Susan Boyle and Lady Gaga will go head-to-head at this year’s People’s Choice Awards.

The 57-year-old actor - who thought his career was over before starring in 'The Wrestler', which saw him nominated for the Best Actor Oscar at this year's Academy Awards - says the only people he could rely on were his beloved pooches.

Daniel Day-Lewis looks like he’s enjoying his leading male role in the upcoming film “Nine,” and what red-blooded male could blame him?

Who’s the leading contender to win the Academy Award in February for Best Actress? According to the influential Los Angeles Times, it’s none other than Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.

Irish actress Saoirse Ronan is hotly tipped to receive her second Oscar nomination for her starring role in the “The Lovely Bones.”

Niall O'Dowd: What is the difference between Roman Polanski and a Catholic priest child abuser? A Roman collar and an extraordinary media bias, I'd say.

"House" star and Maxim’s sexiest woman of the year Olivia Wilde has signed on to star with Russell Crowe in “The Next Three Days,” which will be directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis.

Kara Rota reports from the the Tina Santi Flaherty 1st Irish 2009 Theatre Awards, which took place at Hudson Terrance in Manhattan

In the next couple of years, acclaimed Dublin-born director Jim Sheridan (“In the Name of the Father,” “In America”) is planning to tell gritty Irish-American stories about gangsters in Boston and New York.

Louth native Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood in the “Harry Potter” series, has been nominated for her first ever award. Lynch has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at Spike TV’s SCREAM Awards.

Looks like IrishCentral movie critics had it right: legendary Scottish actor Sean Connery has the worst movie accent of all time, according to film fans.

Famous Irish writer/director/producer Jim Sheridan has been named as this year's recipient of the Gregory Peck Award at the annual Dingle Film Festival.

Irish American actor Sean Penn has filed for a separation from his wife, actress Robin Wright Penn. The pair appeared at the Oscars where Penn won Best Actor for his role in ‘Milk,” but he did not thank his wife in his acceptance speech.

When it comes to beer, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz prefers Irish brew, even though it gets her tipsy

Natasha Richardson’s family and close friends said farewell to the beautiful and talented actress, wife, mother, daughter and sister today at a small, private funeral service in upstate New York

NEW YORK — Actress Natasha Richardson has died, IrishCentral has learned

Irish-American Queens native Amy Ryan has at least three movies coming out in 2009, with another prestigious project about to begin shooting. Look for

From Jimmy Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to Sean Penn in "Milk," a look at the roles that carried Irish-American actors to the top of their profession.

One of the great Irish movie success stories in recent memory was "Once," the humble musical about an Irishman and a Czech woman falling in love and singing songs. The movie, which starred Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, was a smash hit and eventually brought the duo to the Oscars. "Once" is now being turned into a Broadway musical and is set to premiere during the 2010-11 theatrical season.

See where "The Crying Game," My Left Foot" and "The Commitments" rank on a countdown of the best films out of Ireland.

Both of these animated films were nominated for Best Short Film (Animated) in the 2001 Academy Awards. One is clever and adorable, while the other is intense and will certainly get you thinking.

Daniel Day-Lewis has two Oscars, while Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Liam Neeson don't have any. See the roles for which they could have, and perhaps should have, won.

The Golden Raspberry Awards, a.k.a. the Razzies, have been "cremating cinematic crap for over 25 years," as their Web site proclaims.The following three Irish-American women and one Irish-American man hold the dubious honor of being a part of the Razzie club.

There Will Be Blood Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Ciaran Hinds

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

IN There Will Be Blood, the highly anticipated new film opening in limited release on December 26, we follow a madly driven businessman's pursuit of riches through the guise of oil.

Academy Award winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis - in a cast that also includes Irishman Ciaran Hinds - plays Daniel Plainview, the man who's quest for power and wealth changes his life. Not surprisingly, given its stellar cast, critical buzz is already predicting a sack full of Oscars for the film in 2008, when it goes up against stiff competition from other in-the-running films like No Country for Old Men and Atonement.

2007 was a banner year filled with extraordinary new Irish plays, films, concerts and novels, and a sack full of Tony and Oscar nods lie ahead for many new and seasoned Irish artists. CAHIR O'DOHERTY takes a look back at some of the year's highlights (and inevitable lowlights).

FILMS starring Irish actors will dominate the awards season this year.

FOR the first seven years of his life Irish actor Paul Ronan, father of current Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, lived in Dublin's infamous Ballymun flats. Across town his wife Monica grew up in Crumlin, another working class suburb on the south side of the city.

Since both communities fostered a surprising level of local pride, it's no surprise they share the outlook and sensibility of people whose experiences have kept them grounded all their lives.

