Oscars 2013: Daniel Day-Lewis makes Hollywood history

Daniel Day-Lewis has made Oscars history by becoming the first person to win the best actor prize three times.

The British-born star, who had been the runaway favourite, was rewarded for his role in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.

"I really don't know how any of this happened. I do know I've received much more than my fair share of good fortune in my life," he said.

Ben Affleck's Iran-set rescue thriller Argo beat Lincoln to the top prize for best picture.

In a live broadcast from the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama joined Jack Nicholson to help present the best picture prize at the end of the night.

Argo is the first best picture winner not to have a concurrent nomination for best director since 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.

But despite Affleck's omission from the best director category, the film had been widely-tipped to take the top prize.

Oscars host Seth MacFarlane joked at the start of the ceremony: "Argo's story is so top-secret that its director remains unknown to the Academy."

Accepting his award alongside fellow producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Affleck paid tribute to the "genius" Steven Spielberg who lost out in the same category.

Referring to his previous Oscar success with 1997's Good Will Hunting, he said: "I never thought I would be back here and I am because of so many of you who are here tonight".He added: "It doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life, all that matters is that you get up."

The Oscar victory for Daniel Day-Lewis puts him ahead of Hollywood legends Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks - who all have two best actor wins to their name.

Day-Lewis, who holds UK-Irish citizenship, previously won for My Left Foot (in 1990) and There Will Be Blood (2008) and has a reputation for immersing himself in his roles.

Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for best actress for her role as a troubled young widow in Silver Linings Playbook. The 22-year-old actress, who stumbled over her dress on her way to the stage, joked: "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell over and that's embarrassing."Surveying the huge audience in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, she added: "This is nuts." It was the first Oscar win for Lawrence, who was previously nominated for best actress in 2011 for her performance in Winter's Bone.

Anne Hathaway won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as tragic factory worker Fantine in movie musical Les Miserables.

With her cropped hair and gaunt face, Hathaway's teary version of I Dreamed a Dream had made her an Oscar favourite. "It came true," the actress said when she collected her statuette.Hathaway's Oscar was her first, the actress having been previously nominated in 2008 for Rachel Getting Married.

Hathaway said: "Here's hoping that someday in the not too distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and not in real life."

British singer Adele won the Oscar for best original song for her Bond theme Skyfall, which she also performed during the show.

She struggled through tears to thank the Bond producers and her co-writer Paul Epworth, who collected the award alongside her.

Ang Lee won his second Oscar for directing Life of Pi, the adaption of Yann Martel's fantasy novel about a boy stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The film won four Oscars in total, more than any other film.

The Taiwanese-born director, who won previously for Brokeback Mountain (2006), exclaimed: "Thank you, movie god!"

Life of Pi picked up two Oscars in the early stages of the awards for cinematography and visual effects.

Cinematographer Claudio Miranda admitted in an emotional acceptance speech: "This movie was quite a beast to make." Later, Mychael Danna picked up the statuette for Life of Pi's original score.

Christoph Waltz won his second Oscar for best supporting actor in a Quentin Tarantino film, this time as a German bounty hunter in the slave revenge story Django Unchained.

Picking up the first award of the night, Waltz offered thanks to his character Dr King Schultz and to "his creator and the creator of his awe-inspiring world, Quentin Tarantino."

The Austrian actor won his first Oscar as a Nazi colonel in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in 2010.

Tarantino won the original screenplay prize for Django Unchained, adding to the Oscar he won for writing Pulp Fiction in 1994. "I have to cast the right people to make those characters come alive and boy this time did I do it," he said.

The best adapted screenplay Oscar went to Chris Terrio for Ben Affleck's Iran-set siege thriller Argo.

The best short animated film category was won by Paperman, while Pixar's Scottish adventure Brave won best animated feature.

The award for costume design went to Briton Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina. She described the win as "completely overwhelming" and paid tribute to her children who were "fast asleep in England".

The make-up and hairstyling award went to fellow Brits Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Miserables. Tom Hooper's musical also picked up the Oscar for sound mixing.

Unusually, there was a tie in the sound editing category - the Oscar was shared by Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall.

Searching for Sugar Man, which tells the story of musician Rodriguez who disappeared from public view in the early 1970s but developed a cult following in South Africa, won the Oscar for best documentary.

