At yesterday's ICG Publicists Awards at the Beverly Hilton, Hollywood's most accomplished dissemblers not in the direct employ of the major talent agencies gathered for their annual luncheon celebration, handing out handsome Flackie statuettes (a clipboard-wielding thirtysomething woman hurling herself upon a grenade, cast in the finest bronze) to 2007's most distinguished practitioners of their reality-distorting craft, as well as the grateful celebrity beneficiaries of their skills. Accepting his "Showman of the Year" prize, ubiquitous comedy monopolist Judd Apatow thanked his PR pimps for so effectively turning him out during a busy year in which he had to promote projects like Knocked Up, Superbad and Walk Hard. Reports THR:

[UPDATE after the jump.] In a potential development that flies in the face of the prevailing feelings of Cautious Optimism sweeping the town, Radar reports that Graydon Carter is canceling Hollywood's favorite post-awards-ceremony orgy, the Vanity Fair Oscar party. (Which, you no doubt recall, was relocated to the CAA cafeteria to better facilitate the agency's poaching of the winners.)

Today is the day of the 45th annual Publicists Awards, where the Cinematographers Guild, which reps entertainment photographers, gives credit to those special Hollywood flacks. Billy Bush is hosting it! Even blogging chronicler of the writers strike and serial publicist-basher Nikki Finke is up for an award! But be sure to leave your cell phone cameras at home before you head out to the Beverly Hilton. The Guild is currently working to enforce an industry-wide rule to benefit their own members by banning all other cameras, including ones on cell phones, from film sets and locations. Seems that people were leaking stuff to interweb too much. So all you flacks: leak to YouTube, and kiss your lifetime achievement award goodbye. [Variety]

Earlier this afternoon, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences welcomed awards hopefuls to its annual luncheon, where nominees are free to mingle with both colleagues and competitors in a low-pressure environment, enjoy a delicious meal, and generally bask in the glow of their potential Oscar glory. Perhaps infected with the giddy spirit of cautious optimism spreading through the industry following the new round of rumors about an impending, Oscars-salvaging deal between the WGA and AMPTP, today's event seemed like little more than a high-wattage nice-off to see who could offer the most vigorous reacharound to his or her peers, according to the LAT:

[Warning: Some spoilers ahead.] There's been an ongoing There Will Be Blood debate over here at Defamer HQ, with one faction having emerged from the P.T. Anderson masterpiece convinced what we had just witnessed wasn't just a searing allegory encapsulating the epochal struggle between American capitalism and religion, but also some very kinky oil-prospector-daddy on boy-of-the-cloth goings-on. (OK, fine. That faction was us.)

· After two high-rated (but Idol-boosted) episodes of The Moment of Truth, Fox picks up 13 more episodes of their lie-detecting semi-sensation. Evil mastermind Mike Darnell renews his promise to fix the show's pacing problems, and claims that even though these first two episodes have largely failed to shock, they've still been effective enough to induce a number of planned contestants to drop out. [THR]
· Sounding a characteristically gloomy note on the State of the Strike on Day 89, Var points out that even though the WGA and AMPTP have been engaged in informal talks, no date has been picked for the start of formal bargaining, say that "some" worry that the strike will drag on long enough for SAG to walk out in July and "stay out at least into the fall" with the scribes, and claim there's a "tacit deadline" to make some progress before CEOs storm out of negotiations again. Hear that, writers? Doomsday clocks are ticking everywhere, so better take whatever deal's on on the table, whether or not it's a good one! [Variety]

Having only recently declared him the Most Adorable Thing Ever, we must admit the video above might force us to reexamine our Casey Affleck position. Showing all the ill-tempered signs of someone who's survived a childhood rife with Ben-inflicted noogie and wedgie abuse, Affleck's SAG Awards interaction with Lisa Rinna demonstrates the most shocking disregard for pre-awards-show social conventions we've seen since Jeremy Piven openly questioned the salvageability of Billy Bush's very existence at the 2006 Emmys.

With the giant, overturned hourglass in the courtyard of the Hollywood & Highland complex trickling sand until its final grains pass through it at the strike of midnight on February 24, producers of the Oscars ceremony are continuing to stick to their pledge that come hell or high water, audiences looking for four-plus mind-numbing hours of premium trophy distribution won't walk away disappointed:

THR's Gold Rush blog finally delivers video of the incident, though from the director's perspective; you'll probably have to turn up your speakers to make out Young's now-infamous "Get on with it!" exhortation, but the perturbed honoree's now-poignant "Have another cocktail" retort is clearly documented by the Reporter's camera. Presumably, the clip brings this turbulent chapter in awards show history to an anticlimactic close, at least until some blurry cameraphone footage of Young's subsequent ejection from the event makes its way to YouTube.

As this pair of new video samples demonstrates, he's ready to step in at a moment's notice and fill the gaping banter-hole that would certainly develop between presenters like Will Smith and Mark Wahlberg should the WGA and AMPTP not reach a deal before the ceremony, saving everyone involved from another Golden Globes-style debacle.

