It says everything you need to know about the current state of TV news that on a day that saw Iraq moving closer to all-out civil war, with at least 76 Iraqis killed and 179 wounded in sectarian attacks, the CBS Evening News devoted one minute and thirty-nine seconds to coverage of Iraq... and one minute and fifty-six seconds to coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's appearance in front of the Supreme Court. Of course, the Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington story came with all that irresistible B-roll of Anna Nicole jiggling her way through a pack of jostling paparazzi into the High Court. Hard for civil war to top that.

Memoirs of a 40-Year-Old Virgin Geisha: A nine-year-old is trained as a geisha in pre-World War II Japan -- and then doesn't get asked out for three decades. Transerella Man: A Depression-era pre-op transsexual dreams of becoming heavyweight champion of the world. Batman Begins to Walk the Line: The Caped Crusader falls for a vivacious country singer who disapproves of his late-night carousing and addiction to latex. READ MORE

Memo to Jon Stewart: Tread Lightly and Carry a Big Schtick Politics and the Oscars have a long history of going together about as well as Muslims and Danish cartoons. And I can't stand the thought of you ending up a bug on Oscar's windshield.

Happy Oscar Sunday! I usually spend Sunday mornings watching Meet the Press and writing Russert Watch. But since I live in LA, where the Academy Awards are the show biz equivalent of a High Holy Day, I've turned the Russert helm over to Jane Hamsher and will be on Oscar Watch throughout the day. Watch this space for my upcoming compilation of tidbits from this weekend's pre-Oscar parties, followed by on-the-scene updates from Vanity Fair's Oscar night celebration. In the meantime, check out my advice to Jon Stewart, our list of HuffPost Movie Mashups, and Greg Gutfeld's Oscar predictions. And, of course, our usual roundup of the week's most interesting posts below.

Welcome to the first ever HuffPost Oscar Watch. The envelope please...

2006 Oscar Campaigns: Who Ran the Best Race?

PLUS: Mick Jagger on Jon Stewart and the Internet Salman Rushdie's 100% The Hottest-est Party in Town In Hollywood, Everyone's a Star And the Award for Best New Party Goes to... Reality Doesn't Bite Crash

Oscar Weekend: HuffPost Movie Mashups Memo to Jon Stewart: Tread Lightly and Carry a Big Schtick

"I'm the type who'd be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn't going to. I'm the type ...

Tom Ford and Richard Buckley threw a pre-Oscar party at their Richard Neutra home in Bel-Air. The guest list included Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse...

The Oscar newcomer of the year may be Heath Ledger, but the pre-Oscar-party newcomer title definitely goes to Ari Emanuel. Up until this year, the Fri...

After Ari's party, I headed over to Ed Limato's. There was plenty going on, but I could not take my eyes off the spectacle of Hugh Hefner and his thre...

"I'm all excited," Bill Maher told me as we were driving to the Vanity Fair dinner, "that there is one party that we aren't going to have to see Paris...

Sitting next to Michael Caine at the dinner, I ask him to evaluate Jon Stewart as an actor: "He comes from left field," Caine tells me. "He is more in...

Mick Jagger on Jon Stewart: "Very different in tone. No broad comedy... being himself.... effortless... relaxed. I really like him." And Mick Jagger...

If you're wondering why Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin appeared together to present Robert Altman with his Lifetime Achievement Award, wonder no more. ...

"I predicted all the winners," Salman Rushdie tells me, "and when Jack Nicholson appeared to present the Best Picture award, I knew it wasn't going to...

Best joke: Bjork and Dick Cheney. Who'd have thought they'd ever end up together? Worst decision: Choreographing the songs. It was like bad Broadwa...

Lenin's fabled admonition that capitalists are so eager to make a buck they'll sell you the rope with which to hang them is in need of an update: they'll also lease you the ports through which terrorists can sneak the dirty bomb with which to blow them up. The establishment's full-throated support of the Dubai ports deal is an object lesson in how huge amounts of money can cloud the thinking of people on both sides of the political spectrum. The latest examples of leaders whose judgment has been clouded by cash are Jack Kemp and Bill Clinton...

Don Rumsfeld puts the blame for the White House's Iraq troubles squarely where it really belongs: lousy high school history teachers. Damn them!

As I've probably made clear by now, I'm borderline-obsessed with the mainstream media's insistence on looking at the world through the obsolete right vs left paradigm while refusing to accept the ongoing political realignment on a wide variety of issues including Iraq, corporate greed, pork barrel spending, the failure of the drug war, and the Dubai ports deal. We can now add another item to that growing list: Instapundit Glenn Reynolds' new book, "An Army of Davids," a powerful paean to how changes in technology are empowering the little guy to take on the goliaths of Big Media and Big Government. "Small is the new big," says Reynolds.

"There's never been a popular war," said Don Rumsfeld, trying to explain away the president's 60% disapproval rating. "There isn't such a thing." What about World War II? Nope. According to Rummy the historian: "Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most hated people in the country [and] he did a terrific job." Wow. No wonder Bush's approval rating is so low. People even disapproved of FDR -- and he was fighting the Big One, the one we had to win. And he did "a terrific job," as opposed to the hapless job Rummy's boss is doing. Pretty persuasive, Mr. Secretary. Only trouble is, it's completely bogus history.

My favorite quote of the week comes from Jack Abramoff, whose old chums are treating him like Typhoid Mary at a hypochondriacs' convention: "You're really no one in this town unless you haven't met me." As his lips loosen, Abramoff has become the GOP's worst nightmare: a corrupt insider looking for a reduced sentence. Speaking of Republican nightmares: Dubai ports deal, RIP. I only regret you didn't live long enough for President Bush to spend his first veto on you. Let's bow our heads, and check out the Sunday Roundup of the week's most interesting blogs below...