Producer Simon Chinn said: "Rodriguez isn't here tonight because he didn't want to take any of the credit himself."

Austrian drama Amour won the Oscar for best foreign language film.

The French-language film, directed by Michael Haneke, portrays the indignities of an elderly Parisian couple - Anne and Georges - as they cope with Anne's wish to die after a stroke.

Host Seth MacFarlane kicked off the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles with the quip: "I honestly cannot believe I'm here. It's an honour that everyone else said 'no'".After an exchange with William Shatner, who appeared as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, the Family Guy creator launched into a satirical song about topless appearances by actresses in the movies.

Almost an hour into the three-and-a-half hour show, Halle Berry introduced a tribute to the James Bond franchise, followed by Dame Shirley Bassey who sang her theme song to the 1960s Bond classic Goldfinger.

The show also featured a salute to movie musicals of the past decade, with Chicago Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dreamgirls winner Jennifer Hudson joining Les Miserables cast members that included Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Helena Bonham Carter and Amanda Seyfried.

During the section of the show that pays tribute to those who died in 2012, Barbra Streisand sang the late Marvin Hamlisch's The Way We Were, from the 1973 romantic drama in which she starred with Robert Redford. It was Streisand's first Oscars performance for 36 years.

Ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner hunted over killings

Los Angeles area police have launched a huge manhunt for a sacked officer who is suspected of killing three people, including a former colleague.

Christopher Dorner, 33, is alleged to have gunned down a policeman and wounded two others on Thursday morning.

He is also wanted over the shooting deaths of a couple at the weekend.

Police are going door-to-door after finding the suspect's burned-out truck near a ski area at Big Bear Lake, 80 miles (128 km) east of Los Angeles.

Fire officials in Big Bear Lake told the Los Angeles Times that fresh tracks spotted in the snow were believed to be Mr Dorner's but that it was possible the truck was a diversion.

Nearby schools and other buildings were placed on a security lockdown as a precaution.

Mr Dorner is said to have implicated himself in a 14-page "manifesto" that made threats against several people, including Los Angeles police employees.

A former US Navy reservist, he was with the police department between 2005-08, but lost his job for making false statements.

'Extremely scary'He is suspected of:

Shooting dead Monica Quan, 28 - the daughter of a former LAPD captain - and her fiance Keith Lawrence, 27, on Sunday night in their car at their home in Irvine, California

Shooting at two police officers, grazing one, on Thursday morning in Corona, east of Los Angeles

Ambushing two policemen in their patrol car in the town of Riverside a few hours later, killing one and wounding the other

Monica Quan's father represented Mr Dorner before a disciplinary tribunal that ruled against the suspect at the time of his dismissal.

According to court documents, Mr Dorner was fired in 2008 after making a complaint against his field training officer, saying she had kicked a suspect, a schizophrenic man with severe dementia, during an arrest.

Officials have assigned more than 40 protection details to potential targets of the fugitive, and electronic signs that usually list expected commute times urged motorists to call police if they saw Mr Dorner or his vehicle.

Los Angeles chief of police Charlie Beck told reporters: "Of course he knows what he's doing - we trained him. It is extremely worrisome and scary, especially to the police officers involved."Mr Beck said that Mr Dorner has access to multiple weapons, including an assault rifle.

On Thursday morning, jittery Los Angeles police mistakenly fired on a vehicle they thought was similar to one used by Mr Dorner.

Two women were injured. One was in a stable condition with two gunshot wounds and the other had a minor gunshot wound.

Nevada police are also on alert, as the suspect owns a house nine miles (14.5km) from the Las Vegas Strip.

'Necessary evil'

Police said earlier that an LAPD badge and identification belonging to Mr Dorner had been found by a citizen near San Diego's airport.San Diego police said a man matching the suspect's description had tried to steal a boat from one of the city's marinas on Wednesday night.

When the boat would not start, that person tied up an 81-year-old man on board and fled.

He was last known to be living in La Palma, California.

Mr Dorner's rambling "manifesto" extends for more than 11,000 words and contains a number of allegations against former colleagues, together with embittered reflections on his childhood.

The essay warns of "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty".

He also says "unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name".

The profanity-peppered rant ends with praise for a range of public figures and celebrities, from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to the actor Bill Cosby.

Black Swan choreographer gets top ballet job

Benjamin Millepied, the choreographer who helped transform Natalie Portman into an obsessed ballerina for 2010 film Black Swan, has been named the new director of the Paris Opera Ballet.

The 35-year-old, who married Portman in 2012, will take up his role in October 2014.

Portman, 31, won an Oscar for her work in Black Swan, collecting the award in February 2011 while pregnant.

She and Millipied welcomed their son, Aleph, in June that year.

Millepied is a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who left in 2011 to create his own dance company in Los Angeles.

Founded in 1661 by Louis XIV, the Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest and one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world.

Portman will be seen later this year reprising her role as scientist Jane Foster in comic book sequel Thor: The Dark World.

Woman allegedly seen in decade-old child porn photos arrested in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES –  A woman suspected of making and appearing in child porn photos a decade ago that have circulated widely in the years since was arrested hours after authorities released images of her taken from those shots, federal officials announced Friday.

Letha Mae Montemayor, 52, was taken into custody outside a San Fernando Valley apartment complex after authorities received several tips.

She is expected to make a federal court appearance Monday on charges of producing child pornography and conspiracy, officials said. Each charge carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence.

An unidentified man also seen in the photos was still being sought.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Montemayor had obtained a lawyer, and there was no public telephone listing for her. However, her son told a TV station that the allegations were false.

Montemayor was arrested fewer than 10 hours after federal authorities announced that they were looking for a man and woman who appeared to be molesting a girl who looked to be about 13 in photos that were widely circulated online.

Forensic experts believe the shots were taken about 11 years ago in the San Fernando Valley. A phone book and calendar were seen in the shots, officials said.

The images were first discovered by ICE agents in Chicago in 2007.

The woman in the photos had several distinctive tattoos, including a butterfly on her hip and a curled-up cat on her right shoulder.

"This arrest would not have happened without the public's help, and it demonstrates how much individual citizens can do to help law enforcement attack crime," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.

The then-unknown adults in the photos were charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography and production of child pornography. The criminal complaint listed them as "John Doe" and "Jane Doe."

The arrest "brings us one step closer to vindicating the victim and helping to regain some dignity for all victims of child exploitation crimes," U.S. Attorney AndrDe Birotte said in the statement. "We still want the public's help in identifying John Doe and the victim in the disturbing series of images that continue to be circulated on the Internet."

Montemayor's son Paul Tucker said his mother was looking for an attorney when she was arrested, and called the allegations against her "ridiculous."

"My mom does not do anything of the sort like that," Tucker told KABC-TV.

Tucker told the TV station he remembered the girl from when he and his mother were living in a hotel, and the girl said she was 18 at the time.

"That's what she had said to us, that she was 18 but she just looked younger," he said.

The images released by authorities did not show the girl.

The search was announced Thursday in connection with an international investigation of child pornography dubbed "Operation Sunflower" that resulted in more than 200 arrests.

Morton said 123 child victims were identified during the five-week investigation, which ended in early December. ICE and other authorities found 110 victims in 19 states. Others were living in six countries.

The victims ranged from less than 1 year to 17 years old. Morton said 44 of the victims were living with the people suspected of abusing them.

Report: Nets going to take time with Phil Jackson, let Carlesimo run show

The bottom line has not changed — if Phil Jackson wants to be the next coach of the Brooklyn Nets, he can be.

But the timetable seems to have slowed down, reports Howard Beck at the New York Times. From the first days after Avery Johnson was fired the Nets said they were not going to treat the coaching search like the Lakers did and find someone fast. They said they wanted to take their time.

They trust interim coach P.J. Carlesimo enough to do that, Beck reports.

''(The Nets) will woo Jackson whenever he is ready to be wooed, whether now or this summer.

They will happily stick with Carlesimo as the interim coach for the duration of the season, and perhaps even beyond, depending on the results.''

The Nets and Jackson have not yet had any formal contact, Beck notes.

Jackson prefers to be deliberate with his decisions; he would not rush into a job. In particular that make sense because you can’t really implement the triangle offense on the fly during the regular season. Waiting until this summer makes sense.

What Jackson needs to decide is now much this roster can be tweaked — as of now the top end for this roster would be 50 wins and out in the second round of the playoffs. Does Jackson like this roster and can it be improved to both become more talented and better fir his system.