1/26/06: CAS Top 5; DGA Goes Commercial

CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY AWARDS - final five nominees announced. The CAS awards will be presented 2/25/06.

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS - Meet the Nominees: Commercials.

Two More Oscar Presenters Announced

Luke Wilson joins his brother, Owen Wilson, in the Oscar presenter line up. Jennifer Aniston will also be making her first Oscar appearance as a presenter.

Academy Expands Oscar Pre-Show To One Hour

The official Academy red carpet arrivals show preceding the annual Academy Award® telecast will be expanded this year to a full hour, starting at 4:00 p.m. PST, 7:00 p.m. EST, according to Academy President Sid Ganis.

"We're starting the Oscar telecast this year straight up at 5:00 p.m. on the west coast," Ganis said, "and that gives us an opportunity to expand the pre-show to an hour. Right now we're in the design phase, with Dennis Doty producing."

Doty produced the first official pre-show in 1999 and has produced three additional shows, in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

"We want to make it different from the half-hour shows we've had over the past seven years," Ganis said, "but we won't lose sight of the fact that people want to see the glitz and glamour - they want to see fashions on the red carpet!

"But an hour also will give us time to acquaint our viewers with some of the films and nominees they may not know so well. There will be terrific little stories to tell here, and we'll use this extra time to tell them."

Doty agreed. "The show has evolved to a full hour and this gives us the opportunity to do it bigger and better," he said. "The heart of this show is all about the stars, the fashion, the emotions and the films. That's the core of the story we are there to cover. This hour format will give us the ability to provide a greater insight and feeling about the motion pictures and the stars and the filmmakers who have made this all possible."

"It's our show," Ganis added. "We can go where we want to go ... take the cameras into places other lead-up shows don't go."

"Absolutely right!" Doty said. "Our audience will have the best seat in the stands and the best place on the red carpet to experience all of it. And we'll bring in some exciting new elements this year that will give the audience of the official Oscar pre-show an exclusive up-close-and-personal look at all of the excitement of the Oscars®."

The Oscar telecast was moved up half-an-hour so that it would start on the hour, the start time most familiar to viewers. "That will make it easier for viewers to find the show, get tuned in and get settled so they'll be more likely to stick with it," Ganis said. "It also has the additional attraction of guaranteeing that the Oscar telecast will end before midnight on the east coast.

"This change has significant advantages on both ends for us and our viewers."

No word yet on who will host the official pre-show - we'll let you know!

Rest in Peace, Chris Penn

Actor Christopher Penn, Sean Penn's younger brother, was found dead in a Los Angeles condominium yesterday. During his long career, Penn appeared in over 70 movies and television programs. His latest movie was Finn Taylor's The Darwin Awards, which debuts at this year's Sundance Film Festival. He played Kevin Bacon's best friend and Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriend in Footloose and was most recently seen in the remake of Starsky and Hutch with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. No cause of death was immediately determined but there were no signs of foul play, according to police sources. Penn was only 40 years old.