Hudson, Murphy, Mirren & Ellen Part of Walters Oscar Special

TVGuide.com reports that Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy will appear alongside Dame Helen Mirren and this year's Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres on Barbra Walters Oscars Special. The show airs on Sunday night, February 25, 2007 at 7pm prior to the 8pm Academy Awards.

The 79th Annual Academy Award nominations, were announced a few weeks back and contain Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett among the nominees.

Blanchett and Hudson were nominated as Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for their performances in Notes on a Scandal and Dreamgirls, respectively.  Other nominees in that category included Adriana Barraza for Babel, Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine, and Rinko Kikuchi for Babel.

Alan Arkin of Little Miss Sunshine and Murphy of Dreamgirls were nominated as Best Supporting Actor.  They were joined by Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children, Djimon Honsou for Blood Diamond, and Mark Wahlberg for The Departed.

Among the nominees for Best Actress were Mirren, for The Queen, Dench for Notes on a Scandal, and Streep for The Devil Wears Prada, as well as Penelope Cruz for Volver and Kate Winslet for Little Children.

Venus star Peter O'Toole was among the nominees for Best Actor.  The others were Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond, Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.

Playwright Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) received a nod for Best Original Screenplay for The Queen, while Closer and Howard Katz playwright Patrick Marber was nominated for Adapted Screenplay for Notes on a Scandal.

The nominees for Best Picture were Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen.   Noticeably absent was Dreamgirls (its director/adaptor, Bill Condon, was also not honored by the Academy this year).  However, it received eight total nominations- Art Direction, Costume Design, 3 nominations for Original Song, and Sound Mixing, as well as Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

Nominated for Best Director were Paul Greengrass for United 93, Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima, Martin Scorcese for The Departed, Stephen Frears for The Queen and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel.

The Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in L.A. on February 25th at 8 PM ET.

Visit www.oscars.com for more information and a full list of nominees.

Photo - Jennifer Hudson

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