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The 2012 Academy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday, and if you found the news was not exactly a hot topic of conversation around the office that morning, you're not alone. The average American, even the average movie lover doesn't care about the Oscars for the simple reason that the Academy has conditioned them not to care. Year after year, the Hollywood elite demonstrate the massiveness of the divide between the film industry and the moviegoing public by nominating not the most beloved, acclaimed, or even most deserving films, but rather, the films that mean the most to insiders and that benefited from the best award season PR campaigns.

That's not to say there aren't some wonderful films nominated this year, and every year. There certainly are. Moneyball, War Horse, and The Help were popular with critics and audiences alike, and it's refreshing to see the usually stagnant movie industry honor a fresh, innovative film like The Artist. But this year, perhaps more than any other, offered Academy members a chance to show that they share some tastes in common with the average theater patron, and they firmly passed it up.

There was talk of Best Picture nominations for audience favorites such as Bridesmaids, Drive, or even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II - films that connected with audiences as much as with critics. Naturally, all three were passed up, for reasons that remain baffling to the general public, but probably have to do with the funny, or violent, or thoroughly modern nature of those films. The Academy hopes to attract the interests of a younger audience, while at the same time honoring only films that you could safely enjoy with your Great Aunt Mildred.

Playing it safe has damaged the reputation of the Awards in the past (by honoring forgettable, family friendlier fare such as Ordinary People or Dances With Wolves instead of riskier modern classics such as Raging Bull or Goodfellas) but at this point, staying on the beaten path may mean sacrificing all the esteem and credibility that the Oscars have built up over generations. Of course, it could be argued that movies are a matter of taste and all taste is subjective (I don't believe that, but we'll go with it). Maybe the Academy members aren't consciously picking safe-bet, cookie-cutter prestige pictures that are traditionally ignored by audiences; maybe these are just the movies they like! If that's the case, explain Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close....

Every season we're all drawn into at least one new show, and every season one of the shows that we love turns to sh!t. Fox's hit show New Girl had a very strong start. The premiere episode itself was like a mini-movie that didn't even need a second episode. Still, the show continued to look promising, but Zooey Deschanel's schtick is now getting old.

A writer named Nathalie Atkinson argues that New Girl's Jess is mad annoying and the show's December ratings hit an all-time low. Ironically Zooey has been nominated for a Golden Globe, a nomination I believe she deserved.

Nathalie says: "Deschanel’s Jess floats through life in vintage floral dresses; she’s not just spacey but dumb as a puppy. She’s erratic to the point of manic... Jess gets to makes scrunched-up faces, and occasionally bursts into song at inappropriate times."

She continued by saying that "being the lady-child with no guile is worse than being the dumb blonde."

Jess is supposed to be "adorkable," but the writers take it too far. Jess was in a relationship for six years and claims that she doesn't know how to have sex, can't say the word "penis," and put a turkey in a dryer to cook for Thanksgiving!!!! Yep, the fun, once-believable new series has become that bad. I still love New Girl, though. There's something very fresh and fun about it. I highly recommend it, even if Jess is an annoying idiot.

Unless you've been living in the kind of isolated, hyper-delusional state common to drugged-out, washed-up Hollywood starlets, you're aware, by now, that Lindsay Lohan recently posed nude for Playboy. You may also be aware that the highly-anticipated photo spread has been leaked online and that the reaction to the sight of Lindsay in her freckled birthday suit has been, well...mixed.

Regardless of your feelings about Lindsay and the choices that she's made with her career and personal life, you'd be a fool to deny that she looks stunning in the photos. But of course she does. Given the team of make-up artists, photographers, and air-brushers at her disposal, anyone could appear nearly flawless. But nearly flawless wasn't enough for LiLo. These pictures were supposed to signal the rebirth of her career. They earned her some of her first positive press since The Parent Trap. This spread was supposed to blow our hair back and remind us why Lindsay used to be a star. Instead, we got a derivative spread featuring an attractive naked girl who looked about as natural as you'd expect from a redhead pretending to be Marilyn Monroe.

