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TV funnyman Jon Stewart is set to return to the Oscars stage to host the 80th Academy Awards in February. The host of America's The Daily Show took charge of the Oscars for the first time when he presented the 78th Academy Awards. Telecast producer Gilbert Cates says, "Jon was a terrific host for the 78th Awards. He is smart, quick, funny, loves movies and is a great guy. What else could one ask for?" Stewart adds, "I'm thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time's a charm!" Stewart, who hosted the Grammy Awards in 2001 and 2002, has another major TV honor to look forward to - an upcoming role in The Simpsons. The 80th Academy Awards will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on February 24.

Guests who took home gift-packed bags from Sunday's 78th Annual Academy Awards ceremony may have to pay $30,000 in taxes on their new acquisitions. The bags, which included a $7,000 Victoria's Secret underwear set and a coupon for Lasik surgery, are worth approximately $100,000 each. And unfortunately for the celebrities present, the Unites States Inland Revenue Service has declared that the bags given to Oscar attendees count as taxable income. IRS commissioner Mark Everson quips, "We want to make sure the stars 'walk the line' when it comes to these goody bags."...

Preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research indicate a modest turnout, by Oscar standards, for the 78th Annual Academy Awards telecast that featured a surprise ending with the gritty urban drama Crash besting frontrunner Brokeback Mountain in the best picture race. According to ABC, the live 8-11:30 p.m. ET telecast averaged 27.1 household rating and 40 share in Nielsen's 55 overnight metered markets, which cover nearly 70% of U.S. television households. That puts the 2006 Oscar-cast below the household turnout for the 2005 (30.1/43). (More detailed ratings data for Sunday's live telecast will be available later today.)...

The small-is-beautiful spirit that permeated this year's 78th Annual Academy Awards race took a toll on the turnout for Sunday's live telecast of the ceremony on ABC. The show, which ran from 8-11:30 p.m. ET, averaged 38.8 million viewers and a 13.9 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic for the ceremony that featured a last-minute surprise when the gritty urban drama Crash bested front-runner Brokeback Mountain for the best picture prize, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. (Final national ratings for the live telecast won't be available until Tuesday.) That was off by more than 3 million viewers and a full 18-49 demo rating point from the 2005 ceremony, in which Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby triumphed as best picture.

Befitting a film about the often rocky clash of cultures in Los Angeles, Lionsgate's Crash gunned its engines at the last moment to capture the top prize as best picture winner at the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Focus Features' Brokeback Mountain was considered the prohibitive favorite as members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paraded into the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland on Sunday as it won most of the key walk-up awards. So Crash producer Cathy Schulman could only thank the Academy "for embracing our film about love and about tolerance, about truth" when her film beat the odds. The top acting prizes followed a more predictable script with the presumptive favorites, Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon rewarded as best actor and best actress.

Befitting a film about the often rocky clash of cultures in Los Angeles, Lionsgate's Crash gunned its engines at the last moment to capture the top prize as best picture winner at the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Focus Features' Brokeback Mountain was considered the prohibitive favorite as members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paraded into the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland on Sunday as it won most of the key walk-up awards. So Crash producer Cathy Schulman could only thank the Academy "for embracing our film about love and about tolerance, about truth" when her film beat the odds. The top acting prizes followed a more predictable script with the presumptive favorites, Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon rewarded as best actor and best actress.

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Hollywood got serious -- really, really serious. It's not just that the five films nominated for best picture are a uniformly somber lot -- though to be sure there is barely a rueful chuckle among them. It's also that the inevitable hoopla surrounding any Oscar race was kept carefully curtailed. After years in which the Academy wagged its finger about excess campaigning, the contenders in this year's showdowns almost appeared to have borrowed a page from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, all vowing to place "principles before personalities." As a consequence, there wasn't a nasty brouhaha over dirty campaigning like the one that surrounded A Beautiful Mind in 2002. And there was no dramatic standoff between the specialty film labels and their parent companies like the one that occurred during the great screener war leading up to the 2004 awards -- this year, the first screener, Sony Pictures Classics' Junebug, was issued in September and nobody blinked. Instead, this year's focus remained quite firmly on the films itself.

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Hollywood got serious -- really, really serious. It's not just that the five films nominated for best picture are a uniformly somber lot -- though to be sure there is barely a rueful chuckle among them. It's also that the inevitable hoopla surrounding any Oscar race was kept carefully curtailed. After years in which the Academy wagged its finger about excess campaigning, the contenders in this year's showdowns almost appeared to have borrowed a page from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, all vowing to place "principles before personalities." As a consequence, there wasn't a nasty brouhaha over dirty campaigning like the one that surrounded A Beautiful Mind in 2002. And there was no dramatic standoff between the specialty film labels and their parent companies like the one that occurred during the great screener war leading up to the 2004 awards -- this year, the first screener, Sony Pictures Classics' Junebug, was issued in September and nobody blinked. Instead, this year's focus remained quite firmly on the films itself.

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Hollywood got serious -- really, really serious. It's not just that the five films nominated for best picture are a uniformly somber lot -- though to be sure there is barely a rueful chuckle among them. It's also that the inevitable hoopla surrounding any Oscar race was kept carefully curtailed. After years in which the Academy wagged its finger about excess campaigning, the contenders in this year's showdowns almost appeared to have borrowed a page from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, all vowing to place "principles before personalities." As a consequence, there wasn't a nasty brouhaha over dirty campaigning like the one that surrounded A Beautiful Mind in 2002. And there was no dramatic standoff between the specialty film labels and their parent companies like the one that occurred during the great screener war leading up to the 2004 awards -- this year, the first screener, Sony Pictures Classics' Junebug, was issued in September and nobody blinked. Instead, this year's focus remained quite firmly on the films itself.

Robert Osborne, The Hollywood Reporter columnist and primetime host of Turner Classic Movies, has been chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as its official red-carpet greeter at the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Osborne, author of the Academy's official history, 75 Years of the Oscar, joined The Reporter in 1977 and began writing the Rambling Reporter column six years later. He will take over the role from Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd, who is stepping down after four decades.