GREAT interview with Jack Nicholson in The Irish Times last weekend, where the iconic actor and legendary creature of Hollywood proudly proclaimed his Irishness. "I come from the Lynches of Sligo," he revealed. "You know, I went there, but I looked in the phone book and there are nine million Lynches in Sligo.

IT was a case of VIP gridlock alert in Dublin last week, and celebrity watchers were the gleeful beneficiaries. A gaggle of stars - Mel, Daniel, Bo, Colin, Charlize to name a few - arrived in the Irish capital for a whole bunch of events that firmly established Dublin as a stop on the celeb map of cool places to be seen.

The photos speak for themselves, right? Many of the notables walked the red carpet at the Irish Film and Television Awards on Sunday night at the Gaiety Theatre, chief among them Mel Gibson, who picked up an award for outstanding contribution to world cinema.

WHO, in our humble estimation, stole the show at the Oscars? Perhaps we're slightly biased, but the dynamic acting/singing/writing duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova stood head and shoulders above the rest when accepting their award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly," the signature theme from their smash-hit indie film Once.

The film, made "for a hundred grand" as Hansard said during his speech, went on to score in the region of $20 million worldwide for its distributors, Fox Searchlight, so Sunday night's ultimate honor was the icing on the cake for its stars, who were the toast of Hollywood even before their names were announced. The win must have been even sweeter considering there was a minor kafuffle about the song's eligibility a couple of weeks before showtime.

IRISH teen acting sensation Saoirse Ronan sure is getting around. Fresh from her trip to the Oscars last month, where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her star-making role in Atonement, Saoirse immediately headed back to New Zealand, where she's filming the screen version of popular Alice Sebold hit novel The Lovely Bones.

That project, also starring Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon, won't be released until next year, but there's plenty more on tap for the 14-year-old Carlow native in the meantime.

In preparation for an upcoming film role, Colin Farrell toured Bosnia last weekend, and though he wasn't greeted by sniper fire (sorry, Hillary!) the Irish actor was nonetheless "sickened" by some of the scenes he witnessed.

THE promotional juggernaut for Mamma Mia! began in earnest on Monday in London, as the blue -- yes, blue -- carpet was rolled out for the world premiere of the film based on the eternally unforgettable songs of Swedish supergroup ABBA.

The stars were out in force for what's expected to be this summer's version of last summer's smash movie musical Hairspray. Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan were mobbed by the hundreds of fans looking to catch a glimpse of the stardust on parade.

EDEN, the award winning Irish film that opened the inaugural Los Angeles Irish Film Festival earlier this month, has been enjoying huge success after Irish actress Eileen Walsh, 31, won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival in May.

Since then, the film has been picked up by the L.A.

Actress Ellen Burstyn has just written a memoir that explores her Irish Catholic youth in the Detroit area, where she was born Edna Rae Gillooly. In "Lessons in Becoming Myself," she doesn't exactly offer a sympathetic portrait. Her parents were abusive, and Burstyn ultimately argues that her traumatic youth pushed her to pursue her acting career.

WHEN he's not wowing critics and audiences alike with his rare but riveting performances on screen, Oscar nominee Daniel Day-Lewis is just a regular, ordinary guy, say his neighbors in Roundwood, Co. Wicklow.

Though he's a virtual shoo-in for Academy Award glory next month with his star turn in There Will Be Blood, DDL leaves Hollywood behind when he's at home in Wicklow with his American-born wife Rebecca Miller and their two sons, Cashel and Ronan.

IRISH teen actress Saoirse Ronan is riding high these days with the success of Atonement, and her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, but even great stars register blips on their resumes from time to time.

Two years ago, Saoirse worked on a film called I Could Never Be Your Woman with a star-studded cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd and Tracey Ullman. Saoirse, now 13, played Pfeiffer's daughter, and mother and child were both experiencing the highs and lows of love and crushes.

SAOIRSE Ronan, the 13-year-old Irish actress who was recently nominated for a Golden Globe, can now add an Oscar nomination to her rapidly expanding resume, as she was cited as a Best Supporting Actress nominee for her critically lauded work in Atonement.If she wins, the teenager from the small Co. Carlow village of Ardattin will become one of the youngest ever Oscar winners.

"FALLING Slowly," the Oscar nominated song by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the hugely successful Irish film Once, may be ruled ineligible for the nomination. According to Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor and Publisher journal, the song appeared on two albums before the movie came out, which is strongly disapproved of by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.But the question is, was the song written for the movie first and then ended up on CDs as the film made its slow way to release? Mitchell acknowledged that Hansard was definitely asked to write original songs for the movie, but whether "Falling Slowly" was one of them is not yet known for sure.