With news spreading of Sean Young's Schnabel-shushing shenanigans at Saturday night's DGA awards—a story you may have first read about here on Sunday, and that has now achieved critical mass thanks to a lively, first-person retelling by Julie Chen on The Late Show—the spent actress has achieved new rock-bottom depths in the annals of awards season gate-crashing. (Lower even than the time the Blade Runner star sent security on a cat-and-mouse chase throughout the topiaries of the 2006 Vanity Fair Oscar party.) Young has now checked herself into rehab, The Insider is reporting:

A reader with much sharper eyes than ours asked us to go back and review a SAG awards audience reaction shot during the standing ovation for legend Mickey Rooney, feeling that there was something a little lascivious in Hairspray star John Travolta's sidelong glance at Eastern Promises' Viggo Mortensen.

Though the lingering fear that the writers strike will render the Oscars nothing more than the most -hyped clip show in show business history caused many to breathlessly bill last night's SAGgies as Hollywood's Only Chance To Throw Itself A Proper, Self-Congratulatory Orgy, we watched the ceremony without any of that unpleasant baggage, choosing to enjoy the show for what it is: two hours of attractive people throwing themselves a big party to publicly celebrate how amazing it is to get paid millions of dollars to prove their disappointed parents and nay-saying high school drama teachers wrong.

Stories like the one that you are about to read are the reason we REALLY missed watching The Golden Globes this year. While we weren't at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza for last night's DGA Awards, one of our loose-lipped Defamer informants just sent us the following tip regarding an incident involving an the one of Hollywood's most unpredictable actresses, Sean Young. Yes, the same Sean Young who once appeared on The Joan Rivers Show decked out in full Catwoman gear in hopes of landing the role that would go to Michelle Pfieffer. Anyway, after taking time to hurl insults towards both Marion Cotillard and Julian Schnabel (the former en français, no less!), the scourge of James Woods' life was (allegedly) booted from the premises by a security cop. Our tipster's highly amusing recollection of the incident follows after the jump.

With this year's Golden Globes orgy replaced instead by a red-faced, naked Billy Bush apologizing sheepishly from beneath the covers, a disappointed America reassuring him not to worry about it, it happens to all awards shows from time to time, all hopes now turn to the SAGgies to satisfy our burning awards show needs. Traditionally a second-tier ceremony where Hollywood thespians felt safe to deliver 17-minute acceptance speeches on the pursuit of craft, the WGA-sanctioned ceremony is now looking like the only sure thing this anemic awards show season, delivering on our inalienable right to sit at home and watch some major fucking stars pick up some goddamned awards. Christ. MSNBC wonders how the ongoing labor strife will affect the fashion bottom line:

While this morning's Academy Awards nominees sheepishly douse themselves in champagne, unsure about how outwardly excited to get about an upcoming ceremony that may consist of nothing more than a picket line of tuxedoed writers, another anticlimactic recitation of winners' names by the best TelePrompter readers show business has to offer, and a four-hour montage of Oscar's Less Strike-Hampered Glory Days ("There will be lots of clips — we have a long history, 80 years, to explore."), a truly sobering note has been struck by William Morris' Ed Limato.

Still reeling from the Kathy Batesiest nominations announcement ever, we're left entirely encouraged that the 80th annual Academy Awards brings with it a Best Picture race containing at least two extremely worthwhile nominees. (We realize we're supposed to be impartial observers, but...No Country for everything! Included Best Animated Short and the Irving G. Thalberg!). But enough about us—this is the nominees' morning! It's time for a reactions round-up:
· Michael Moore: "If I'm fortunate enough to stand on that stage again, I will be true to myself and very gracious and grateful for the acknowledgement, but I would start by finishing the last 10 seconds of the previous speech." [Variety]
· Tom Wilkinson: "I had forgotten about the nominations and was walking the dog. Then someone told me to turn on the TV and I saw it. I got this character from the start." [Variety]

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has announced the nominees for their 19th annual GLAAD Media Awards. Our beloved Anderson Cooper is nominated for his story on gay homeless teens (and for being so dreamy). Odds on America's Favorite Mostly Closeted Anchor attending the ceremony slightly better than odds on Matt Cassel starting for the Patriots in the Super Bowl. [GLAAD]

Here we are, wide awake at the crack of 5:30, waiting with baited breath for the appearance of Phineus the Oscar Ferret. If anyone was concerned about the Academy's ability to draw star power to this year's ceremony in the face of the ongoing WGA strike, fear no longer. After all, if they can recruit Kathy Bates to read this year's annoucements, they can accomplish ANYTHING! The complete 2008 Academy Award nominations (along with some rudimentary commentary) appear after the jump.

With the Razzie nominations announced today, that can only mean one thing: That tomorrow, at the precise stroke of 5:30 a.m., Phineus the Oscar Ferret will crawl out of his subterranean lair, vigorously shake himself awake, then scamper up the podium to whisper the Oscar nominees into the ears of whatever protocol-and-stardust pairing has been assigned to read them to an enraptured nation. (Last year gave us Academy President Sid Ganis and Salma Hayek.) Of course, all bets are off in this dark, dark Hollywood period of awards show cleansing, from which not even the Oscars—the Rolls Royce of Hollywood Reacharounds!—is safe. Still, all hope is not lost: