Nominees for the Writers Guild of America Awards have been announced, with a few suprises and notable omissions. Original Screenplay nods went to four comedies -- Juno, Knocked Up, Lars and the Real Girl, and The Savages -- and one drama, Michael Clayton, while the films up for Adapted Screenplay are four critical favorites -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood -- and one surprising left-field contender, the thriller Zodiac, released back in March. Missing from contention were such high-profile films as Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War, and Sweeney Todd, which were also passed over for the Directors Guild of America awards. Documentary nominees were The Camden 28, Nanking, No End in Sight, The Rape of Europa, Sicko and Taxi to the Dark Side. The WGA Awards will be handed out on Saturday, February 9th.

Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg will receive the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2009 Golden Globes Awards following the cancellation of this year's ceremony. Organizers decided not to present the Munich director with the honor for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" at Sunday's stripped-down Golden Globes press conference. Instead, Spielberg will be feted in front of his peers with a montage of his work at the 2009 ceremony. The decision to cancel the televised event was made on Monday after the Screen Actors Guild pledged its members would not cross the Writers Guild Of America's picket line. The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards had been due to take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel in California. Instead, a news conference will take place to announce the winners of each category.

Stars Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix lent their support to a pre-recorded TV version of the People's Choice Awards after the ceremony was canceled due to the Hollywood writers strike. The awards, which were hosted by Queen Latifah, were dished out during a taped broadcast which aired on Tuesday night with winners submitting acceptance speeches via video. Organizers were forced to scrap the ceremony, along with the red carpet event and all of the planned press coverage, after striking writers vowed to picket all awards shows that go ahead in 2008. Winners graciously accepted their awards in pre-recorded messages with several declaring their support for the walkouts by the Writer's Guild of America. Accepting the accolade for Favorite Female Movie Star, Witherspoon said, "We are nothing without our writers. But we are also nothing without our audience." Phoenix also acknowledged the ongoing strike - when picking up the award for Favorite Leading Man, he gave his speech silently and used cue cards to deliver his message. The cards read, "I'm speechless without the writers. Seriously. But in my own quiet way, I want to thank the millions of fans that voted for me for favorite leading man." Other stars honored included Johnny Depp, who was presented with the coveted Favorite Male Movie Star award, and Justin Timberlake, who picked up Favorite Male Singer. Robin Williams accepted the Favorite Funny Male gong while Ellen DeGeneres was named Favorite Talk Show Host.

Denzel Washington's new movie The Great Debaters is leading the nominations for the NAACP Image Awards after landing nods including Best Picture. The film, about a Texas professor who takes his African-American students to debate the great minds at Harvard University in the 1930s, is also up for Best Actor (Washington), Best Director (Washington), Best Actress (Jurnee Smollett) and Best Writing (Robert Eisele). Denzel Whitaker, Forest Whitaker and Nate Parker are all nominated for Best Supporting Actor for their roles in the movie. Elsewhere, in the Best Actor category Washington is up against Don Cheadle (Talk To Me), Terrence Howard (Pride), Will Smith (I Am Legend) and Columbus Short (Stomp The Yard). Best Actress is between Smollett, Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), Halle Berry (Things We Lost In The Fire), Jill Scott (Why Did I Get Married?) and Taraji P. Henson (Talk To Me). Competing against The Great Debaters in the Best Picture field are American Gangster, I Am Legend, Why Did I Get Married? and Talk To Me. The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People's 39th annual Image Awards takes place February 14 in Los Angeles.

Actresses Nikki Blonsky and Katherine Heigl have expressed their frustration after this year's Golden Globes Awards ceremony was cancelled as a result of the ongoing writers' strike. The televised event was axed by organizers Monday to avoid a celebrity-less event after the Screen Actors Guild pledged its members would not cross the Writers Guild Of America's picket line. Hairspray star and Best Actress nominee Nikki Blonsky tells MTV News, "It's kind of like you've got your dress, you're getting ready for the senior prom, you've got your hair and your makeup, and somebody goes, 'Prom's canceled!' That's what it's like. This was going to be a super-crazy prom. But it's not going to be." Katherine Heigl, who is nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work in Grey's Anatomy, also expressed her disappointment at the show's cancellation. She says, "It's really disappointing. It's an amazing night to be with people you respect and admire and to celebrate a year of work and a year of entertainment. I'm gonna be missing it on Sunday, and I'm gonna be sad." Hairspray director Adam Shankman adds, "It's wrong. I have just too many friends who worked too hard this year, and (the cancellation) is denying everybody a platform to say their cause." The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards was due to take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. Instead, a news conference will take place to announce the winners of each category.

