Michael Fassbender: Frontrunner

Beverly Hills, CA — Bowing to increased pressure from its members, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) today announced the addition of a new awards category recognizing actors and actresses for their outstanding achievement in full frontal nudity on film.

Academy president Tom Sherak made the official announcement in a statement circulated to the press. Calling the historic move "a long time coming," Sherak said it all began as a grassroots campaign started by Kevin Bacon shortly after the release of "Wild Things," the 1998 thriller in which Bacon showed his "crown jewels."

"It took us a while, but the Academy and all of its members are pleased to finally be able to acknowledge and honor our colleagues who go the distance by fully revealing their genitalia for the viewing pleasures of the movie-going public," Sherak said.

Sherak said the groundbreaking new category will be "gender-blind" and allow male, female, hermaphrodite and transsexual nominees.

The nominees for next year's Oscars are still weeks away from being revealed, but there is already strong speculation that Michael Fassbender, who unreluctantly showed his Irish-German genitals in this year's "Shame," will be a frontrunner nominee and has the lock on walking away with the inaugural award.

Another star that Academy insiders expect on the nominee list is comedienne Sarah Silverman, who bared it all in the Sarah Polley-directed "Take This Waltz."

Nominees for the 84th Academy Awards will be announced January 24, 2012. The ceremony will be held February 26, 2012 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Cowboy love in 3D glory

Los Angeles, CA -- Dust off your Stetsons and get ready for a galloping, eye-popping ride back to Brokeback Mountain.

The Oscar-winning 2005 film depicting the romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983 is presently getting the full stereoscopic 3D treatment, and will be re-released in theaters in the next few months.

James Schamus, head of Focus Features, which released the film in association with Paramount Pictures during its original run, said now is the right time to revisit the groundbreaking film and give it a "special twist" to entice those who've seen and loved it to come and see it again.

"The continuing oppression of homosexuals everywhere definitely provided the impetus for this re-release," said Schamus. "We decided to convert the film into 3D in order to highlight and emphasize this glaring and unfortunate reality."

An exact re-release date is yet to be determined, but Schamus said they "definitely want to get it out before the awards season gets underway."

Schamus said fans of the movie can expect a richer, fuller experience when they see the 3D version, adding that it will be "as if you are right there inside the tent with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal."

"Personally, I can't wait to see the scene where Jake and Anne Hathaway get cozy in the car," said Schamus. "Anne's boobs are going to be glorious in 3D!"

Mackenzie Phillips: Dad did lots of bad things

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Actress Mackenzie Phillips says her famous musician father damaged her in many other ways besides their scandalous sexual relationship.

Phillips, in a last-ditch effort to garner public sympathy and stimulate sales of her tell-all biography "High On Arrival", told USA Today in an exclusive interview that when she was in gradeschool, her deceased father John Phillips once borrowed her lunch money to buy a pack of cigarettes and never paid her back. The actress said that with inflation factored in, the lunch money her father owed her should amount to about $500 today, but she insists she doesn't care about the money.

"I starved during recess that day. I was the only girl at school who didn't have a Little Debbie Swiss Cake roll," said a tearful Phillips. "How can you be so insensitive as to take your child's lunch money to buy smokes?"

Phillips also added that when she was eight, she had a pet goldfish named Petula that mysteriously disappeared from her bowl one day. Her dad told her the fish left and went to San Francisco to try her hand at competitive wrestling, but she found out years later that Petula had actually died and was flushed down the toilet.

"That really hurt me, for him to lie to me like that," said Phillips. "But I've forgiven him. I've accepted that he wasn't the perfect human being I made him out to be."

When asked why these new bombshell revelations didn't make it to the book, Phillips explained: "As I was writing, I didn't think of the big picture. All I could focus on was the incest, and since then I've learned that you have to dig deeper in order to heal. That put things into perspective for me. Suddenly, it wasn't just all about the incest anymore."

Phillips, best known as Julie Cooper on the sitcom "One Day At A Time," wrote that she and her father developed a sexual relationship after one night of heavy drinking and pill popping in the late 60s. Her life soon began to spiral out of control. During her time on the hit CBS comedy, which ran from 1975 to 1984, she battled drug addiction and underwent drug rehabilitation. She was fired from the show in 1980 because of her drug abuse.

Eventually, she and her father went to rehab together, and she later toured with him in a band called The New Mamas & The Papas.

Phillips has led a troubled life that has included substance abuse and a 2008 arrest at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of cocaine and heroin possession. She later pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine possession and was ordered to a drug rehab program.

Phillips' career as an actress took off when, as a teen, she starred as Carol Morrison in the 1973 film "American Graffiti." In the late 1990s, her career experienced a revival when she began co-starring on "So Weird," a Disney Channel program.