Awards

Except for the cocktail dresses, the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards had a distinctly relaxed quality. So much so that before the evening ended, host Debra Messing removed her shoes. "I had to do it," she declared from the podium, her red-heeled Louboutins dangling from one hand. On ascending the stage, Emily Blunt followed suit. True to the event name, this was "A New Era." Blunt presented the Crystal Award to Universal Pictures Co-Chairman Donna Langley; Laura Dern gave Courteney Cox the Lucy Award, named for industry icon Lucille Ball; and Nicola Maramotti of MaxMara honored Zoe Saldana as the "Face of the Future."

Ben Affleck's “Argo” seems to be unstoppable. The film about a CIA plot to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980 won the 19th Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday night for ensemble in a motion picture. The win came hours after the film, which also stars Affleck, took the Producers Guild Award on Saturday night - an honor that is one of the leading indicators of Oscar gold. Two weeks ago, “Argo” won the Golden Globe for best dramatic motion picture, one of the many honors it has recently picked up this season.

Two sci-fi blockbusters and a raunchy box office hit comedy were nominated Monday for the Writers Guild of America Award. James Cameron, who earned a Directors Guild of America nomination last week, received a WGA nod in the original screenplay category for the sci-fi fantasy phenomenon "Avatar," which so far has made $1.3 billion worldwide. And Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman picked up a nomination in the adapted screenplay category for the acclaimed "Star Trek" reboot based on the original Gene Roddenberry series.

What do you give as a 90th birthday present to a man who survived a plane crash into the Pacific Ocean during World War II, only to endure unspeakable horrors as a prisoner of war, who admits he was "an alcoholic, chain-smoker, rotten, lowdown stinker" before he found redemption in his religion and never looked back? Who set a track record for the scholastic mile at Torrance High that lasted 20 years, and a collegiate mile record at USC that stood for 15 years.

The Christian rock group Switchfoot won artist of the year at Wednesday's Gospel Music Assn. awards show, one of four honors bestowed on the band during the night. It also won best rock or contemporary recorded song for "Dare You to Move" as well as the short- and long-form music video awards.

The screenplays for "The Hurt Locker" and "Up in the Air" won top honors Saturday evening at the Writers Guild of America awards. "The Hurt Locker's" Mark Boal received the WGA award for original screenplay for his gripping drama about a bomb disposal unit in Iraq. Boal, who is also nominated for an Oscar, thanked the American soldiers in the war-devastated region who let him "get up close and personal" to the "chaos and hellishness" when he was embedded there as a journalist. "Up in the Air's" Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner won for adapted screenplay for their dramedy about a corporate downsizer.

    Join me, Carolyn Kellogg, and my colleague, journalist and novelist Hector Tobar, as we talk about the 2012 literary MacArthur Fellows. We'll be doing a Google+ hangout video chat at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Of the 23 2012 MacArthur "Genius" Fellows, two are writers: Junot Diaz and Dinaw Mengestu. Join us as we talk about their work and the effects of the MacArthur grants, which provide a whopping $100,000 per year for five years. ALSO: Arnold Schwarzenegger holds back in "Total Recall" Avert Your Eyes!

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday awarded its annual civic medal of honor to Thomas V. McKernan, chief executive and president of the Automobile Club of Southern California and Auto Club Enterprises. First awarded in 2003, the civic medal of honor is given to non-elected civic leaders who are dedicated to community and public service, said George Kieffer, a member of the selection committee that includes a few past recipients and other citizens.

Each year, the Academy Awards season seems to drag on longer and longer as Hollywood stages one black-tie gala after another to honor the year's best achievements in film. The pre-Oscar buzz generated by these star-studded affairs has given shows such as the Golden Globe Awards a status and influence that can affect the Academy Awards race. Now, the American Film Institute is planning to launch its own prime-time televised awards show Jan.

"Slumdog Millionaire" dominated the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday evening, taking home the prize in seven categories, including best film. "Slumdog," which revolves around an impoverished teenager who ends up competing on the Indian version of the TV game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," also won director honors for Danny Boyle, as well as adapted screenplay for Simon Beaufoy. The drama also scored in the music, cinematography, editing and sound categories.