Highest-Paid Actresses 2011

Well, the first batch of reader favorites is in, and it demonstrates one thing clearly: that our readers are as determined to get as many books on their top ten lists as they can manage.

The top ten best romance authors, past and present.

1. Jane Austen
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.

2. Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë (pronounced /ˈbrɒnti/;[1][2] 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters, whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.

3. Madeline Hunter
Madeline Hunter's first book By Arrangement was published in 2000 and she received the award for Waldenbooks Bestselling Debut Author that year.
In 2000 she also received a rare starred review from Publisher's Weekly for her book By Possession. This happened again in 2003 with The Charmer.
She has been nominated four times and has twice won the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award, first in the long historical category for Stealing Heaven in 2003 and then in the historical category for Lessons of Desire in 2008. Fifteen of her books have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. She has also appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and the Waldenbooks Paperback Fiction Bestseller List. Romantic Times has awarded four and a half star reviews to fifteen of her books.
Madeline Hunter is a Ph.D. in Art History, and she teaches at the college level. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

4. Kathleen Woodiwiss
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, née Kathleen Erin Hogg (June 3, 1939 – July 6, 2007), was a U.S. writer, pioneered the historical romance genre with the 1972 publication of her novel The Flame and the Flower.

5. Julie Garwood
Julie Garwood (born in 1946 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American writer of over twenty-five romance novels in both the historical and suspense subgenres. Over thirty million copies of her books are in print, and she has had at least 15 New York Times Bestsellers. She has also begun writing a novel for young adults under the pseudonym of Emily Chase.
Garwood's novel For the Roses was adapted for the television feature Rose Hill.

6. Terri Brisbin

7. Jude Devereux
Jude Deveraux (born September 20, 1947 in Fairdale, Kentucky as Jude Gilliam) is an American Romance novel author who is well-known for her historical romances. As of 2010, 36 of her novels had been on The New York Times Best Seller list according to Forbes, including among the dozens such titles as 2009's Lavender Morning and Days of Gold. Deveraux, who was described as "a popular romance author" by the New York Times in 2009, appeared as herself in the 1987 romance novelist documentary Where the Heart Roams. In 2009, she was one of four authors who produced works for the debut of Vook, a company which produces "video books" by combining text, video and internet links into a single experience.
Known for her historical romances with storylines centered on strong, capable heroines, Deveraux has written stories set in later time periods, including post-Revolutionary America, nineteenth century Colorado, and nineteenth century New Mexico. She has written several time-travel romances, and her latest novels have had a contemporary setting. Many of her more recent books feature paranormal storylines.
Many of her books follow the Montgomery and Taggert families and contain recurring characters.

8. Linda Castillo

9. Eloisa James
Mary Bly (born 1962) is a tenured associate professor of English Literature at Fordham University who also writes best-selling Regency romance novels under the pen name Eloisa James.
She is the daughter of poet Robert Bly and short-story author Carol Bly.

10. Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson, October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA), is a bestselling American author of more than 209 romance novels.[1] She writes as J.D. Robb for the "In Death" series, and has also written under the pseudonym Jill March. Additionally, some of her works were published in the UK as Sarah Hardesty.
Nora Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2006, her novels had spent a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 100 weeks in the number-one spot. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone.

I’ve read a lot of their books. How many have you read?

• Reference/Source: toptentopten.comby rusticoracle
• Reference/Source: wikipedia.org

LOS ANGELES, USA – The Academy Awards announced today that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 2011 Oscars. 33 films were entered into this year’s race.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

* “The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,” Bill Plympton, director (Bill Plympton Studio)

* “Coyote Falls,” Matthew O’Callaghan, director and Sam Register, executive producer (Warner Bros. Animation Inc.)

* “Day & Night,” Teddy Newton, director (Pixar Animation Studios)

* “The Gruffalo,” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, directors (Magic Light Pictures)

* “Let’s Pollute,” Geefwee Boedoe, story-design-animation (Geefwee Boedoe)

* “The Lost Thing,” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann, directors (Passion Pictures Australia)

* “Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary),” Bastien Dubois, director (Sacrebleu Productions)

* “Sensology,” Michel Gagne, director-producer (GAGNE International LLC)

* “The Silence beneath the Bark,” Joanna Lurie, director (Lardux Films)

* “Urs,” Moritz Mayerhofer, director (Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January 2011.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, 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 200 countries worldwide.
Short films at the Oscars

• Reference/Source: filmindustrynetwork.biz by Christopher H. Wright[November 30, 2010]

The only thing I can figure about last night's Golden Globes TV show is that those Hollywood Foreign Press jerks called a last-minute meeting and, like a whore picked up by the cops with a john's pants already unzipped, tried to get respectable fast. It wasn't just the media, including me, ragging on them mercilessly last week: It was their former publicist Michael Russell suing them for $2 million because he had objected over the years to "unethical and potentially unlawful" deals under which members of the so-called nonprofit association profit by taking payments from studios or producers to lobby fellow members for votes. Hey, hasn't that been an open secret for decades?

