We here at Entertainment Manchester are not dictators. We don't want this site to become a one way street where we tell you what we're watching, reading and listening to. We want a bit of communication, a dialogue between you and us rather than a droning monologue. So, every now and then we'll encourage you to tell us what you're up to and what you think of it. To get the ball rolling, here's what we're doing.

The Writer:

WATCHING: Marie Antoinette on DVD. Still under-rated and misunderstood, Sofia Coppola's third feature is about as intoxicating as films come. Sure, it's bad history, but Coppola's mastery over colour and light and a turn from Kirsten Dunst that should have been recognised by the Academy ensure that Antoinette is still one of the best and most overlooked films of 2006.

LISTENING TO: I'd love to be able to say I'm currently listening to one of those ultra-hip bands that everyone else seems to love like The Kooks, The View, The Gossip or any one of the number of bands whose names begin with the word 'the’. But I'm not. Sorry. Instead, I'm dipping in and out of Jon Brion's superb score for the equally lovely Punch Drunk Love.

READING: A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin. A superb, detailed but thoroughly entertaining account of America's Apollo moon missions throughout the 60s and 70s. Wanna know what astronauts do when they need a whizz in outer space as well as all the scientific info on how they get up there in the first place? This is the book for you.


The Editor:

WATCHING: 24, just about. Being a Virgin Media customer, I lost half of 24 on Sunday when they switched it off (a 'technical error'. hmm...) and it looks like Sky One will be gone from there from midnight on Wednesday, so it looks like I'll have to either get it recorded every week by someone else or switch to Sky. Dammit Chloe, Jack Bauer wouldn't stand for this shit. Filmwise, the last thing I saw was Thunderball, not a fantastic Bond film, but a pretty decent one nonetheless.

LISTENING TO: 30 Seconds To Mars' new album and Charlotte Hatherley's new album. The former is Jared Leto's surprisingly impressive band who mix a bit of predictable emo/screamo angst with some slightly classier goth-pop inspired by The Cure. Leto himself is a good actor, so certainly convinces with his emotional trauma more than most pretty boy singers, even if it all gets a bit dull about halfway through. Hatherley meanwhile is the former Ash guitarist who has taken a massive leap forward stylistically with her second solo album. It'll be reviewed in full this weekend...

READING: I've been reading War and Peace for about 10 months now, which is embarrassing for someone who usually reads so much. It's an amazing book and I'm really enjoying it, but it's so very long. I'm on holiday next week (so forgive a slower than usual updating of the site!) so my aim is to finish it and start a new Jay McInerney book that I've been waiting for read for ages...

What are you watching, listening to or reading? Let us know!

So he's finally done it. Martin Scorsese has won the Oscar he's been denied on five previous occasions for The Departed. The film itself scooped a further three awards (Best Editing, Adapted Screenplay and Picture), but the emphasis was most definitely on Scorsese.

He was handed the award by friends and filmmaking peers Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, given a standing ovation from the Kodak Theatre audience and even received a giant bear-hug from the back stage (and oddly bald) Jack Nicholson.

The Departed may not be Scorsese's best work, but it typifies what makes him such a vital, energetic film-maker and his speech and post-ceremony interviews spoke of a man brimming with intelligence, wit and, perhaps most pointedly, ambition to not rest on his laurels but continue his unique brand of stark but entertaining filmmaking.

The film's four gongs were the closest we got to a clear, out and out winner in a ceremony marked mostly for its diversity and, it has to be said, predictability, despite this blog’s own rubbish forecast. Helen Mirren was always going to claim Best Actress and the same can be said for Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland and Jennifer Hudson for her Beyonce-beating turn in Dreamgirls.

Perhaps the only big surprise came for Pan's Labyrinth which was told that it looks good (winning Best Cinematography, Art Direction and Make-Up) but not quite good enough to be Best Foreign Language Film which went to German picture The Lives of Others.

Indeed, the ceremony produced neither the British nor Latin invasion that many had expected, with Mirren being the only big Brit winner and Alejandro Inarriatu Gonzalaz (Babel) and Penelope Cruz (Volver) losing out for the Hispanic community. At least their nominations prove that the Academy now knows there is life outside of the English-speaking world and, perhaps, in a few years time films like Pan's Labyrinth will be in for Best Picture, rather than just Best Foreign Film.

So, the only outstanding message from this year's ceremony is that Hollywood has now gone completely green with the dancing, ecologically-aware penguins of Happy Feet winning Best Animated Feature and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth being voted Best Song (weirdly beating three from Dreamgirls) and Best Documentary. Gladly for him, the Academy doesn’t do recounts...

Hello and welcome to the first of Entertainment Manchester's all-new spangly blog which will be updated whenever something tickles our fancy. As Uncle Ben once told a young Peter Parker: "with great power, comes great responsibility", so this blog won't descend into the same irresponsible, lazy slagging matches that a certain non-Brit Award winning pop star has been known to indulge in. Instead, we strive to supply intelligent, informed and interesting opinions, enlivened with a sprinkling of controversy which we hope will be enough to spark a debate amongst you, our loyal readers.

First up, with the Oscars coming this weekend, we're going to address the potential winners and losers of the star spangled night, most notably Martin Scorsese. A five times Best Director loser, this year seems destined to give the bushy-browed auteur his moment in the spotlight for Boston-set mob thriller The Departed. It's a decision which would be greeted with cheers from critics and movie fans alike and probably earn Scorsese a well-deserved standing ovation from the Kodak Theatre audience. But there's still something nagging us about the prospect of Marty winning.

We’re big fans of The Departed, as we are of most Scorsese films. Everything from Jack Nicholson's delightfully OTT performance to Scorsese's cheeky sight gag in the very last scene made for a cracking thriller which, in our humble opinion, surpassed the original, rather full-of-itself, Infernal Affairs. But therein lies the crux of the matter. While this may be Scorsese returning to the glossy mob heights of Goodfellas, it's still a remake, one which will go down as a lesser Scorsese effort in years to come along with Casino and fellow remake Cape Fear.

That such wonderful films can be considered lesser Scorsese efforts proves just what a great innovator he is. He filmed Raging Bull in black and white, when such a thing was unfashionable. While Travis Bickle was on the phone in Taxi Driver, he moved the camera away from our protagonist and onto an empty corridor, highlighting Bickle's alienation in a fresh, invigorating way. And when he took on the bible in the stunning Last Temptation of Christ, he did so in an un-patronising manner, which bowed not to commercial or church pressure, but only to his own, deeply held religious beliefs.

That a man so innovative and so vital to modern cinema and its evolution could win for a remake is a crying shame, but one that we're certainly not going to deny him. Scorsese has earned this with every raw frame, every bloodied punch and every dark drum beat of his work. It's just a shame the Academy couldn't realise it earlier...

Quick update for Oscar predictions...

BEST FILM

Letters From Iwo Jima

BEST DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese - The Departed

BEST ACTOR

Forest Whitaker - Last King Of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS

Helen Mirren - The Queen

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Pan's Labyrinth

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Cars

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Children of Men

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Babel