You will not offend James Cameron. You will not make James Cameron laugh. You will bow to James Cameron. (Thanks for the pic, Gawker!)This ain't D.C., baby. No lobbying for your movie, or you'll be banned from the ceremony!

There’ll be no Na’vi baby-daddy drama at the Oscars after all. We’d hate to upset Mr. Cameron!

At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child

A world of “Hurt!” Producers of Best Picture contender “The Hurt Locker” are getting SUED!

Shadow or no? It’s nice in America that we base our attitude on the weather off of a scared groundhog.

In case you’re still paying attention… Michael Jackson’s doctor is in trouble.

IRAN IN SPACE!! Well, Iran’s animals in space:

State television aired footage of the flying Kavoshgar-3. Photos posted to news websites showed a rat strapped into a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard.

Mr. VP is a fan of” Avatar,” apparently. But wait, why does he have time to watch three-hour movies?? (Video below.)

Break out your evening gowns… It’s time for the First Annual USDemocrazy Oscar Nomination Run-Down!

Hey… You! Stop yawning! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has changed a time-honored tradition just to please us, the common folk. That is, they’ve expanded the “Best Picture” category from five to TEN!!!!

NPR’s Linda Holmes points out that the Academy has added five extra nominees to the field in order to make some room for more commercial films… Remember last year when the most successful picture at the box office was looked over at the Oscars? A little film called “The Dark Knight” saw its fans cry foul when the Academy snubbed it.

Holmes makes an example out of “The Blind Side” (trailer above) — a movie she believes is “utterly conventional,” and very popular with the public.

She doesn’t believe that movie will win the field, especially up against big contenders such as “Avatar” and “Up in the Air,” but is glad that more popularly accepted movies made it into Hollywood’s biggest competition.

Lest we forget, the Academy hasn’t always ignored the popular opinion. This gem, after all, was nominated for the 1996 awards:

So the producers of “The Blind Side” must be ecstatic that their family football film got a nod, right? Well, they’re realistic at least.

We don’t believe we have any chance of winning,” said Broderick Johnson, co-chief executive of Alcon Entertainment, which produced and marketed “The Blind Side.”

Oh, right. But there’s this:

Mr. Johnson also acknowledged the effect his film’s selection could have on the Oscars telecast. “It brings in a broader range of pictures that are critically acclaimed and fan favorites,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported, in addition to Mr. Johnson’s qu0tes, that this year’s field of nominees grossed an average of $151 million, versus the $71 million average for last year’s nominees.

If you’re intrigued to see what and who else was nominated, check the official Oscar nominee list. Spoiler alert: Meryl Streep is on there. Also, take a peek back in time at USDemocrazy’s 2009 movie round-up to see what was said about many of these movies before they were Nominees. (With the capital “N” and everything.)

Will widening the field to include more Best Picture contenders get YOU to watch the Oscars? Let us know what you think. You have until March 7th to decide (when the ceremony airs on ABC)!

"Up In the Air" -- robbed?

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association hosts the Golden Globes and announce their shiny new owners!

More news about The spy who fooled me.

Stephen Colbert reviews the hit block buster Avatar, and explains why it’s ruining America.

“We were never ready… no one was prepared to defend her. Nobody knew anything.” -Ex McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace on Sarah Palin (full story at Politico)

House Democrats finally reach a compromise on healthcare tax. Next item on their agenda: what to have for lunch. That caucus is expected to reach an agreement next week.

Remember when your mother would tell you to spend your (her) money on books rather than going to the movies? If we at USDemocrazy had only listened, we might be making more money than we get blogging (a whopping $0/week!!).

That said, we’ve spent more than enough time enjoying some silver screen novelties. Here to help you enjoy some of the best of the films of 2009, we’ve gathered up some of the ‘best-ofs’ for 2009:

To kick off, Time rounded up their top ten for the year, which included a fair share of animated films. If that’s your thing, you’d be particularly interested in their number one pick — “The Princess and the Frog” — for a fresh take in classic form on royalty and amphibians. Check the trailer below:

A good place to turn for all things culture is New York Magazine, which rounded out its top ten with a few movies, to be quite honest, we’d never heard of. But they must be good. However, one familiar, controversial, and visually exciting film made the cut: James Cameron’s Avatar. The trailer, in all its blueness, is below.

And, as few critics can, David Edelstein for New York Magazine couldn’t limit himself, and so includes a few more choices, as well as the ‘Most Crazy Boring’ movie of 2009: “The Limits of Control.”

Suckers for top ten lists, we’ve got just a couple more:

Movies this year were driven by great lead performances, as this blog points out. Can’t help but show you a trailer of that dreamy George Clooney in one of the most exciting movies of the year, “Up in the Air”:

The American Film Institute gives their picks of the year for movies (and television too), lauding the creepy cartoon “Coraline”:

And, since not everything that we get out to the theater to see is great, we especially appreciated NPR’s “Movies That Should Die With the Decade” to remind us of all those movies we wish we hadn’t wasted that hard-earned blogging money on seeing. One of those is “The Love Guru,” and we’re not letting it die just yet…

There’s still time to check some of the movies of 2009 out… Especially since award season is nigh!

What did you like that the critics forgot?