The official competition at the Venice Film Festival may be called "Venezia 65," but with 21 films competing for the top prize –- the Golden Lion –- it is just coming of age as a launching pad for Academy Award fare. Last year best picture nominees "Atonement" and "Michael Clayton" were launched there. The previous year: "The Queen." In 2005, "Brokeback Mountain" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." Among the contenders this year are Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme and three-time nominee Debra Winger with the comedy drama "Rachel Getting Married" and a pair of Oscar winners -- Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger -- as a combative daughter and mother in "The Burning Plain," That's the long-awaited directorial debut of one of the world's most gifted screenwriters — Guillermo Arriaga, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing best-picture nominee "Babel. " He also penned two other derby players — "21 Grams" (acting noms for Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro in 2003) and — and one of the most riveting films I've seen over this past decade — "Amores Perros" (nominee best foreign film of 2000). READ MORE

Though "Lust, Caution," last year's surprise choice for best of the fest, did not figure in the Oscar race, the expected victor at Venice — "Atonement" — did land seven nominations, including that best picture nod. Best actress winner Cate Blanchett slipped down to the supporting race come Oscar time for "I'm Not There." And while last year's Venice best-actor winner, Brad Pitt ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"), did not get a nod, his on-screen adversary, Casey Affleck, was a supporting nominee.

The year before, Casey's older brother, Ben Affleck, was the surprise winner of the best actor prize at Venice for "Hollywoodland." Because the festival offers only one acting category, Affleck's supporting turn as TV's Superman George Reeves edged out leading performances, including that of the film's nominal star, Adrien Brody as an anguished detective investigating Reeves' suspicious death. While Affleck landed a Golden Globe supporting nod, he was snubbed come Oscar time.

That same year, Dame Helen Mirren began her regal procession to an Oscar coronation with her win at Venice for "The Queen." However, Dame Helen stands alone among Venice Volpi Cup winners of the past decade to prevail at the Academy Awards. Those who successfully translated their Venice victories into at least Oscar nods were: David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck," 2005), Imelda Staunton ("Vera Drake," 2004), Julianne Moore ("Far From Heaven," 2002), and Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls," 2000). Among those snubbed were Bardem ("The Sea Inside," 2004) and, in a way, Sean Penn who won with "21 Grams" at Venice but with "Mystic River" at the 2003 Oscars.

The only Golden Lion winner to compete at the Oscars in the past decade was "Brokeback Mountain" in 2005. Deciding the winners this year will be a jury of seven including four directors -- German helmer Wim Wenders who chairs, along with American director John Landis, Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, and Argentinean newcomer Lucrecia Martel -- as well as Russian screenwriter Juriy Arabov, Italian actress Valerie Golino, and Scottish visual artist Douglas Gordon. Among the films competing this year for the top prize are four from Italy, three each from France and Japan, and these five from the USA.

Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") competes with the comedy drama "Rachel Getting Married" starring Anne Hathaway as an estranged daughter returning to the family fold for her sister's wedding. Debra Winger supports in her first feature film in four years.

"The Burning Plain" stars Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger as a daughter and mother struggling to reconnect. Guillermo Arriaga, the Oscar nominated screenwriter of "Babel," handles both helming and scripting.

Darren Aronofsky, who competed at Venice two years ago with "The Fountain," returns with "The Wrestler." Mickey Rourke plays, appropriately enough, a man in search of a comeback, co-starring with Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.

"Hurt Locker" reunites director Kathryn Bigelow with her "Strange Days" star Ralph Fiennes in the story of an Army bomb squad under fire in Iraq. "Vegas: Based on a True Story" from Iranian director Amir Naderi rounds out the American slate.

For the full line up of films at the fest, which runs from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6 - CLICK HERE

(Sony Pictures Classics)

On Aug. 7, FX network will air a marathon of all 13 episodes of "Damages" from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET / PT. The critically hailed show is nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including best drama series and best actress (Glenn Close).

On my favorite subject of Melissa Leo , InContention.com wonders if the "Frozen River" star could be an Oscar front-runner. READ MORE

Speaking of Melissa Leo. I asked Sony Pictures Classics if I could speak to director-writer Courtney Hunt to get her side of the story about Leo's diva fit on the set of "Frozen River," but I'm told that they're traveling and not available till next week. OK, let's see if I can chat with Hunt then. My request for an interview remains open.