Lindsay's been judged harshly, but she deserves to be. This wasn't a leaked sex tape or a hacked cell phone photo. This was a ploy for money and a career comeback by a young woman who's  done nothing to debunk rumors that she's anything but a self-obsessed egomaniac. Her notoriety is the result of the same "fame is the new talent" dynamic that gave us the Kardashian franchise, but Lindsay's popularity is even more ill-gained. The fact that she received a million dollar paycheck for a few hours of nudity speaks volumes about the assets that the entertainment industry considers valuable. But the fact that the Internet spoiled Playboy's big payday indicates that the old, cheap tricks aren't working anymore.

The Kardashian empire is crumbling and the Lohan Playboy sales bonanza turned out to be a bust. The two downfalls may seem unrelated, but they're not. In the modern age, intelligent, disgruntled fans can convene on the Internet and lay waste to the delicate PR shields that talentless mega-stars hide behind. We saw through Kim's marriage scam for the same reason we're unimpressed by Lindsay's photoshopped hotness: even if we're not in the know, we have a direct connection to people who are. So since the web burst her naked bubble, will LiLo enjoy any career boost from showing off the goods?

Through the Penn State sex abuse scandal, we have been given the opportunity to put a face to a vicious, widespread crime. That face, at the moment, is that of Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky, 67, has been charged with sexual abuse of eight boys over a 15-year period. His preliminary hearing on 40 criminal counts is scheduled for Dec. 13. A new accuser came forward just days ago.

As parents across the country sit on their couches and call Jerry a sick a-hole, their relatives, friends, neighbors, church members, babysitters, boyfriends, husbands, children's teachers, parents of their children's friends, and others are currently sexually abusing their kids.

Jerry's case has put a spotlight on athletic coaches. Sadly, other abuse allegations involving coaches have surfaced within the past few weeks, but figuring out who may abuse your child isn't that simple. There is no definitive profile of a child molester. 

How many times have we heard parents say that they told their child to tell them if someone touches them? How many times have we, as grown adults, done something that truly terrifies us? How many times have we confessed to participating in something that we are deeply ashamed of and feel responsible for? Every parent assumes that their child will tell them if they have been abused, and nearly every parent is wrong. Case in point: Decades and alleged victims later we are finally hearing that Sandusky was allegedly having his way with young, disadvantaged boys. Decades later some alleged victims are now coming forward.

It's comforting to sit at home, look at Sandusky's rotting teeth, unattractive face, and say that he is sick. Inside we're all thinking that he looks like a child molester, walks like a child molester, and says things that a child molester would. We breathe a collective sigh; our children are still safe, or are they?

As someone whose former babysitter's son is currently sitting in a jail cell convicted of rape, and has victimized some people that I know, as a friend to those who've been abused by relatives, family friends, and others they were close to (and from the countless stories we've all heard), it becomes clear that predators are, essentially, our "friends." The people we "know and trust" are the ones who abuse our kids, and victims often don't speak out.

Well, it's autumn - the season when movie studios roll out intelligent, thought-provoking films featuring marquee stars in challenging roles. Movies like this are often referred to as "prestige projects," but they're more commonly remembered as box office bombs. 

Everyone may talk about the award-bait films once the Oscar nominations are announced, though relatively few people actually pay to go see them. But why? Are we, as a nation, so dumbed down culturally that we can't bring ourselves to fork over $10.50 unless a film is based on a theme park ride or features robots who punch each other? Maybe, but there are several other reasons why low-budget films with big-name stars no longer draw us to the theater in droves:

1.) The American public doesn't pay to see actors. Johnny Depp recently drew fire for suggesting that his latest film, The Rum Diary, failed at the box office because the average American is too stupid to understand it. This coming from a man who's earned upwards of $25 million a movie for playing a drunken pirate in a succession of increasingly terrible blockbusters. What Depp fails to grasp is that it's not actors, or directors, or even plots that pack people into theaters. If I could say exactly what does sell tickets I'd be earning 9 figures as a studio head, rather than subsisting on a steady diet of Ramen noodles and canned beer. But I do know that big-name stars aren't much of a factor when the average American is deciding what movies are worth the price of admission.

