HollywoodNews.com: For the second consecutive year, natural cork will be in the spotlight at the GRAMMY Awards.® Maintaining its commitment to sustainability, the 54th GRAMMY Awards will host two events featuring wines sealed exclusively with natural cork and will recycle the closures. Natural cork is biodegradable, recyclable and sustainable, and its use encourages the stewardship of cork oak forests that offset carbon pollution.

The awards show will take place at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will air on CBS at 8/7 p.m. CT on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. The Recording Academy®, internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards®, continues its ongoing effort to reduce the environmental impact of its annual awards ceremony, telecast, and associated GRAMMY Week events.

Wines sealed with cork will be served at the MusiCares® Person of The Year tribute dinner and concert honoring Paul McCartney two days prior to the awards ceremony and at the official GRAMMY Celebration® following the awards show.

The events will be equipped with recycling bins provided by ReCORK, a cork recycling organization that will collect the stoppers and provide them to SOLE, a company that manufactures shoes and sandals from recycled cork.

“We are honored that The Recording Academy has made natural cork a component of its sustainability program,” said Peter Weber, executive director of the Cork Quality Council. “The Academy joins a growing list of organizations, including the Major League Baseball Association and the National Basketball Association, that has recognized the environmental benefits of natural cork.”

Natural cork is one of the world’s most sustainable products. Biodegradable and recyclable, its use provides an economic incentive to preserve vast cork oak forests in the Mediterranean Basin that trap greenhouse gases, prevent desertification and provide habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species. There is no shortage of cork, and cork oaks are not cut down to make cork. A portion of their bark is removed every nine years during a 250-year lifespan.

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HollywoodNews.com: Two-time GRAMMY® winner Kenny Loggins ; GRAMMY- nominated band OneRepublic fronted by lead singer Ryan Tedder , who is currently nominated for two GRAMMY Awards; and DJ Michelle Pesce are scheduled to perform at the 2012 GRAMMY Celebration® — The Recording Academy®’s official after-party.

Additionally, in the celebration’s MasterCard Jazz Lounge, the exclusive event will feature performances by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the GRAMMY Camp® — Jazz Session with current GRAMMY nominee Arturo O’Farrill. Inspired by Rio’s Carnival, this year’s all-star gathering will be a euphoric event where guests will dance, sing, party and continue to celebrate Music’s Biggest Night®. The night’s festivities will be catered and produced by Along Came Mary Productions. One of the year’s most anticipated events attracting GRAMMY winners, nominees and celebrities, the 2012 GRAMMY Celebration will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Feb. 12 immediately following the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

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The winners will be flown out to Los Angeles to cover Oscar Week events, including the Animated Feature Symposium, Foreign Language Film Award press event, the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Symposium and the Governors Ball preview. Additionally, they will have the exclusive opportunity to work with KABC-TV’s OTRC team and report live during the “On The Red Carpet at the Oscars” pre-show (1:30–4 p.m. PT).

Teams were evaluated by KABC and the Academy based on their skills as journalists and their ability to represent OTRC at the Academy Awards®.

For the complete contest rules, go to www.redcarpetjournalist.com.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network starting at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

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By Roger Friedman

HollywoodNews.com: orget the nominees. This year, the Grammys are finally doing it right. It’s a celebration of the world of music. They’ve just announced a Beach Boys reunion with Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love. Add to that performances from Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. That would be enough. Dayenu! But of course Adele is performing, and so are hot new groups like Foster the People, The Civil Wars, and (less newish) Maroon 5.

Chris Brown is going to be incredible — it’s time to move on from his troubled past. Diana Ross, who gets a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night, is a presenter. Carrie Underwood and Tony Bennett are performing together. The show sounds like it’s going to take five hours. But it will be worth it. There’s a rumor that Lady Gaga is opening the show. No word yet on Van Halen. LL Cool J is hosting. All they’re missing is Lana del Rey (just kidding!)