Newcomer Jessie Farrell leads with the most nominations (seven) for the Canadian Country Music Assn. Awards that will be held in Winnipeg, Canada, on Sept. 8, hosted by Terri Clark. Jessie Farrell is a 30-year-old crooner who hails from Vancouver who is up for best single of the year ("Best of Me") and album ("Nothing Fancy"). READ MORE

"We take a little pride in not being nominated," fumes Seth Gilliam while lashing out at the Emmys for giving "The Wire" only one nomination in its farewell season: best writing. The star who portrays Sergeant Ellis Carver told BBC 5 Live: "The show deals with inner city civil servants and the Emmys would rather fantasize about lawyers and romance …. It's a show about a blue collar town. It's not very flashy and glamorous …. There aren't a lot of shootings in every episode and there isn't a lot of flesh and nipples … The Emmys will in no way validate the quality of the material we put out there." READ MORE

Rocker Josh Kelley finally speaks up about the hubbub surrounding his wife, "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl, withdrawing from Emmy consideration — news originally broken by Gold Derby. (CLICK HERE) "Were pretty strong cats," he tells Hollyscoop.com. "We cook in a lot, watch a lot of TV, and just chill out and keep it simple." I'm not sure if this next sentence are the words Josh Kelley also uttered, or if this text is full of typos, but here's more: "When you get into the entertainment business usually most people get into knowing that the possibilities of these things happening are could be a reality I think you just try to get strong, deal with it move on and make your art." READ EVEN MORE

(Photos: HBO, OK Magazine)

In the comments section of my blog item about Melissa Leo's diva fit on the set of "Frozen River," Thelma Adams insists that I target "a slight that did not exist" while I railed against the incident described in Thelma's Huffington Post article (CLICK HERE). To read my rant, CLICK HERE.

Over at AwardsDaily.com, Sasha Stone says I'm making "something out of nothing" (READ MORE) and Jeff Wells lets me have it over at Hollywood-Elsewhere.com too (SEE HERE), dismissing Leo's meltdown as "nothing at all." Sasha and Thelma even accuse me of having this rant for publicity's sake! Hmmm . . . don't you think that, if I wanted publicity, I'd go after an A-lister instead of an obscure actress appearing in a tiny film the public hasn't seen yet? But they're desperate to cook up a reason other than the truth because it's a blogosphere felony to criticize a "cool" art-house star like Leo, you know. That cannot be conceived of — or tolerated — so counter salvos must be launched.

Let's review the undisputed basics of this story again, just to clarify. Writer-director Courtney Hunt is obviously so offended by the way Melissa Leo addresses her while shooting a scene of "Frozen River" that she asks Leo, "softly, whispery," not "to talk to me like that." Leo could've responded respectfully and discussed their disagreement responsibility. Instead, Leo screams to the producer, "Talk to her!" Now we all know what that means: hey, put that serf in her place, pronto! Leo claims she was merely asking for "a clarification" when she caused director/writer Hunt — who went through enormous financial hardship to finance this Oscar vehicle for Leo — to ask Leo to address her with respect, but, obviously, Hunt wouldn't have made that request if Leo was behaving herself. My, my, look how everybody automatically rushes to the defense of the offensive celebrity. Again. As usual. Coddling a foot-stomping star. Can't resist. Shame, shame, shame.

Hmmmmm ... makes me wonder how Thelma, Sasha and Jeff would respond if Leo dispatched her producer to give them a stern rebuke after they merely asked her to address them with respect. I have a hunch they wouldn't shrug all this off so lightly.

(Sony Pictures Classics)

Yesterday the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. presented $759,865 in financial grants to charities at its annual luncheon welcoming the installation of new officers. Announcing the grants at the Beverly Hills Hotel were celebs such as Aaron Eckhart and Jon Hamm. Acceptance remarks on behalf of the grants were made by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (Film Independent Inc.), Rosario Dawson (IFP), Dana Delany (UCLA), Dakota Fanning (California State Summer School Arts Foundation), Chris Messina (Sundance Institute), Elizabeth Pena (National Assn. of Latino Independent Producers) and Rosie Perez (Inner-City Arts).

Re-elected President Jorge Camara introduced the re-elected officers Mike Goodridge, vice president; Serge Rakhlin, executive secretary; and Meher Tatna, treasurer. The new Board of Directors is comprised of Mahfouz Doss (re-elected Chairman), Erkki Kanto, Lilly Lui, Paz Mata, Frances Schoenberger, and Armando Gallo (alternate).

