Hollywood Digest

OSCAR ODDS AND ENDS

The Oscar nominations announced on Tuesday included lots of bits for Hollywood trivia buffs to pick over.

For example, the best actor nominations of Will Smith for "Ali" and Denzel Washington for "Training Day" made history as the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two black performers for best actor in the same year. Theirs were also the first best actor nominations for any black actor since Sidney Poitier won the statuette for "Lilies of the Field" in 1963.

Throw in Halle Berry's best actress nomination for "Monster's Ball" and you have the first instance since 1985 in which three blacks are up for acting Oscars -- and the first since 1972 that three blacks are up for best actor and actress.

In 1985, Whoopi Goldberg was up for best actress, and Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were nominated for supporting actress, for "The Color Purple." In 1972, Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson were nominated for best actor and actress for "Sounder" and Diana Ross was nominated for best actress for "Lady Sings the Blues."

This year's list of nominees features a few double dippers, and possibly a triple-dipper.

Robert Altman ("Gosford Park") and Ron Howard ("A Beautiful Mind") -- both up for best director -- are also in the running as producers for the best picture Oscar. Todd Field ("In the Bedroom") is nominated for best adapted screenplay and a best picture producing award.

Peter Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring") is up for a directing Oscar and an adapted screenplay award -- and could be in line for a producing Oscar after the academy determines which of the many people with producing credits on "Rings" will be eligible to pick up statuettes.

Randy Newman is up for best song and best score for "Monsters, Inc." and John Williams is nominated for best score for both "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Newman how has 16 Oscar nominations without a win, a record for Oscar nominee futility.

VILANCH GETS OSCARS GIG AGAIN

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that "Hollywood Squares" star and head writer Bruce Vilanch will lead the writing team for the upcoming 74th Academy Awards telecast.

It'll be Vilanch's 13th time in the Oscars' writers room. He won Emmys for his work on the 63rd and 64th Academy Award telecasts. His crew this year includes Carrie Fisher ("Postcards from the Edge), Chris Henchy ("Spin City"), Carol Leifer ("Seinfeld," "Saturday Night Live"), Chuck Martin ("The Ellen Show"), Rita Rudner, Jonathan Tolins ("Queers as Folk") and Wanda Sykes ("The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show," "The Chris Rock Show").

Vilanch -- one of the most in-demand comedy writers in Hollywood -- has also written for the Screen Actors Guild Awards show, the Grammys, the Tonys and the Emmys.

STARS COME OUT FOR OSCARS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that Jennifer Lopez will make her fifth appearance on an Oscars telecast when she presents a statuette on the 74th Academy Awards show.

Lopez -- who has appeared in "My Family, Mi Familia," "Selena," "Out of Sight," "The Cell" and "The Wedding Planner" -- is also a best-selling recording artist. She attracted attention on last year's telecast with her see-through gown, and on a music awards show a couple of years ago with a gown featuring a neckline that plunged below her navel.

OSCAR GAMES

Las Vegas has its Oscars odds makers, but for those who want to play games picking Oscar winners without risking the rent money, Yahoo! Has set up an online feature where visitors can make their own predictions on most of the categories in the 74th Academy Awards.

The Yahoo! Movies Oscar Pool (moviegames.yahoo.com/oscars) lets people register their picks for best picture, actor and actress, as well as the new category for best animated feature. Visitors can also check out movie reviews, other awards and nominations and movie trailers -- and even find show times and buy tickets to see the pictures that made the final Oscars cut when the nominations were announced on Tuesday.

The game allows players to make their picks up until 8 p.m. EST on March 24 -- when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars. The game was developed by Yahoo! Inc., which is careful to point out that the game is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with the academy.

PERRY JOINS 'ALLY' FOR A QUICK ONE

According to a report in Daily Variety, "Friends" star Matthew Perry is in final talks on a deal to guest star in two episodes of "Ally McBeal" that will be combined into a two-hour special some time in April.

The report comes two days after Perry and his "Friends" cast mates announced a deal for a ninth and final season of their long-running NBC comedy. A spokeswoman for "Ally McBeal" told Variety that Perry will play a "cocky, successful and opinionated attorney who wreaks havoc on Ally's personal and professional lives."

Perry is the latest in a long line of stars who have appeared on Ally McBeal this season -- including Christina Ricci, Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Mariah Carey.

HONORS FOR MATTHEWS, DESTINY'S CHILD

Rock the Vote has announced that it will honor Dave Matthews and Destiny's Child on Feb. 26 -- the same night that the nonprofit organization plans to present one of its most prestigious awards to "The West Wing" creator-producer-writer Aaron Sorkin at the House of Blues in Hollywood.

Organizers said Sorkin will receive the Rock the Nation Award for addressing "artistic freedom, campaign finance, the political participation of young people, hate crimes, racial profiling, and other issues of importance to the young people."

Rock the Vote founder Jeff Ayeroff said Dave Matthews and Destiny's Child will receive Patrick Lippert Awards for "embodying the spirit of community activism that is being embraced by youth across America."

Sorkin, Matthews and Destiny's Child join a list of Rock the Vote honorees that includes Bono, Sheryl Crow, Wyclef Jean, Pearl Jam, Queen Latifah, R.E.M., Sting and Neil Young.

Lippert -- a former president of Rock the Vote -- launched a voter registration project that resulted in a 20 percent increase in the turnout of young voters in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. He died in 1993 from AIDS-related pneumonia.

Rock the Vote was founded in 1990 by recording industry professionals in response to political freedom of speech controversies.

HONORS FOR LORETTA LYNN

Country music legend Loretta Lynn and 12 other "Pioneers" of Kentucky music will be the first group of musicians with roots in the Bluegrass State to be inducted into the new Kentucky Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Pioneers are defined as "those who shaped or so profoundly affected the evolution of music that it prepared the way of others who followed." Eligibility rules limited the inaugural class to those musicians who are "at least 70 percent from the country and bluegrass genres of music."

Artists who began their careers after 1960 will be eligible for induction next year.

Lynn -- along with Rosemary Clooney, The Everly Brothers, Red Foley, Tom T. Hall, Grandpa Jones, Bradley Kincaid, John Lair, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, The Osborne Brothers, Jean Ritchie, and Merle Travis -- will be inducted at a special Inaugural Induction Gala on Feb. 28.

Born Loretta Webb in Johnson County, Ky. in 1935, Lynn became one of the most successful recording artists in country music history. She was won virtually every major music award -- including CMA's, ACM's, Grammy and American Music Awards -- and is a long-time member of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The 1980 movie adaptation of her best-selling autobiography, "Coal Miner's Daughter," was nominated for a best picture Oscar and earned a best actress Oscar for Sissy Spacek. Lynn's second autobiography, "Still Woman Enough," is scheduled to be released on April 3. Plans call for her to play 60 concert dates this year as she crosses the country to promote the book.

The Kentucky Music Hall of Fame induction is not the only honor headed Lynn's way. The University of Kentucky will present her with an honorary doctorate on March 9.