Among the inside crowd, the Webby Awards were always a joke, a masquerade where Internet fanboys and fangirls played dress-up and feigned the red-carpet rituals of Hollywood's real ceremonies. But somewhere along the way, the organizers figured out that this goofy charade could be milked for profit. And now that mainstream entertainers like Jimmy Fallon and Seth McFarlane are sweeping this year's awards, the parodic circle is complete.

The Si Newhouse School's journalism awards are next month, and the mood at the ceremony could quickly get uncomfortable. Starting with Arianna Huffington getting a Lifetime Achivement award that last went to her bitter nemesis.

Complex.com named Kanye West the Best-Dressed Rapper ever. And, I mean...he just, it's like..WOW, what can you say? Let him catch his breath...okay he's ready to thank you, all of you!

You may have started the day thinking you were reading any old gossip rag, but the people have clicked and Gawker is your best group blog of the 2009 Weblog Awards.

Gawker operative Stephen Kosloff went off to the National Book Critics Circle awards last night armed with a banana and a thirst for too much wine. This is what he saw.

No more excuses, blocked novelists: A shrink convinced nervous London lawyer Joseph O'Neill to follow his novel-writing dream. Ten years on, he took the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Shocked that Departures beat out presumed favorites Waltz With Bashir and The Class for the foreign-film category? It's just the latest example of the bizarre rules that govern that Oscar niche. Can it be fixed?

Penélope Cruz's Oscar victory may have been a great moment for Spain, but it was a terrible tragedy for America because it has forced statistician Nate Silver to break up with his greatest love: numbers.

· 30-second ad spots on the final episode of ER — featuring George Clooney, Noah Wyle and Anthony Edwards — are going for the low, low price of $425,000. We'll take two.
· The existential crises of Garfield Without Garfield have felt uniquely harrowing this week. At least add Odie back in or something.
· Flaxen-haired Jared Leto is out and about at this weekend's Oscar festivities. Consider yourself warned.
· ZOMG Google Earth found Atlantis! Maybe? Never mind.

As expected, the Academy steadfastly denies the legitimacy of that list of "leaked Oscar winners" currently making the rounds. But after rigorous analysis in Defamer's Oscarology Labs, we've authenticated much more than you'd think.

Of all the possible Oscars surprises, the one most obvious—that Hugh Jackman will perform the show completely naked, his mind fizzily distracted by multiple Champagne cocktails on an empty stomach—never even occurred to us.

In what must be the last of the worst-guarded Top Secrets in Oscardom, we're learning a little more today about the show's new strategy behind the camera. Hint: The Academy is sending the blitz!

We'll be liveblogging the Oscars Sunday, at 5p.m. PST. Stake your spots early: You're going to want the best sight lines possible as we obsessively chronicle every Ledger-family chokehold, Swarovksi-curtain blinding, and big band speech-interruption.

· And failing that, Esquire's got a few do's and dont's for you as well.

Kim Ledger had plenty to do yesterday on his long flight to the Oscars, starting with an acceptance speech no one quite expected him to deliver on behalf of his son Heath.

Polls may be closed, but theories persist — crackpot and otherwise — about certain favorites' stability in their respective categories. Kate Winslet might be among those with reason to worry.

Everyone knows what a couple of angry parents and Indian social activists think about Slumdog Millionaire's march on the Oscars. But if a five-person, man-on-the street sampling is to be believed, Mumbai wants a victory.

Now that Mickey Rourke's date drama is resolved, our hopes for a spontaneous, surprising Oscars are all but dead. But in some parallel universe, viewers may yet get the awardscast we dream of:

· There's good news and bad news about this weekend's marathon of Oscar parties. The good news first: Nikki Finke has a sweepingly comprehensive list of those we expect you to crash. Godspeed!

Sure, all but one of this year's Oscar-nominated actresses have done nude scenes during their career (there's still time, Viola Davis!), but the frequently-bare Kate Winslet is hoping that the topless buck stops here.