This weekend marks the release of J. Edgar, a film in which Leonardo DiCaprio (the world's highest-paid actor) tests his dramatic muscle in the kind of decades-spanning biopic award season is made for. It will likely get trounced at the box office by Puss In Boots, now in its second week of release. Why? Because...

2.) People want to see their ticket money spent on effects, not salaries. Maybe you wanna see the latest installment in the Transformers franchise and that new Sundance favorite about the girl who falls in love with a balloon or some sh!t, but you only have the bankroll for one movie this weekend. Of those flicks - one is only worth seeing on the big screen, the other will look just fine on your laptop. So unless you're trying to impress the hipster you just started dating, you're probably gonna pay for Optimus Prime and download the balloon lover. Speaking of who you choose to take to the theater with you, another factor currently influencing box office numbers is the fact that...

Kim Kardashian is famous simply because she's rich and gives the world access to the most intimate details of her life.  She's turned her so-called life into a real world soap opera, in which she's the 24-hour star. It worked for a while and made her an incredible fortune. The problem is, Kim thinks her fans are idiots, and her latest scandal may be the final insult.

Kim's star seemed to rise overnight, and the more we learned about her, the more it became clear that she did nothing to deserve her worldwide fame.  Her personality is non-existent, she has no discernible talent, and while she's certainly an attractive girl, there are millions of those in the world, and they're not all one-woman empires. Kim and her family quickly realized that the only way they could keep people interested in their lives was to bring the drama, and there's nothing more dramatic than a marriage.

So Kim and her network hunted down a suitable Mr. Kardashian in the form of Kris Humphries. The two dated for as long as they needed to in order to be taken seriously, then they immediately tied the knot. Millions watched the wedding, and the honeymoon pics came with a heavy price tag. But weddings are exciting and marriages are not, so just about ten weeks into her life of wedded bliss, Kim decided to pull the plug.

The public is understandably skeptical about Kim's sudden change of heart, but the worst part was not that she asked her fans to believe that her ratings-grab of a marriage was legit, but that she's now feeding the press a slew of ridiculous excuses. She married an unemployed basketball player, then was apparently shocked to find out he might have to move someplace that's not New York or LA. She's asking the public to believe that she genuinely thought Kris was the love of her life, yet she wasn't even willing to invest a few months into keeping up appearances.

So why go to such ridiculous lengths just to grab a few headlines? Because for some people, fame can be as addictive as any drug, and Kim will do anything to get her next fix...

The day many have been waiting for is finally upon us. Overexposure leads to resentment and distrust and it ensures that what's popular will become nothing more than a passing trend. The Kardashians are firm believers in "striking while the iron is hot," and that they have, putting out product after product after product.

There's a Kardashian Kollection event in Australia today, Kourtney and Kim Take New York is slated to premiere later this month and the girls will be launching their own line of nail polish on Black Friday, not to mention that they're venturing into selling products from your home: towels, bedding, whatever, through Sears.

We want to like those who take our money and we want to feel that they deserve it. Although Kim Kardashian and her sisters don't possess a sliver of talent, Kim does have an eye for fashion. Like those baffled by the success of Jessica Simpson's empire, to me, it's obvious.

Jessica has always loved shopping and she has good taste; that was all she needed to launch a line of heels and clothes that so many women adore. Kim also has good taste. Jessica and Kimberly design nothing, but they approve work samples submitted by actual designers and they're smart enough to have a sense of what people would want to purchase. However, now Kardashian fans are upset because they feel as though they've been fooled.

The fourth season of Jersey Shore is at an end and we all enjoyed watching our favorite guidos fighting, smushing, and suffering from GTL withdrawal in Florence. But if you think you saw it all, you're mistaken. In fact, it seems like MTV could craft another season's worth of episodes out of what they left on the cutting room floor.

First of all, remember when JWoww's boyfriend Roger had to cancel his visit? Ever wonder why she wasn't more upset about it? Turns out, he just postponed the trip. Roger and Jenni totally did hang out in Italy (that's a picture of them shopping in Florence), the visit was apparently just too boring to bother putting it on the show.

