Oscar, briefly: Inception takes VFX, Portman Best Actress

There were few surprises at tonight’s Oscars: Lone genre Best Picture nom Inception was awarded mostly in technical categories (including Visual Effects… Sorry, ILM.) And Natalie Portman did indeed win Best Actress for Black Swan.

For the rest, The King’s Speech cleaned up with 4 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Colin Firth. Batman Jesus Christian Bale took home Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter. But perhaps most mind-blowing to this former teen of the 90’s: Trent Reznor now has an Oscar (for The Social Network score.)

As for the ceremony itself… It was pretty standard; All the real fun was (of course) partaking in all the snark on Twitter. I did greatly enjoy the auto-tune, though.

And yes, Irvin Kershner did make the In Memoriam reel, as did modelmaker Grant McCune.

In the news: Giddy Portman wins Golden Globe

Honors. Natalie Portman took home a Best Actress Golden Globe last night for Black Swan. We’ll chock up her joyful but rambly acceptance speech to pregnancy hormones.

Goals. Carrie Fisher is Jenny Craig’s newest celebrity spokesperson. “I would like to have the option of getting back into the metal bikini. I won’t be doing that, but I’d like the option,” she told UsMagazine.com.

Sports. I don’t get this in the least and it’s no doubt irrevelant at this point, but the deep thinkers at the New York Post pulled out a Return of the Jedi spoof/thing last week. I hear the Jets won, if that means anything.

In the world… Hollywood cameras keep rolling in Tunisia (Tatooine) through political turmoil.

Weird Austen crossovers the new big thing?

All Darcy wants is for someone to beta his Crusoe/Friday slash.Well, after news of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book spread around the internet faster than the latest in viral videos, I suppose it isn’t too much of a shock that Natalie Portman is going to be involved in a movie version. (And the book isn’t even out until April.)

But what makes this more of an emerging trend than a simple hot property is yesterday’s word of Pride and Predator. io9 throws these two in with Lost In Austen, but quite frankly that one seems like a whole ‘nother genre of fanfic that’s more embarrassing than kick-ass.

In the News: LFL’s Richard Kerris, Zazzle, 3-D, Canada Spectacular, Blame Society Productions, Portman ponders politics, and Grand Moff Artkin

In the News: TFU, People, Merchandise

IMAGE: Ray HarryhausenSan Francisco Chronicle on The Force Unleashed. They also feature Ray Harryhausen, who is awesome. (Star Wars content, not that you should care: Quotes from Dennis Muren, lots of ILM mentions.)

In the news: While we were squeeing…