IT'S a very long way from the tiny village of Adrattin, Co. Carlow to the Academy Awards - or at least it used to be. Last week Saoirse Ronan, 13, the young Irish film star and Carlow native, brought the two separate worlds a little closer together when she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Atonement, the epic film which won a total of seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Who says the entertainment industry is still partying like it's 1999? Sure, that was the case at Sunday's Oscar ceremony, but behind the scenes things aren't so rosy. The latest casualty of the recession is a film starring Piece Brosnan called "Heaven and Earth." The production, with a $20 million budget, was supposed to have started shooting in Cape Town, South Africa earlier this month, but funding failed to materialize on time and the shooting schedule was canceled until the problem gets sorted out.

It was a good night for the Irish at the 66th annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on January 11. An A-list gathering celebrated the best in TV and film for the year as economic woes were temporarily forgotten while the stars came out to play. Colin Farrell won his first Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his performance in Martin McDonagh's directorial debut "In Bruges.

She's still only 14 but she already owns an Oscar nomination, and her talent is so positively remarked upon that the sky seems to be the limit for actress Saoirse Ronan, a New Yorker by birth, but raised in Co. Carlow by her former New York resident parents Paul and Monica. Saoirse enjoyed a rare break in Ireland last week, and she used part of her time to promote the upcoming Jameson Dublin International Film Festival which takes place later this month.

All the single ladies, put your hands up, whoa, whoa, whoa, as Beyonce sings - Colin Farrell is officially unattached! The word comes from an ultra reliable source - his newly ex-girlfriend, British novelist Emma Forrest. The couple dated for a year, and had an amicable parting of the ways. "Colin, besides being one of the most brilliant minds I know, the most instinctively gifted dad I've witnessed outside my own, and a reminder that, when it comes to art, talent always rises, is a dear and trusted friend.

The green was proudly flying at the annual Golden Globe awards on Sunday night, as both Colin Farrell and Gabriel Byrne took home top acting honors at the celebrity-stuffed event. Farrell took home his trophy after being named top actor in a musical or comedy for his role in the well received but little seen indie film "In Bruges," while Byrne was named best actor in a TV drama for his popular HBO hit "In Treatment." Colin's win was a surprise, even to him, as "In Bruges," a comedy/crime caper released early in 2008, didn't really register on the radar screen as far as end of year critical plaudits go.

Oscar joy for Once and Day-Lewis

By Declan O'Kelly

It was a victorious night for the Irish independent movie Once, as its stars and songwriters Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova picked up an Oscar for best original song for "Falling Slowly" at the ceremony held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on February 24. It was the first nomination and win for both, and Hansard could hardly believe what was happening as he accepted the famous statue.

"What are we doing here? This is mad," said the 37-year-old Hansard, who is also the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames.

Irish eye on hollywood

By Tom Deignan

Saoirse Ronan didn't take home an Academy Award at the big show on February 24, but the 13-year-old Hollywood star has a busy 2008 planned. Ronan was nominated as a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Atonement. Prior to the Oscars, Ronan was happy just to be going to the show, which was nearly canceled because of the prolonged writer's strike.

Once again, Charlize Townsend, the South African Oscar winner, and her Irish boyfriend Stuart Townsend are referring to themselves as husband and wife, even though, in the eyes of the law, they're not legally wed. Actually it was Charlize who called Stu her "husband" during an interview last week, and showed off the band she wears on her ring finger as evidence of their commitment. She was asked why she has chosen to produce a film from two novice directors and replied, "I look at my husband today and I wonder, 'What was it that you said that made me stick around for seven years.

He's cleaning up in the pre-Oscar award blitz and hotly tipped to win a second Best Actor Oscar next month - indeed, if the show goes on as the writer's strike has already put the kibosh on the Golden Globes - but Daniel Day Lewis, English-born but Irish to the core, is taking it all in his stride. Day Lewis was in Santa Monica on Monday night to collect his first gong of the season, top actor honors at the Critics' Choice Awards for his star turn in "There Will Be Blood." But one gets the feeling that the low-key star would just as soon stay at home in Co.

"In Bruges" is proving to be a real critical darling this award season. The little-seen film, written by Martin McDonagh (the English son of Irish parents) and starring Irish actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, picked up another major honor on Sunday night in London, winning the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for McDonagh. The latest trophy for the comedy/crime caper released early last year comes on the heels of Farrell's Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical win at the Golden Globes last month.

It was released last winter to good critical notice but not much fanfare at the box office, but maybe, just maybe, "In Bruges," starring Irishmen Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, will be the little film that could for 2008.

The pooh-bahs at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which helms the Golden Globes, certainly think so, as the black comedy/crime caper, created by English-born but thoroughly Irish writer/director Martin McDonagh, received a surprising three nominations for the January ceremony.

Farrell and Gleeson will compete against each other in the best actor in a musical or comedy category, while the film will also compete for best musical or comedy.