The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that it would be expanding the number of films in its Best Picture category from five to 10. In immediate response, a Hollywood spokesperson said the movie industry had promised to make twice as many good pictures. Not really. The doubling of finalists for the most prized Oscar will have no impact on the quality of films. But it should allow a wider variety of movies in a category ...

Some Iranian-Americans, watching the post-election unrest in Iran, say the tug-of-war between the people and their hardline government has come to a head after three decades. "I am absolutely convinced that what we are witnessing is a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic," said Dr. Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. "Even if the Islamic Republic survives this crisis, it will no longer be as it ...

President Obama poked fun at the travails of the Republican Party last weekend, telling the party's chairman that no, the GOP does not qualify for a bailout, and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset. Though the president was just looking for a laugh at the annual White House Correspondents dinner, Republicans have a tough road ahead as they try to rehabilitate their party. "When a party goes out of power so spectacularly as ...

Theoretically, American Idol should not exist. It's a broad-based mainstream hit when series like that are no longer supposed to be. It has gained viewers in its sixth season, a TV near impossibility. It sells albums, at a time when very little else does. And by awarding a record contract by nationwide vote, it is dedicated to a heretical idea in the niche-media age: that you can please most of the people most of the time. But weirdest of all ...

A three-judge panel ruled Monday against Republican Norm Coleman in his dispute with Democrat Al Franken over who should be declared the winner of the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota. The judges determined that "Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election" after defeating Coleman by 312 votes. The Minnesota secretary of state is unlikely to issue that certificate, however, until all legal proceedings have been completed. Coleman has 10 days to appeal the 68-page ...

The yellow bus with a giant photo of the prime minister on its side raced through Elazig, a provincial town in eastern Anatolia, blaring patriotic music. Crowds of cheering locals, some of them women dressed in robes and veils, lined the dusty streets, straining to get a glimpse of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he waved through the windshield. Suddenly, Emine Erdogan, the prime minister's wife, gasped in shock. A woman and child had thrown themselves in front of the bus. ...

The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year's historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. "You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution," said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two ...

The cold winds of March have obviously affected the intelligence and thought processes of people who need to get their thinking straight. (CNN) -- The cold winds of March have obviously affected the intelligence and thought processes of people who need to get their thinking straight. The idiotic debate raging in Washington this week around Michael Steele, the newly elected chairman of the nearly defunct Republican Party, and Rush Limbaugh, a conservative icon for the past 35 years, is beyond ...

Two Senate Democrats urged President Obama Wednesday to veto a $410 billion spending bill and said they are going to vote against it, criticizing it for its cost and for including too many personal pet projects. "I don't think we should pass it [spending bill] this way," Feingold said on CNN's The Situation Room Wednesday. "[I'd like] to have the president veto it and say 'clean it up, do it over.'" Feingold added: "If that doesn't happen I think he ...