News

Deadline New York: Mike Fleming confirms that the MPAA’s appeals board voted unanimously to overturn the Nc-17 rating that the MPAA had previously bestowed upon Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine.” The landmark decision came shortly after the board heard testimony from The Weinstein Company’s co-chief Harvey Weinstein, who flew out from New York to Los Angeles to personally plead the case for his film. The film, which is now rated R, will hit theaters — and many more of them that it would have before yesterday’s ruling — on December 31. (The studio lost its other appeal, to have the R-rating bestowed upon “The King’s Speech” reduced to a PG-13, but was in a celebratory mood nonetheless.)

The Wrap: Dominic Patten reports that Beverly Hills Police Department detectives investigating the murder of noted Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen several weeks ago now believe that Chasen’s death was caused by “a random act of violence.

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: HollywoodNews.com’s Awards Season Roundup collects insights from around the Internet on films that are running in the Oscar race.

The big topic on the Oscar beat continues to be the naming of James Franco and Anne Hathaway as co-hosts of next year’s telecast. The L.A. Times goes over previous actors who stepped in as hosts. Awards Daily does a virtual spit take before getting in line by saying, “I think … what the AMPAS tells me to think. Shutting up, sir.”

While Jeff Wells goes so far as to say James Franco’s Oscar co-hosting gig “will probably kill his shot at being a Best Actor nominee for his performance in ‘127 Hours.’ … If he’s the co-host, fine. And he’s a Best Actor nominee, fine. But you can’t do both.”

Noah Forrest, meanwhile, has ideas on how to fix the Oscars.