The confusion surrounding the 84th Academy Awards ceremony has cleared and the big event appears to be back on track today. Late yesterday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced entertainer Billy Crystal would be hosting next February’s Oscar telecast. Here’s the official press release.

Beverly Hills, CA (November 10, 2011)– Producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer have announced that Billy Crystal will serve as host for the 84th Academy Awards. “I’m thrilled to welcome Billy back to the Oscar® stage,” said Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak. “He’s a comic legend and Oscar icon, and it feels good to have him back where he belongs.”

Commented Grazer, “Like so many others, I’ve been eager to see Billy host again. It’s very gratifying that he agreed to do it with Don and me at the helm.”

Said Mischer, “With Billy, we’re moving forward with one of the greatest hosts in Oscar history. His return to the Oscars® is, in a sense, a celebration.”

This will mark Crystal’s ninth time as host. Only Bob Hope has hosted more Academy Awards presentations, with 19 ceremonies between 1940 and 1978. Crystal last hosted the Academy Awards in 2004.

“Some of the best moments of my career have happened on the Oscar stage. I am thrilled to be back there. Actually, I am doing this so that the young woman in my pharmacy will stop asking me my name when I pick up my prescriptions,” said Crystal.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar® presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

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Actress Jenny McCarthy isn’t above showing off her body or book smarts. The former Playboy model is the author of a number of bestsellers including, “Life Laughs”, “Baby Laughs,” Belly Laughs,” and ”Love, Lust & Faking It.” Also, McCarthy has written serious books about autism including,  ”Louder than Words: A mother’s journey in healing autism. ”

Now McCarthy, is going back to her comedic roots with a new book, “Sinner: Confessions of a Recovering Catholic.” The book industry site, Galleycat, has a post today about the new deal Hyperion has to publish McCarthy’s latest book next fall.

In the post, McCarthy is quoted as saying she grew up intending to be “a nun”, but all sorts of things happened during her childhood, which had her changing course and taking a road that led to her becoming Playmate of the Year (1994) and eventually an entertainer. McCarthy has been a regular on television with appearances on popular series like “Baywatch”, ”Home Improvement,”  ”Just Shoot Me,” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Photo: Esquire/People -- Pop singer Rihanna named 2011 Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire Magazine

Pop singer and fashion risk-taker, Rihanna, displayed her special kind of heat on the cover of Esquire’s November issue. The magazine named the 23-year-old Barbados native, 2011 Sexiest Woman Alive! On the Internet today, there is some debate about whether the entertainer really deserves the title.

People magazine has more on Rihanna’s new title. Also, to ah, see more of Rihanna and check out the runners-up … click over to the Esquire website.

Photo courtesy Guest Blogger Jean Youn

Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor … etc. These names bring out different thoughts and feelings depending on the person who’s having these thoughts and feelings.

However, for me and probably many other people who were growing up in different countries around the time I was, those names are the names we thought of when we thought of America. Another name that I’ve come to associate with America is Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, though he had a very different background from those other people. Louis Armstrong was almost synonymous to America in my mind when growing up because America reminded me of jazz music and jazz music reminded me of Louis Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong was born in the streets of New Orleans to a mother who was a prostitute in 1901. After age 11, he was often sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs for general delinquency. However, it was there where he developed his cornet playing seriously. (He would later switch to the trumpet and become famous). So though his early life seemed rather hopeless, he was able to grow into a legendary jazz musician.

As a child, it is said that Louis Armstrong asked a teacher why is it that everyone works but only some succeed and others fail. The teacher responded to him that people who fail, fail because they put all of their energy into things they can’t do instead of on doing things they can do. People that succeed, succeed because they put all of their energy into things they can do instead of on things they can’t do.

Those words from Louis Armstrong are of great importance to me as an immigrant in this country working in a dry cleaners. I like to think that as I work hard at something I can do, which is dry cleaning, that I am helping to make America the great country that I knew it to be as a child when I used to hear about those great names that were from this country.

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Jean Youn is the owner of Value Village Cleaners at 912 West Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale 91202. For details on services, coupons and more, check out the Value Village Cleaners website  here.

“Transformers 3″ is packing them at movie theaters. Yesterday, the sci-fi  flick scored $21 million  — bringing its two-day haul to around $60 million. The question now is how close to $200 million will the film get before the fireworks celebrations wrap up on July 4th?

“Thor 2″ on the way

“Thor ” is still playing in theaters, but a sequel is already in the works.  So far, “Thor” has earned close to $178 million at the domestic box office. “Thor 2″ has a release date of July 26, 2013, even though it has yet to land a director.  However, the project does have a screenwriter. More on  Deadline.com

Justin Timberlake and MySpace

Specific Media snatched up MySpace at a bargain basement price of $35 million, earlier this week.  The Orange County company is hoping  singer/actor, Justin Timberlake, will help revive the struggling social network.  Details on The Wrap.

Photo: Kevin P. Casey/Los Angeles Times -- Sax man Clarence Clemons joined Bruce Springsteen for a tour stop on the E Street Band tour in Anaheim 2010

 Rock musician extraordinaire, Clarence Clemons, died today of complications from a stroke.  Clemons was 69. The talented saxophonist was known as the soul of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. The Los Angeles Times has a nice piece on the “Big Man” and his incredible sax sound.

Some breaking news in Hollywood. Ashton Kutcher has finalized a deal to replace the temperamental Charlie Sheen on the hit CBS TV sitcom, “Two and a Half Men,” according to deadline.com  For a while, British actor, Hugh Grant, was the front runner for the job, but that plan did not work out.

Deadline.com has more on this story and the behind the scenes developments that had a number of actors as contenders to join the “Two and a Half Men” cast.

Photo: tula/Flickr -- Fans adorned the Hollywood star of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor with pictures, cards, flowers, and mementos March 2011

 Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood superstar with the incredible violet eyes, died of congestive heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital, last Wednesday, March 23, 2011. The two time Academy Award winner for best actress was 79. The next day in a small private funeral, Taylor was buried at Forest Lawn Glendale.

The screen legend was laid to rest in the Memorial Terrace of the Great Mausoleum, nearby her good friend Michael Jackson in the Holly Terrace section. Many of the Hollywood famous are in this cemetery including Clark Gable, Walt Disney, and Nat King Cole.

(Photo: tula on Flickr)

Photo: Samantha Appleton/White House -- First Lady Michelle Obama talked with singers John Legend, Smokey Robinson, Motown Records Founder Berry Gordy, Jr., and Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli at the White House February 24, 2011

The sound of Motown was in the air at the White House last month. During a special tribute to the legendary Motown sound of pop/soul/rhythm and blues, First Lady Michelle Obama chatted with singers John Legend, Smokey Robinson, Motown Founder Berry Gordy, Jr., and Grammy Museum Executive Director, Bob Santelli, right before a Motown Music Series student workshop.

Photo: Pete Souza/White House -- Entertainer Stevie Wonder got a standing ovation from the audience during "The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House" concert February 24, 2011

PBS stations across the country ran the premiere of the TV special, ”The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House,” last night. The concert recorded in the East Room of the White House back on February 24, 2011, was a celebration of Black History Month and the legendary soul/pop/rhythm and blues sound of Motown Records.

Some of the great artists who helped create that Motown Sound: The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Stevie Wonder.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the event, which included appearances by Seal, Jamie Foxx, Smokey Robinson, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Nick Jonas, and Southland KJLH radio station owner/entertainer, Stevie Wonder — just to name a few.