Paper Dolls, Dandies And Oscar Wilde

Films about subjects as varied as dolphin-hunting and high fashion are among documentaries hoping to be nominated for an Oscar, according to a shortlist released Wednesday.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the final five films nominated for the coveted best documentary statuette at next year's Oscars would be chosen from a shortlist of 15 films.The list includes critically acclaimed and controversial environmental thriller "The Cove", which chronicles the annual slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji.

Your guide to toasting Literature's greatest boozehounds.

The semester is underway! The New English Bible, Oxford Study Edition. In the Belly of the Beast, by Jack Henry Abbott. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, by Fernando Verrissimo. Glaspell’s Trifles, available on-line. Sherlock Holmes, The Complete Novels and Stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, volume 1. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov. Moby Dick, by Hermann Melville, excerpts, chapters 89 and 90, available on-line. Year’s Best SF 9, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Oscar Wilde, De Profundis.

Bratz dolls will remain on sale next year following the latest court ruling in a long-running copyright dispute.

Austria's Christoph Waltz won the best supporting actor Oscar here Sunday for his portrayal of a sadistic Nazi in the bloody World War II revenge fantasy "Inglourious Basterds."Waltz, 53, was the odds-on favorite after winning nearly 30 awards for his performance, including best actor at the Cannes Film Festival as well as a Golden Globe Award earlier this year.Waltz was a virtual unknown when he was cast by Quentin Tarantino for the part of the diabolical SS colonel Hans Landa, which Tarantino has described as one of the greatest characters he has ever written.

Bratz dolls face removal from shops after a US court bans parent company MGA Entertainment from making the Barbie-rival.

Bratz dolls are to be allowed to remain on sale during 2009 after a judge gives a reprieve to their manufacturer.

British composer Michael Nyman has performed tracks from his score to the Oscar-winning movie "The Piano" during a fashion show by top Spanish designer Adolfo Dominguez.The 65-year-old played the tracks on a piano during the 12-minute-long showcase of Dominguez' 1980s-inspired fall/winter collection late on Friday in Madrid which was heavy on blue and black fabrics.