"Despite last January's cancellation of the Annual Golden Globe Awards due to the Writers Guild strike that curtailed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's income, we're delighted to honor our ongoing commitment to support entertainment industry-related film school and non-profit organizations," said Jorge Camara, HFPA President.

OK, OK, it's great to go wild about Harry again with the release of the new trailer for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," but beware, kudos nuts. Harry Potter can shake his magic wand over and over, but it fails to enchant Oscar voters.

Turns out, in fact, that Harry Potter is the new Susan Lucci of the Oscars. Since 2001, his five films have netted six nominations and no wins.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002) and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) weren't nominated for anything! The only Oscar bid cooked up by "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) was for art direction (it lost to "Memoirs of a Geisha"). "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) did slightly better, nabbing noms for music score and visual effects. It lost to, respectively, "Finding Neverland" and "Spider-Man 2."

It was the first wizard flick that did the best. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001) reaped three nominations: art direction, costumes and music score. It lost to, respectively, "Moulin Rouge!" "Moulin Rouge!" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

However, Harry Potter has had the magic touch at the Grammys where two of Jim Dale's recordings won best children's spoken word album: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2000) and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (2007).

By the way, when you view the new trailer for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," don't be upset that it doesn't include more of your fave characters.

"It’s only a teaser, just to get people excited," Rupert Grint told MTV News.

The MTV report continues: "Ron Weasley nearly dies after he drinks Professor Slughorn’s poisoned mead, a gift the professor was meant to pass on to Dumbledore, in an assassination attempt gone horribly wrong. Ron had already been poisoned in one sense — 'He gets poisoned quite a bit in this film,' Grint laughed — because he ate Romilda Vane's chocolate cauldrons (also meant for someone else, this time Harry) which were spiked with love potion. Harry rushes his friend off to the potions professor for a quick fix, only Ron goes from a bad predicament to a lethal one in mere moments. 'That was a really fun scene,' Grint said."

(Photos: Listening Library)

Sometimes I'm tempted to dismiss Steve Carell 's shot at winning the Emmy for two reasons. He portrays what we all (including Emmy voters) hate the most — the creepy boss from hell — and he's already lost the race for best comedy actor twice. How can he possibly have any hope now?

This year Carell gave Emmy judges a special, one-hour episode of "The Office" titled "Goodbye Toby" as the sample of his best work. As everybody knows, size matters in Hollywood and it really, really matters at the Emmys. In the race for best comedy actor, which is usually reserved for the stars of half-hour sitcoms, one-hour episodes have won five times over the last eight years. Tony Shalhoub won three times for his one-hour show "Monk" in 2003, 2005 and 2006. In 2000, Michael J. Fox won for submitting his one-hour special farewell eppy of "Spin City" titled "Goodbye/Conclusion." In 2001, Eric McCormack won for "Lows in the Mid-Eighties," the one-hour flashback episode that reveals how the title characters of "Will & Grace" met.

This year we have three one-hour entries — Steve Carell, Tony Shalhoub and Lee Pace ("Pushing Daisies") — plus an extremely strong half-hour entry by Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock"). Charlie Sheen's 30-minute performance in "Is There a Mrs. Waffles?" is quite good too, but the lightweight nature of "Two and a Half Men" probably sinks him.

The detestable nature of Carell's character Michael in "The Office" is probably what's sunk him twice in the past. Now it's back big time. In "Goodbye, Toby," Michael has an irrational, unfair hatred of his personnel director and he's caught giving Toby a cruel farewell present — a rock with the note marked "Suck on this!"

Unfortunately, Michael gets caught in front of the new personnel director, Holly, with whom he's utterly, hopelessly in love. The fact that Michael is so ridiculously smitten throughout this episode does help to blunt his offensive nature — sometimes — like when he and Holly take a ferris-wheel ride out in the parking lot where the whole office gang throws Toby a farewell party.

"It's love at first sight," Michael confides to Jim (John Krasinski) about his hots for Holly. "Actually, no, it was when I heard her voice. It was love at first see with my ears!"

Carell's big, theatrical, knock-out scene comes when the party starts and Michael lets loose with a knock-off version of Supertramp's "Goodbye, Stranger" sung to the words of "Goodbye, Toby" with the help of a local rent-a-band at the shindig. Carell surrenders shrewdly to the silliness of the scene while he hops around, screeching and overselling every absurd lyric. He's great.