Movie directors Woody Allen, William Friedkin and David Cronenberg will each direct a production for the Los Angeles Opera in the 2008/09 season. Allen will oversee Gianni Schicchi, one of three one-act operas that make up Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico. The Exorcist filmmaker Friedkin will direct the other two operas in the trilogy, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Cronenberg will direct the U.S. premiere of Howard Shore's The Fly, based on his own 1986 movie remake of the same name. Placido Domingo, the Los Angeles Opera's general director, says, "I'm tremendously excited about our 2008/09 season because it is full of adventure. The kind of musical and theatrical exploration which appeals not only to established opera lovers but might be the right kind of lure for potentially new audiences."

Actor Wesley Snipes has failed in a third motion to have his tax evasion trial moved out of Ocala, Florida. The New Jack City star is due to stand trial on charges he fraudulently claimed tax refunds of almost $12 million in 1996 and 1997. He is also accused of failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004. Snipes' lawyers last month argued the African-American cannot get a fair trial in the city of Ocala due to racial prejudices and that he has the right to a trial in New York - where he was living when the alleged offences occurred. But the request was declined. The star filed a motion at a federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, claiming the decision was erroneous. But the motion was denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The court also granted a federal prosecutors' motion to dismiss a defense request seeking to move the trial out of Ocala, about 80 miles north of Orlando.

Britney Spears was handed a temporary restraining order following a stand-off with police at her Los Angeles home last week, it has emerged. Officers from the Los Angeles police department enforced the emergency protective order to "stabilize the situation," according to her ex husband Kevin Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan. But he denies Federline requested the order after Spears was hospitalized following her public breakdown. He tells People.com, "Kevin doesn't want to keep his kids from being involved in (Spears's) life. But foremost is that the kids be in an environment of structure (and) stability. The next goal is to get things to a point where both parents are able to participate fully in their (children's) lives." Police spokesman Mike Lopez says, "The person it's placed upon would have to stay approximately 100 feet from the other person, or face arrest. In most cases, it's issued by officers when there's the possibility of imminent and immediate danger to the victim." Spears hit the headlines last week after a three-hour stand off at her Beverly Hills home when she refused to give her two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, back to Federline.

Recovering alcoholic David Hasselhoff spent Christmas and New Year in a rehab clinic in Hawaii. The former Baywatch star checked into the facility on the island of Oahu after a series of lapses in 2007. He has been visited there by his two daughters Taylor, 17 and Hayley, 15 - and is making good progress, according to reports. National Enquirer reports that the actor's family staged an intervention at his Beverly Hills home and begged him to seek help. A source tells the tabloid, "It's David's last desperate effort to save himself. The next stop was death. David would drink a gallon of vodka and then pass out. He'd check into the hospital, come out, say he was fine, then do it again." The Enquirer claims that during a recent binge, Hasselhoff asked his 17 year old daughter to drive to a liquor store to buy vodka for him.

Singer/actress Jennifer Lopez is temporarily retiring from show business so she can devote herself to her family. The 38-year-old Maid in Manhattan star is due to give birth to husband Marc Anthony's baby in the spring. And Lopez, who is determined to spend as much time with her first child as possible, has no plans to return to work in the foreseeable future. She tells Harper's Bazaar magazine, "I don't know (how long I will take off), and I like that, because my life has been so planned for so many years. Once I did the (recent U.S.) tour, I really just wanted to shut it down, and since then I've had to do three things, including a video. It may not sound like a lot, but you know, at this point, any woman can sympathize. It is a lot. I was ready just to sit."

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini has reportedly proposed to his long-term girlfriend Deborah Lin. The couple are said to have got engaged over the Christmas period after Gandolfini, 46, whisked the former model away on a romantic vacation. A source tells celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, "James popped the question while in the Bahamas over the holidays. They're thrilled."