Oscars

Adele will perform her James Bond theme “Skyfall” during the Oscars telecast on Feb. 24, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweeted early Wednesday.   The singer is up for original song for the theme she co-wrote with collaborator Paul Epworth, who produced and co-wrote tracks on her massive 2011 album “21,” including “Rolling in the Deep.” “Skyfall” is a front-runner for Oscar gold, especially after snagging a Golden Globe for the track earlier this month.

Director Brett Ratner submitted his resignation as a producer of the 84th Annual Academy Awards Tuesday after coming under fire for making a gay slur. "He did the right thing for the academy and for himself," Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak said Tuesday afternoon. "Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent.

Re “ An ' Argo ' Night ,” Feb. 25 Mark it as insult to injury that an unspeakably vile “joke” about Lincoln having been shot in the head by an assassin is not even mentioned in The Times' front-page account; it is emblematic of a hopelessly jejune Oscar show. You might have noted, in answer to host Seth MacFarlane's question (“Too soon?”), that 150 years after Lincoln, 50 years after JFK and weeks after Sandy Hook is, yes, too soon. None of these things, with or without time, is funny.

Iran's culture minister said Monday that his country will boycott the 2013 Oscars in the wake of the anti-Islam video made in the United States that denigrates the prophet Muhammad. An Iranian film won an Oscar in the foreign film category in February. But Mohammed Hosseini said the Islamic Republic would not field an entry for next year's awards because of the low-budget video he dubbed "an intolerable insult to the prophet of Islam," the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported. Hosseini urged other Islamic countries to also boycott.

The list of 2010 best picture nominations didn't offer a whole lot of surprises this year; but elsewhere ? in other, perhaps less glamorous, below-the-line categories ? there are some, well, counterintuitive titles in the mix. The poorly reviewed "The Wolfman," directed by Joe Johnston, might not be the first picture that springs to mind as an Oscar contender. But the dark and hairy horror movie starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins won raves from academy voters for its achievement in makeup, executed by Oscar winner Rick Baker and Oscar nominee Dave Elsey.

Gold Standard writer Glenn Whipp has been sweeping through all 24 Oscar categories this week, assessing the races, predicting the winners and helping you prevail in your Oscar pools. He's looked at the shorts , the sound categories , the visual crafts races , the Adele-rific song and score scene, screenplays and film editing and the animation, documentary and foreign-language feature contests. Now: best picture and director. FULL COVERAGE: Oscar 2013 | Top nominees BEST PICTURE The nominees: “Amour” “Argo” “Beasts of the Southern Wild” “Django Unchained” “Les Misérables” “Life of Pi” “Lincoln” “Silver Linings Playbook” “Zero Dark Thirty” And the winner is … “Argo.” In a year packed with so many fine movies, it's still puzzling how nearly every group bestowing awards has fallen in line (and apparently in love)

At first glance, it seemed like a slight. Just two days after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced in June that it was expanding the best picture category from five to 10 nominees, it dropped another bombshell on awards-season purists. Winners of the honorary Oscars, also known as the testimonial awards, would be presented their golden statues at a dinner in November instead of during the televised event in March, when they will be merely "acknowledged." But the academy has maintained all along that this new event, taking place Saturday at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland, is the best way to honor the talented men and women whose distinguished careers and contributions to the craft of moviemaking have set themselves apart from their peers.

"Tonight, for the first time, the Oscars have a theme," Seth MacFarlane said at the start of this year's Academy Awards, adding that Sunday night's show would be celebrating the marriage of film and music. Moments later, the host was cavorting around the stage singing a song that seemed pulled from the writers room at his animated series "Family Guy" rather than one built for the regal Oscar proceedings. "We saw your boobs," MacFarlane cheerily sang, a performance  William Shatner, who was dressed as Capt.

Benh Zeitlin, the director of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," lives in a worn-down house in Louisiana - so suffice it to say, he felt a bit out of place on the Oscars red carpet Sunday in Hollywood. "I feel like I'm in a TV show," he said, looking down at the tuxedo that had been lent to him. "I'm here in my costume. " FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2013 | Top nominees Though the 30-year-old filmmaker was up for one of the biggest prizes of the night, he seemed more excited about his leading lady's big week than his own. Sunday morning, Sony announced that "Beasts" star Quvenzhané Wallis will star in its "Annie" remake - and Zeitlin says the 9-year-old can sing.