To read more go to www.showbiz411.com

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HollywoodNews.com: Academy Award® winner Penélope Cruz will present at the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today.

Cruz won an Oscar in 2008 for her supporting role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” She was also nominated for her lead performance in “Volver” (2006) and for her supporting role in “Nine” (2009). Her other film credits include “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Sex and the City 2,” “Sahara,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and “Blow.”

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

HollywoodNews.com: ‘Jersey Shore’ stars Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jenni “JWOWW” Farley are apparently all set to go with their spin-off as they have finally found a city to film in.

The two will reportedly be filming their spin-off in Jersey City after being turned away from Hoboken, states E! News. And the girls will apparently receive a warm welcome there.

“My view is the more people that see anything about Jersey City and see what we have in Jersey, the better it is for Jersey City,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy commented about the show filming there.

Production will allegedly begin this month.

Are you going to watch the spin-off?

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HollywoodNews.com: Gisele Bundchen got a lot of criticism for blaming Tom Brady’s Patriot teammates for the Super Bowl loss, but her fellow models have her back.

Models Lindsay Ellingson and Doutzen Kroes stepped up to defend the Victoria’s Secret angel for what she said, states E! News. “I think that everybody was getting so into the game, and I think that it’s her husband and she just really cared about it,” Ellingson commented, adding that Bundchen didn’t mean anything bad by saying it.

Kroes agrees that Bundchen didn’t do anything wrong in saying what she did: “I don’t know the whole deal about it. I think you always have to stand up for your husband, you’re a team.”

Do you agree?

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HollywoodNews.com: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present “Out of Character,” a new exhibition featuring portraits of this year’s acting nominees by photographer Douglas Kirkland. The exclusive new photos of 2011′s Oscar-nominated performers will be on display starting Saturday, February 11, in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills.

Kirkland photographed all 20 of the Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress nominees in the two weeks since the January 24 nominations announcement. His distinctive, large-format portraits will be on display through March 18. An online gallery of these portraits, along with behind the scenes shots, will be spotlighted at www.oscar.com beginning today.

Following the exhibition, the portraits will become part of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library photograph collection.

Kirkland has been capturing iconic images of motion picture luminaries for more than five decades, revealing as well as immortalizing such legends as Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman. Also well known as a set photographer, he has worked on more than 100 films, including “The Sound of Music,” “Out of Africa,” “Titanic” and “Moulin Rouge.” He recently traveled to Australia to serve as special set photographer on Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” scheduled for release in 2012.

“Out of Character” will be open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free. The Grand Lobby Gallery is located at the Academy’s headquarters at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

Academy Awards® for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Photo by AMPAS
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HollywoodNews.com: The ‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ are back in action for Season 7, and it seems that fans should start preparing themselves now for a major fight that will take place between Gretchen Rossi and Vicki Gunvalson.

Rossi recently revealed that the two women have a huge fight as she feels that Gunvalson says some uncalled for stuff later in the season, states UsMagazine.com.

“She kind of crossed the line with me this time. She said that I didn’t know what it was like to have a sick child, and I think that she was way out of line because obviously I’m dating a man [Slade Smiley] whose child has brain cancer. It created a lot of tension, and a lot of emotions flared up in me, and I just lost it,” Rossi revealed.

Will you tune in this season?

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HollywoodNews.com: David Arquette went through a period where he was certainly open about his sex life, and now Courteney Cox is being just as open about her own situation.

Cox recently admitted to Howard Stern about how she hasn’t had sex since she split with Arquette in October 2010, states UsMagazine.com. “I’m holding to it. I’ve not had a man since David,” Cox admitted about wanting to stay abstinent during their separation.

But, it seems that even Arquette thinks it’s time for her to move forward: “He says to me, ‘Courteney, it’s time, get out there.’ He’s comfortable with whoever that would be with.”

What do you think about their relationship now?

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