born blues-drenched duo, is calling it quits officially. And amicably. No trashed hotel rooms. No rehab dramas. It's just ... over. Nekesa Mumbi Moody explains in Music

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Photo: via The Telegraph (UK).