Showy spread: At-home Oscar party fare can have the flair of Wolfgang Puck's menus

The notion of dinner and a movie can be taken to extravagant heights this weekend.

Win tickets to Oscar event

Movie fans can try their luck to win bleacher seats for the 85th annual Academy Awards. The contest, titled the Oscar Fan Experience, is currently running online and an entry form will be available through 7 p.m. Nov. 16.

Hamlisch left his signature on decades of films

This 1973 file photo originally released by Columbia Pictures shows Barbra Streisand, left, and Robert Redford in a scene from the film 'The Way We Were.' Marvin Hamlisch a conductor and award-winning composer best known for the torch song 'The Way We Were' died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 68.

Marvin Hamlisch left his signature on decades of films

The word "prolific" gets tossed around a lot, but it couldn't be more appropriate in discussing the work of the late, great Marvin Hamlisch. This is especially true in considering his many contributions to film over the past five-plus decades.

84th Academy Awards Show

William Joyce, left, and Brandon Oldenburg accept the Oscar for best-animated short film for “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” during the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. Maurice Hood, the in–house tailor for recently opened Ginger's Spyceware Sewing Center in …

'The Artist' takes top prize at Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES | "The Artist" won five Academy Awards on Sunday including best picture, becoming the first silent film to triumph at Hollywood's highest honors since the original Oscar ceremony 83 years ago.

Nostalgic Oscars party like it's the 1920s again

It's only the 84th year of the Academy Awards, yet the nostalgia factor feels as though Hollywood is celebrating a centennial of some sort.

Oscars Kodak

Things start to take shape at the red carpet arrivals area outside the Kodak Theatre in preparation for the 84th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Friday. There’s a melancholy backstory behind the 84th annual Academy Awards. One way or the other, this will likely be the last year the ceremony…

Reel food: Sips, snacks inspired by Oscar winners

Great movies and great food are box office gold, from Forrest Gump's chocolates to "Silence of the Lambs" anti-hero Hannibal Lecter's disturbing pairing suggestion for Chianti.

Reel food: Sips and snacks inspired by Oscar winners

We've put together a selection of drinks and appetizers inspired by five Best Picture Oscar winners to help you get your Academy Awards viewing party rolling.

Eat like a chef-to-the stars at your Oscar party

Having an Oscar party? Trying to decide what should be on the menu? Here's a simple but spectacular appetizer.

FROM the FARM: Both famous and everyday folk are fond of chili

Phil Potempa's weekly farm column recipe.

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert (right) and and his late rival newspaper film critic counterpart Gene Siskel are shown during their 1986 pre-Academy Awards coverage in Los Angeles.

84th Annual Oscars Telecast

Winners at the 84th annual Oscars will be announced at a Feb. 26 ceremony aired live on ABC from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

OFFBEAT: Oscar nominations include nods for both old and new talents

Phil Potempa's daily entertainment news column.

New rules for nominees may leave some Oscar hopefuls eating dust

Another year, another unpredictable Oscars season. After two years of a return to 10 nominees for Best Picture, the Academy once again shuffled things up — and in the process made predicting the Oscars' most prestigious category something of a crapshoot.

Hammond to Hollywood: Woman shares story of sweet success

Jill Williams works chocolate the way a whittler works a block of wood, giving personality to a blank canvas.

Fox is touting Andy Serkis's performance-capture 'Apes' role for an Oscar

Oscar's supporting actor race will be a hairy one this year — and something of a digital proving ground. Andy Serkis, who played Caesar, the hyper-intelligent chimp in this summer's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," is getting an awards push courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

Brad Pitt coaches underdog 'Moneyball' onto big-screen

Brad Pitt's about as free a free agent as they come in Hollywood, a superstar so big he could play ball with just about any team, on any film project he likes.