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Well that was a non-event. Not a single surprise: We already knew who was going to win.

James and Anne: We still love you but don’t do that again.

So I thought of a plan to save the Oscars. I expect it to be ignored like my previous suggestion to have all the nominees, presenters, guests style themselves.

This is my plan: Don’t have nominees. Have the Academy members fill out blank ballots. Then they can have their own opinions instead of repeating those of critics and colleagues. Other award-giving bodies can go ahead and hand out trophies–they could be a guide to voting.

And we won’t know who the finalists are until Oscar night itself! Exciting!

No one will go for this.

Portrait of General Pyotr Bagration (1765-1812) by George Dawe. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

How’s it going so far? See you later in Comments. We’re going to have a cupcake party for the Oscars.

That’s news??

The bond between cats and their owners turns out to be far more intense than imagined, especially for cat aficionado women and their affection reciprocating felines, suggests a new study.

Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it’s not just for the sake of obtaining food, according to the new research, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Read Cats adore, manipulate women, in Discovery News.

Thanks to stellalehua for the alert. (I know what you’re thinking: Does this mean James Franco is a girl?)

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P.S. from Patrick: Cats Quote Charlie Sheen (verbatim!).

Emotional Weather Report, today in the Philippine Star.

Notting Hill montage from Distractions of Lola.

Every year we do a round-up of the Philippine movie industry and for the last four years it’s been the same story. The same movie, the same director, and the same actor.

The movie is Notting Hill. You choke on your coffee: “That’s not a Filipino movie.” No, it is a British-made romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant that made a gazillion dollars in 1999. It has also become the template for the box-office blockbuster rom-coms churned out by the leading Filipino movie studio of the last decade, Star Cinema.

Look at the formula. Good-looking, rather befuddled Boy meets pretty, strong-willed independent Girl. There is an immediate attraction-repulsion but the repulsion quickly vanishes, to the detriment of the plot. Egged on by their wacky and endearing friends who live only to comment on the protagonists’ romance, Boy and Girl move towards couplehood. (At least in the Notting Hill-Four Weddings school the friends/supporting characters are allowed to have characters.)

Boy may pursue Girl, but Girl really takes the lead. Someone makes a proposal, it is accepted, and they expect to live happily ever after. . .but wait! A crisis arises that threatens to tear them apart. As crises go it is inconsequential and easily resolved, but the protagonists and their one-note friend chorus go into High Drama Mode. They treat the silly non-crisis as if global warming had escalated insanely and the homeless polar bears will eat us tomorrow. They break up.
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Photo from Justin’s phone. L-R: Michael Letts, Ned Stephenson, Reggie Teagle, two guys we’ll identify soon, Justin Coveney, kneeling guy name to follow, Chris Everingham and Jake Letts.

The Filipino team Sons of Lapu Lapu beat the Avondale Rugby Club 15-7 in their first game at the Kiama 7s in NSW, Australia. Try-scorers: Jake Letts, Michael Letts, and Christian Desacolo. The Sons of Lapu Lapu team is coached by Philippine national coach Expo Mejia.

In the second game the Sons of Lapu Lapu beat Balmain Rugby Club, 5-0. On to the final!

Thanks to our badass correspondent Justin Coveney.

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Just on our way back from the Kiama 7’s now. The boys did really well. We came first in our pool then moved into the Cup finals which is division 1. Unfortunately we lost in the next game which knocked us out in the Round of 16. So in the end we finished in the top 16 teams out of like 50 odd I think? – Jake Letts

Arguably Hitchcock’s best. Still stunning.

Watch the 50 Greatest Opening Title Sequences Of All Time.