It's award season and the real winners are always the limo companies who whisk the attendees to their appointed rounds for an excessive fee plus 30% gratuity.

But the question has come up again:  Exactly how do they go about counting the votes for these major awards?

The British children's program THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE about life at a railroad yard is under attack by a Canadian professor who says the kid show is filled with right wing politics.

 This is defined, by the august professor, as not portraying women properly and story lines about resisting new ideas and change.  

. . . then, you're going to love this year's Academy Awards. The Wrap (www.TheWrap.com) reports that Hamish Hamilton, veteran television director of specials and the aforementioned "Be the Change" Inaugural Ball, has been appointed to direct this year's Oscars.  

Hamilton's experience in musical events and specials creates speculation that the upcoming Oscars telecast may have more "entertainment" musical numbers and less speeches that involve the words "thank the Academy" on a frequent basis. 

I hear of many individuals and churches looking to get into the filmmaking business.  With the success of FIREPROOF and the low budget/church volunteer model, many congregations are saying, "Okay, let me get this straight.  I invest about $100,000 and I get $40 million in return?  Where do I sign up?"

 Okay, maybe it doesn't sound like that.  But it does sound easy.  Deceptively easy.  Making a movie is simply hard.  But for those who are wanting to forge ahead, here's my bit of advice for the day (which is worth perhaps the price you're paying for it...)

When the quality (not the message) of "Christian films" is called into question, often it comes up about budget.  But here's something you should do: 

By Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor 

Since the American economy crashed and burned last fall, more and more American citizens and their political leaders, including President Barack Obama, seem to have embraced policies that reject private property, hamper business, and support a form of Godless European Socialism that favors Big Government, Complicated Laws, and High Taxes.

Warner Bros announces that they're going to do a live action/CG animation feature film of Yogi Bear, based on the animated classic TV series about a lovable pic-a-nic basket snatcher.  And  to bring the voices of Yogi and sidekick Boo Boo to life?  Well, none other than Dan Akroyd as Yogi and Justin Timberlake as Boo Boo.

Really?

According to AdAge, Hollywood Entertainment Industry executives are paying attention to Nikki

Finke's off-color pseudo-postings rather than the truth of consumer concerns as reported

in MOVIEGUIDE(r) and our Report to the Entertainment Industry.

Once in a while (sometimes more often than you think), someone in Hollywood gets it right.

The first episode of the new science fiction television series V is a wake up call to Americans looking for salvation in the wrong places. We cannot predict where the series will go, but the opening episode features a young pastor, who plays a lead role in opposing the rush to consider some benevolent looking aliens to be the saviors of mankind.

The aliens are called “visitors,” shortened to “Vs,” thus the title of the program. They appear over major cities in large hovering spaceships that project messages in the local language. More than just the classic we-come-in-peace message, the messages say, “We’re here to help you.”

The opening episode makes it very clear, however, that they are not here to help. It turns out the Vs have planted many of their kind, who look human, prior to their dramatic arrival in spaceships. The alien plants have done their best to foul up life on earth in order to encourage a hunger for “change” (salvation). The Chicago Tribune draws a parallel to the Obama administration but, while many believe President Obama was not born in the United States, it’s unlikely he was born on another planet. Even so, it’s interesting that, in one important scene, the evil aliens offer “universal healthcare” to all people. Thus, the first episode clearly seems to be saying that President Obama’s healthcare proposals, now making their way through the U.S. Congress, are a false hope that will lead to tyranny and slavery.

THE SIMPSONS animated comedy show on Fox has gone slumming again – it agreed to a cover photo and non-nude layout of the mother character, Marge Simpson, in PLAYBOY.

The cover spread is an attempt by PLAYBOY, and the leftist yahoos running the TV show, to lure children into sleazy sexual escapades so that they will ensure an audience for their “edgy” material in the coming years.

Please help MOVIEGUIDE® clean up your family’s TV screens, including THE SIMPSONS, and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

You're on Facebook, you check e-mail, your iPhone or Blackberry surfs the internet, you buy online and might even meet your future spouse online.  BUT you still come in contact with RADIO more often on any give day than you do with the INTERNET.

 This surprising statistic was just announced by Nielsen, the folks who always know what you're up to.  LIVE TV comes in first place, then RADIO, and the INTERNET coming in third. 

 Radio has been thought of as "yesterday's media" but because it is a "passive" medium -- you hear it in your car, in stores while you shop -- you often consume it without knowing it. The Internet is more "intentional" in its use.