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In her Huffington Post interview, Thelma Adams of Us Weekly joins the tub-thumping to get "Frozen River" star Melissa Leo an Oscar nomination for best actress. Thelma fesses up front that she's got two vested interests — she's a pal of Melissa Leo's and she egged Sony Pictures Classics to acquire the flick at Sundance where it ended up winning the prize for best narrative feature. But Thelma adds, "The movie knocked me out."

Most interesting is hearing the tale of how "Frozen River" got made as a feature film by neophytes who first approached Melissa Leo to star in what started out as a short flick. If "Frozen River" gets the Oscar nomination for best actress that many gurus believe it may (major buzz since Sundance), it'll join that group of past lead-acting contenders who got their films like "Hustle & Flow" financed by family and friends. READ MORE

What's offensive about Thelma's interview is hearing Melissa Leo haughtily tell the story of how she threw a diva fit and publicly humiliated the filmmaker who risked everything to put her in the Oscar derby. It's bad enough Leo did such a thing on the movie set. It's worse that she's boasting about it here. All director/writer Courtney Hunt did — "softly, whispery," Leo confesses — was ask Leo not to "talk to me like that" when the star apparently addressed her rather brusquely during the shooting of a scene. Leo explodes and demands that the producer: "Talk to her!" Translation: tell this amateur hack to grovel or I'm outta here! Jeeeez. There were a dozen other ways Leo could've dealt with that situation with kindness, consideration and class — and privately with Hunt instead of dispatching the producer to dispense a public spanking. Leo maintains that she merely was giving the director a "clarification" about the scene, but read between the lines. She obviously made her case rudely. If not, why would Hunt ask her not to talk to her that way? Anybody who's ever been on a movie set can read Leo's account of this situation and know what probably happened. Memo to Leo: Drop this awful story and your smug attitude while out on the Oscar campaign trail . . . and send Courtney Hunt a muffin basket and apology note now. And if you don't? Memo to SPC co-prez Michael Barker: TALK TO HER!

Variety's Bob Koehler reported on "Frozen River" during Sundance: "A working mom's efforts to raise cash to buy an upgraded trailer home lead her into a strange netherworld of human smuggling in Courtney Hunt's solid debut, 'Frozen River.' No trendsetter or breakthrough, this is more than anything else a welcome chance for the fine actor Melissa Leo to finally dominate a film in a terrific and affecting lead role. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the pic at Sundance for under $1 million, spelling limited arthouse biz." READ MORE.

(Sony Pictures Classics)

"Monk" star Tony Shalhoub won three Emmys and only lost twice because he usually has two advantages over his rivals in the race for best comedy actor. Tony Shalhoub stars in a one-hour program ("Monk" is twice as long as the sitcoms competing against it) and he gets to wig out in big, grandstanding scenes thanks to his character being a nut job.

This year Tony Shalhoub is a major contender again, but has three serious rivals. Lee Pace may be the front-runner because he has the one-hour advantage too, and gives a full-bodied, sensitive performance in the pilot episode ("Pie-lette") of "Pushing Daisies." But, beware: two-time past loser Steve Carell gave Emmy judges a special one-hour eppy of "The Office" too ("Goodbye Toby" — read our analysis HERE). Alec Baldwin doesn't reveal much emotional range in his 30-minute "30 Rock" submission, "Rosemary's Baby," but he sure does wow Emmy judges with his audacity as he launches into jive-pumped imitations of Redd Foxx/Fred Sanford ("Hey, dummy! I'm mad at you too!") and Jimmie Walker/J.J. ("Dyn-o-mite!") that might offend African Americans if the imitations weren't so over-the-top ridiculous.

Frankly, Forget the fifth nominee. Charlie Sheen submitted the superb "Is There a Mrs. Waffles?" episode of "Two and a Half Men." It's his best perf ever, but, considering the shallowness of the role, that's not saying much. Besides, it's creepy too -- it portrays the scum-bum rascal as a hero to kids when he becomes a hit singer of their favorite, silly ditties.

One of the biggest questions looming over this Emmy race is how that wild card Tony Shalhoub will play out. On one hand, it's tempting to dismiss him now because his episode, "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man," doesn't have the same gravitas as episodes that resulted in his three previous wins: "Mr. Monk and the Airport" (2003), "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" (2005) and "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head" (2006).