My theory is the HFPA called an emergency confab, changed their ballots and picked winners that would jibe with the critics and the Oscars. They showered The Social Network with awards they didn't mean. How could an organization that nominates The Tourist and Burlesque for Best Movie have a genuine urge to honor anything "smart"?

Still, while the results were boring by being unobjectionable, the show still held interest for being what presenter Robert Downey Jr. termed "hugely mean-spirited and mildly sinister." For that, we mostly have to thank host Ricky Gervais, who broke the rule that governs any occasion in which Hollywood congratulates itself, by actually speaking his mind.

Gervais let insults drop like mortar fire. Noting the presence of undeserved Tourist acting nominees Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in the audience, Gervais denied the HFPA chose them merely as glam ratings grabbers for its awards telecast. "Rubbish," Gervais joked. "That was not the only reason. They also accepted bribes."

The comedian also laughed off rumors that a free trip to Vegas to see Cher constituted conduct unbecoming: "Now how was that a bribe, really? It's not, because it's not 1975 Choice stuff."

To commemorate an evening of priceless sham and disgrace, here are the Top Ten moments at the 2011 Golden Dildos:

1. Ricky Gervais claiming he had to pull HFPA president Philip Berk off the toilet and "pop in his teeth" to get him onstage for welcoming remarks. Berk wasn't laughing. "Ricky, next time you want me to help qualify your movies, go to another guy," said the pissed-off Prez, not even seeing the irony of his responding to anyone's special pleading.

2. Christian Bale, justifiably winning Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter, and referring to the Hollywood Foreign Press who gave it to him as "those awful characters."

3. Robert De Niro accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award by mocking his own bad films, including Little Fockers, and moving on to the HFPA voters who insisted on posing for photos with him.

4. The face of Johnny Depp in the audience, looking increasingly uncomfortable every time Gervais took another dig at The Tourist. Gervais claimed he hadn't even seen The Tourist, asking, "Who has?"

5. Gervais claiming surprise that the Globes hadn't nominated the widely panned Sex and the City 2—I was surprised too; those girls are ratings magnets. Then came the crack on age: "I was sure the Golden Globe for special effects would go to the team that airbrushed that poster. Girls, we know how old you are. I saw one of you in an episode of Bonanza." Ouch.

6. Pregnant winner Natalie Portman ignoring the sham and radiating mischief in accepting the Best Actress Globe for Black Swan. She reminded the audience that her baby daddy, the film's choreographer Benjamin Millepied, played the cameo role of the dancer who said he wouldn't sleep with her. "He lied," she grinned.

7. Steve Buscemi winning Best TV Actor for Boardwalk Empire. His enthused response repped one of the rare displays of genuine pleasure all night.

8. Aaron Sorkin took home the prize for writing the screenplay for The Social Network (the best script of the decade in my opinion) and thanked the women present for proving to his daughter that "elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one." Did he mean the Kardashians or Megan Fox?

9. I never appreciated Gervais more than when Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the moral voices of Woody and Buzz in the Toy Story series, ragged on the host: Hanks said he remembered when Ricky "was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian." To which Allen seconded, "Neither of which he is now." Come on, guys. To infinity and beyond, kindness is not what the Globes call for.

10. Michael Douglas entered to cheers, successful so far in his battle against throat cancer. "There's got to be an easier way to get a standing ovation," said a smiling Douglas, an acting nominee for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and the evening's one indisputable class act. He entered three minutes before the show ended. But, hey, this is the Golden Globes. We'll take class where and when we can get it.

• Reference/Source: rollingstone.com by Peter Travers [January 17, 2011]

Source: top40.about.com | The American Music Awards (AMA) were created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete directly with the Grammy Awards. The AMA are now considered one of the music industry's top 3 most prestigious awards alongside the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards. This is a list of the top 10 leaders in nominations through the years in Pop-Rock categories. The awards they have won are listed as well.