But while that editing decision makes sense (healthy relationships don't make for good reality TV), some of the incidents that got cut out could've been hugely entertaining. The Taltos twins - who are now desperately trying to score their own show - were way more involved with the cast than you would know from watching this season. In fact, Deena and Snooki drunkenly confronted the twins on the streets of Florence, resulting in what was said to be a hilarious midday screaming match. Sadly, the producers decided there were already enough scenes featuring Team Meatball acting like drunk idiots.

Anyone who watched the show closely enough could pick up on several other aspects of the Italy trip that never made it to air. For example, we learned in the season finale that the Shore kids weren't the only Americans working at the pizzeria. You know Pauly D tried to smush those girls. Maybe the fact that so much potentially good stuff had to be cut out is just a testament to how entertaining The Sitch and company really are. But don't leave us out of the loop, MTV. Give us a special episode featuring the best deleted scenes from Florence. Anything to help us get throughthe next four months without our weekly does of spray-tanned debauchery. #GuidoProblems

(Photo: WENN)

On last night's episode of Jersey Shore, the guidos and guidettes from Seaside ran into some serious drama in Florence. They hit the club as they always do, but this time the locals turned against them, seemingly for no reason. This isn't the first time this has happened to the Shore kids. Remember in season one when a bunch of random club chicks called Snooki fat and tried to pick a fight with JWoww? I don't know about you, but when I go out drinking, I don't usually get verbally assaulted by random bar patrons. So what gives?

The fact is, the "reality" of Jersey Shore is far from real. For reasons unknown, MTV insists on feeding us the myth that these folks are just like you and I. But the fact is, they're famous...and polarizing. Everywhere they go, people know who they are and have strong opinions on them, one way or another. If any of the cast members have stopped by your hometown for a club appearance, you know that they rarely set foot outside of the VIP room. Yet, when they're filming, they have to party with the masses for maximum drama. It's just like when you go out, except for the massive camera crew and security team.

Did you notice the random Italian following the guys around as they got escorted from the club last night? He was clearly a fan, but the producers made every effort to edit him out of the show. The question is: why? We know these people are famous, so why do they expect us to ignore it? There was a time when Jersey Shore was a show about average, every day guidos just trying to put their lips on as many shot glasses and genitals as possible over the course of one magic summer on the boardwalk. That time has long since passed, and now it's a show about a bunch of millionaires who struggling to cope with their overnight fame. Doesn't that sound way more interesting? Why can't we watch that show?

On last night's episode, The Situation talked about going his own way when he got back to the States and not following his roommates to Seaside. The house responded with a collective, "Good. Peace out," and you can't blame them given his rampant douce-baggery over the past year, but the show asked us so ignore an important element of the drama.

Snooki and JWoww constantly remind us that they're BFFs, but they've basically gone in opposite directions during their time in Florence. Nicole has taken her drunken hot mess routine to new levels, while Jenni has slowly morphed into JMomm - the concerned RA responsible for making sure everyone survives their time in the crazy-@ss dorm known as Jersey Shore.

On last night's episode, Jenni called Snooks out on her recent behavior in epic fashion. In front of the other female roommates (and some random wine tour guide) she let loose on her friend for allowing her relationship to go up in flames, blaming everyone except herself, and causing the whole house to get wrapped up in the drama. She was laying some hard truths on Snooki in a way that no one could argue with. Naturally, Snooki reacted the way she always does when confronted with a challenge - she got hammered and threw a sh!t fit.

Yes, The Situation came off as a colossal douche of the week, the way he so often does, but my vote for most obnoxious character on the fourth season of Shore definitely goes to Snooki. She begs for sympathy by b!tching and moaning about her relationship, gets drunk and bangs one of her roommates, then blames one of her other roommates for the fact that her boyfriend is sick of her sh!t. Snooki is a one-woman SamRon this season and, thankfully, at least one of her roommates sees through her BS.

Okay, so Jenni never came right out and said Snooks is a slutty liar and a lying slut in those exact words, but the message was clear. "You're feeling guilty, but you're not doing anything to make it better," JWoww told her after they made up. That's like something a Catholic school nun says when she really wants to beat you with a ruler. The point is, Snooki's drunken slore routine used to be the most fun part of Jersey Shore, but now it's alienating her friends, her boyfriend, and even her fans. Time to step your Snooki game up, Nicole.

(Photos: WENN)