But it does have one touching scene before it explodes into utter absurdity. In this episode, Monk is so freaked out by the sight of skin that he can't solve the murder of a girl on a nude beach. When he sits down to sort this out with his therapist, he grabs a Kleenex to prepare for a teary chat, then he reveals, "Something I never told you. Something happened when I was a boy. There was an incident with a man. I'd never seen him before, a stranger. I was young, so small , I remember, I remember, I was naked, so naked. I hated being naked. I was crying. He hit me. There was blood, blood everywhere. I was screaming, wanted him to stop. My mother was smiling. Why didn't she stop him? She was supposed to protect me. He kept hitting me. Swinging me around, upside down. I never wanted to be naked again!"

Now here comes the absurd part when his therapist interrupts, noting, "That man was a doctor. You're remembering your own birth."

"Oh, come on!" I gasped at that point of viewing this episode. Emmy voters too?

As if that scene's not ridiculous enough, consider the scene that TV academy voters see a few minutes earlier, one so preposterous that it may dash Tony Shalhoub's newest Emmy hope.

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Roger Friedman of Fox News offers an exclusive report on the details of the TV show that will bring daytime diva Rosie O'Donnell to prime time. He says, "The new show could turn out to be a 2009 version of Carol Burnett or even 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' The latter would even be better with Rosie presenting it all live — as in not on tape — from a Broadway theater, possibly on Sunday night. The show would have skits but more important Rosie O’Donnell could feature all kinds of acts from comedy to drama to music -- exactly what’s missing from prime time." The mercurial talent won six consecutive daytime Emmys for hosting her talker, another five for producing it, and a prime-time Emmy for producing the 1998 Tony Awards.

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post is following up on the just announced postponement of "Nottingham," Ridley Scott's revisionist take on the tale of Robin Hood, with bad boy Russell Crowe as the now good sheriff. While initial reports had shooting delayed due to scripting problems, Lou wonders, "If it's because of uncertainty over who will play the still unofficially cast role of Robin Hood, who is apparently a villain in this version (Sienna Miller was recently announced Maid Marion). As late as last week, the IMDB listed Christian Bale (Crowe's co-star in '3:10 to Yuma') as 'rumored' to swap his Batman tights for a more greenish hue. Today, IMDB lists Sam Riley ('Control') as 'rumored' to be playing Robin. Did Christian Bale bail because of his recent arrest? You'd think Universal would be much happier with the red-hot Christian Bale — even if they have to wait for him to straighten out his legal problems and maybe finish the two films he is reportedly currently shooting."

Anne Thompson of Variety faults the Times of London for "burying its lead in a long, unrevealing puff piece on George Lucas in conjunction with the upcoming release of the new 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' animated movie." Says Lucas to the Times on the possibility of another "Indiana Jones" picture: "If I can come up with another idea that they like, we’ll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven (Spielberg) wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one."

(Photos: ABC, Warner Bros.)

Am I the only person who finds the headline of a recent Oscars news release outrageous? While announcing the latest film to be screened in its "Great to Be Nominated" series at the AMPAS headquarters in Beverly Hills, the news release (CLICK HERE) proclaims "Academy Can't Quit 'Brokeback Mountain.'" That's a pathetic attempt of someone in the academy's media office to be cutesy-pootsy and it's offensive considering how cruelly academy members roughed up the gay cowboys two years ago.

After "Brokeback Mountain" won an unprecedented number of precursor awards for best picture — 26 — it entered the Oscars with the most nominations and was considered a shoo-in to win best picture. That is, until the majority of its members — straight, ole, self-absorbed, guy geezers, as legend has it — refused to embrace the gay movie and so they gave their top prize to "Crash."

Now the academy says it "can't quit" "Brokeback Mountain." Oh, yeah? "Can't quit" is an intense romantic phrase from the film professing undying gay love. What the academy really gave "Brokeback Mountain" two years ago was the equivalent to a gay-bashing. After the "Crash" upset, scores of academy members confessed to me that they "just couldn't" vote for the gay film. Most of the academy members I spoke to admitted they didn't even watch their DVD screener. A few prominent members of AMPAS like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis even boasted publicly and proudly to the media that they were so disgusted by the whole idea of the film that they refused to watch "Brokeback Mountain."

Now if the academy really "can't quit" "Brokeback Mountain," why doesn't it go back and give it the top prize it deserved in 2005? By invoking that phrase, AMPAS only insults the film further while proving how really clueless it can be sometimes.

(Focus Features)