The organisers of the Oscars have invited a record number of new people to vote for next year’s Academy Awards following the row over a lack of diversity.

Oscar-nominated celebrities have been urged to skip a $55,000 (€50,000) trip to Israel offered as part of an awards gift bag.

Will Smith says he will not attend the Academy Awards next month, joining his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and others in protest against two straight years of all-white acting nominees.

Tributes to screen legend Maureen O’Hara, who died at the age of 95, were led by President Micheal D Higgins.

The curtains fell on the Oscars, but Hollywood was not done celebrating its biggest night as the film industry took Academy Award winners and their statuettes out for an extended spin through glamorous after-parties.

Screen actress Maureen O’Hara has received her first Oscar aged 94.

Two of Ireland’s best-known actors, Michael Fassbender and Cillian Murphy, have been invited to join the prestigious list of entertainers who have an Oscars vote each year.

Perhaps atoning for past sins, Hollywood named the brutal, unshrinking historical drama 12 Years a Slave best picture at the 86th annual Academy Awards.

To historian Brenda Stevenson, a scholar on American slavery, 12 Years a Slave is a masterful cinematic work that achieves more than any other film on slavery, so worthy that she plans to screen it in classes at her university, UCLA.

Best supporting actress Oscar nominee Lupita Nyong’o has admitted that when she was young she wished her black skin would become lighter.

The motion picture academy is withdrawing an original song Oscar nomination after it discovered the composer emailed members of the group’s music branch to make them aware of his submission during the voting period.

The cast of the 1970s crime caper American Hustle grooved its way to the top prize from the Screen Actors Guild in a key test of the film’s Oscar mettle six weeks ahead of a likely competitive race for Academy Awards.

David O Russell’s 'American Hustle' win the top honour – award for outstanding cast at the Screen Actors Guild awards today.

Academy Award winner Geena Davis yesterday waded into the controversy over this year’s Oscar ceremony by saying host Seth MacFarlane’s routine was disrespectful to women, particularly the performers who were being honoured.

Actor Peter O’Toole has ‘chucked in the sponge’ and retired from stage and screen. Danny White looks at his life

Oscar-winning film star Ernest Borgnine has died at the age of 95.

The Oscar-winning and nominated stars of 'The Artist' and 'The Help' have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not pleased with plans to auction off 15 Oscar statuettes from such films as 'Citizen Kane', 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Little Women'.

The Oscar nominations will be announced later today, with expectations that 'The Artist' will feature in a number of categories.

An industrial dispute at a Chicago manufacturing company could mean there are no new Oscar trophies at next year’s Academy Awards, it emerged today.

Billy Crystal has agreed to host the 2012 Academy Awards.

Eddie Murphy has bowed out of his role as host of the Oscars following his friend Brett Ratner’s decision to leave the show as producer because of an uproar over a gay slur.

Decades after a provocative Oscar acceptance speech, Vanessa Redgrave will be honoured at the film academy’s first European tribute to an actor.

Vanessa Redgrave is to receive an Oscar tribute in London on Sunday.

Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones and make-up artist Dick Smith will be getting Oscars this year.

The nominations for this year’s Oscars are being announced today at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

The 2012 Oscars will not be weeks earlier than usual, as had been widely speculated – a move that would have upended Hollywood’s crowded awards season.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio led tributes today to Gloria Stuart, the 1930s Hollywood beauty who became the oldest Academy Award acting nominee as the spunky survivor in 'Titanic'.

FOUR Irish artists have been invited to join the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body which nominates and votes on the Oscars each year.

The executive director of the film academy said that Farrah Fawcett wasn’t included in the Academy Awards’ In Memoriam segment because the actress was better known as a TV star.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering action against a producer of 'The Hurt Locker' who sent multiple e-mails urging academy members to vote for his movie in the Oscar best-picture race and “not a 500 million dollar film” – an obvious reference to close-competitor Avatar.

COMEDIAN Kathleen O’Rourke, the voice of Granny O’Grimm, is looking for a free frock to wear at next month’s Oscar Award night in Hollywood.

Actress Anne Hathaway will be among the first to learn who’s up for an Oscar this year.

The Academy Awards will have 10 best-picture nominees instead of the usual five starting next year.

Kevin Spacey is considering starting an internet campaign to land the job of hosting the 2010 Academy Awards.

THE Oscars will be presented a little later next year, officials announced.

The Oscars will be presented a little later next year, officials announced today.

Oscars fans – and nominees themselves – are in for something new at Hollywood’s biggest party, the show’s overseers said.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker will join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis in reading out the Oscar nominations early tomorrow morning.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker will join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis in reading out the Oscar nominations tomorrow.

Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed today.

Hollywood stars will parade across the red carpet for the Academy Awards after weeks of uncertainty over whether a writers' strike that had derailed other award shows would be settled in time for the Oscars.

LIGHTS, camera, action — but first, here come the writers.

Organisers of the Oscars insisted the show would go on next month despite the Golden Globe ceremony being cancelled due to the Hollywood writers’ strike.