New Academy member Beyonce Knowles singing a nominated song from "Dreamgirls" at the 79th Academy Awards.

Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 178 new members to join the movie industry's most premier voting club this year and, happily, it continues the recent tradition of skewing the organization younger.

Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black at the world premiere of Richard Linklater's "Bernie" at the 2011 LA Film Festival in downtown Los Angeles Thursday night.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Do you remember when Jack Black was the next big thing?  When he was seen as the heir apparent of leading comedy actors?  Well, yes, it's been awhile, but let's review for context's sake, shall we?

Black first made some noise stealing scenes in "High Fidelity" and on his HBO series "Tenacious D," but after stumbling in films such as "Shallow Hal" and "Saving Silverman" he finally broke through to mass adoration in the critical and audience pleasing "The School of Rock."  That Richard Linklater film was the first time Black was able to combine his natural charisma, actual acting talents and, of course, ability to rock into one signature performance.  He came close to duplicating that achievement in the 2006 hit comedy "Nacho Libre" and was impressive later that year in the straight drama "Margot at the Wedding."  He even took chances with Michel Gondry's misfire "Be Kind Rewind" and Nancy Meyer's uneven romantic comedy "The Holiday" and his star continued to rise. It all seemed to peak in a summer of 2008 double bill where he supplied the voice of Po in "Kung Fu Panda" (at the time considered DreamWorks Animation's best film ever) and as the drug addict actor Jeff Portnoy in Ben Stiller's contemporary classic "Tropic Thunder."  The three year since, however, have not been as kind.

John C. Reilly, Jacob Wysocki and Bridger Zadina in a scene from Azrael Jacob's "Terri."

Credit: ATO

One of the great things about John C. Reilly is that even after his success in films Hollywood hits such as "Talladega Nights," "Step Brothers," "Gangs of New York" or "Chicago," he's continued to toke chances on smaller independent films.  This year, he's appeared in two festival favorites, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" which debuted at Cannes last month and "Terri," a critical smash that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January.

Freddie Highmore is all grown up and boy is he tall.

Credit: Fox Searchlight

You know when you're getting old?  When the young kiddie stars who set Hollywood aflame over the past decade or so start to hit college age. Nicholas Hoult has gone from "About a Boy" to "X-Men: First Class."  Dakota Fanning went from "War of the Worlds" to "The Twilight Saga."  Even little Josh Hutcherson has jumped from "Zathura" to "The Hunger Games."  And guess who has joined the graduating class?  Freddie Highmore.

Peter Sarsgaard is looking a lot more like himself these days.

Credit: AP Photo/Charles Sykes

Contrary to popular belief, Peter Sarsgaard has had his share of intense movie make-up.  His character was dramatically burned for a good portion of Kathryn Bigelow's "K-19: the Widowmaker."

"I did that for weeks on end," Sarsgaard says as we sit on a large patio at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  "I did this for months on end."

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences just released this dramatic statement tonight constituting major changes to the Academy Awards best picture race.  They also announced changes to the best animated picture and visual effects categories.

Amy Poehler of NBC's "Parks and Recreation" is hunting for Emmy support.

Credit: NBC

As print circulation continues to dwindle and online inventory becoming increasingly competitive, networks searching for Academy of Television Arts and Sciences members have found some out of the box ways to reach voters.

J.J. Abrams and FIrst Lady Michelle Obama share a moment during a panel for Join Forces, Monday, June 13, 2011 at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Carlson

After a busy entertainment weekend, Hollywood took some time Monday morning to host the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, at a panel supporting Joining Forces, an initiative to provide support to the nation's military families.  Sponsored by all the major industry guilds, AFTRA, DGA, WGA, SAG and the PGA, the event was hosted by Bruce Cohen (Oscar winning producer of "American Beauty"), "Army Wives" creator Katherine Fugate and Dameon Lindelof("Lost"), and also featured active military families and their spouses. Also in attendance were numerous familiar faces including Blair Underwood, Lily Tomlin, Janelle Monae, Adam Scott, Chaz Bono and Michael Chiklis.

Jimmy Kimmel pulls a Melissa Leo in this 'Consider..' Emmy Ad for Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This is a little late because of the intense coverage needed to cover the MTV Tween Awards, er, MTV Movie Awards, but considering the events of last awards season it would be shameful not to give it the props it deserves.

Ewan McGregor talks "Beginners" with HitFix.

"Beginners" is director and screenwriter Mike Mills' love letter to his father, but its also something of a love letter to Los Angeles.  

Every couple of years there are a few films that seem to capture LA at that particular time.  For those of us live in the City of Angels, these movies break through the Hollywood sheen seen in TV shows or broad studio films that usually shoot here.  Think of "Swingers" in 1996, Michael Mann's "Collateral" in 2004, Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" in 2005 or Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen" in 2003.  And while "Beginners" takes place in the early 2000s, it gives itself away as a movie very much of 2010 from its locations, it's style and the characters that populate Mills' touching story of coming to terms with yourself in order to find love.