As expected, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King dominated the list of Oscar nominations announced in Beverly Hills this morning (Tuesday). The final chapter of the Rings trilogy received 11 nominations, including best picture, director, original score, song, special effects, editing, and adapted screenplay. Other nominees in the best-picture category were: Lost in Translation, Mystic River, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Seabiscuit. The biggest surprise may have been the absence of nominations for Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain in the top categories of best film and best director, despite intense lobbying by Harvey Weinstein, who is generally regarded as the industry's most successful arm twister at Oscar time. Another surprise was the inclusion of young Keisha Castle-Hughes in the best actress category for her performance in Whale Rider. At 13, she is the youngest person ever nominated in that category. The awards are scheduled to be handed out on Feb. 29.

The nominees in the top categories: Director: Fernando Meirelles, City of God; Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation; Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; Clint Eastwood, Mystic River.

Actor: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog; Jude Law, Cold Mountain; Bill Murray, Lost in Translation; Sean Penn, Mystic River.

Actress: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider; Diane Keaton, Something's Gotta Give; Samantha Morton, In America; Charlize Theron, Monster; Naomi Watts, 21 Grams.

Adapted Screenplay: Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, American Splendor; Braulio Mantovani, City of God; Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Brian Helgeland, Mystic River; Gary Ross, Seabiscuit.

Original Screenplay: Denys Arcand, The Barbarian Invasions; Steven Knight, Dirty Pretty Things; Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, Finding Nemo; Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan, In America; Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation.

Just like he does on his TV show Punk'd, Ashton Kutcher had the last laugh Monday as final box office figures indicated that The Butterfly Effect, in which he makes his first featured appearance in a dramatic role, was the top film at the nation's movie houses over the weekend. Both the film and Kutcher's performance in it were widely derided by critics. Butterfly earned $17.1 million, edging out the second week of Along Came Polly, which took in $16.4 million. Another new film, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, debuted in third place with $7.3 million. The biggest loser of the week may have been Warner Bros' bike movie Torque, which dropped 56 percent from last week's premiere to just $4.5 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. The Butterfly Effect, New Line, $17,065,227, (New); 2. Along Came Polly, Universal, $16,352,625, 2 Wks. ($53,263,615); 3. Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, DreamWorks, $7,320,066, (New); 4. Big Fish, Sony, $7,110,138, 7 Wks. ($48,934,111); 5. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King, New Line, $6,785,756, 6 Wks. ($337,817,998); 6. Cheaper By the Dozen, 20th Century Fox, $6,381,508, 5 Wks. ($122,533,720); 7. Cold Mountain, Miramax, $5,004,505, 5 Wks. ($72,570,380); 8. Torque, Warner Bros., $4,492,005, 2 Wks. ($17,278,318); 9. Something's Gotta Give, Sony, $4,017,675, 7 Wks. ($107,054,327); 10. Mystic River, Warner Bros., $3,368,197, 16 Wks. ($58,766,374).

There wasn't a raised eyebrow in the crowd when the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation announced that the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez bomb Gigli led its worst-picture list for 2003 with nine nominations, including worst picture and worst screen couple. Other movies making the worst-picture list: Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, From Justin to Kelly, and The Real Cancun. Winners will be announced at what the Foundation called "ultra-low-budget ceremonies" in Santa Monica, CA, scheduled for the morning of February 28, the day before the Oscars. Among the actors in the "worst supporting" category was Sylvester Stallone for Spy Kids 3-D. It marked Stallone's 30th nomination in 24 years, a record.

The "Page Six" column of today's (Tuesday) New York Post reports that Joe Roth, who is producing this year's Oscars, was "furious" when he learned that Leonardo DiCaprio had appeared as a presenter at Sunday's Golden Globes Awards. The newspaper said that DiCaprio had snubbed Roth's efforts to induce him to hand out an Oscar. Roth reportedly has concluded that Miramax's Harvey Weinstein, who backed the DiCaprio starrer Gangs of New York and the upcoming The Aviator, had persuaded the charismatic star to hand out a Golden Globe.

Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain has been selected to open the Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) on Feb. 5, festival directors announced Monday. Of 26 films chosen for the competition, six are from the U.S. They include Richard Linklater's Before Sunset; Omar Naim's The Final Cut; Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace; Ron Howard's The Missing; and Patty Jenkins' Monster. Being shown out of competition, along with Cold Mountain, are Antoine Fuqua's Lightning in a Bottle and Nancy Meyers's Something's Gotta Give. The Berlinale, which is due to screen 394 movies from 18 countries this year, closes on Feb. 15 with the presentation of the Golden Bear, the top prize.

CBS is pricing the last available 30-second spot on Survivor: All Stars, which follows the Super Bowl on Sunday, for $800,000, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing an executive of media buying firm Horizon Media. The newspaper said that many Survivor ads sell as part of packages that include product placement. Another advertiser, Subway Restaurants, has elected to buy a 60-second spot that airs right after the game before the postgame show. "It's a lower price, same audience, and twice as long" as the ads that air during the game, Subway ad buyer Chris Carroll told the newspaper.

Amid demands by Congress that the FCC take action to curb the use of foul language on broadcast television, Fox is considering adding up to a five-minute delay to all live broadcasts to enable directors to catch any untoward utterances. Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that the network began looking into the matter after Nicole Richie, star of The Simple Life, remarked during Fox's telecast of the Billboard Music Awards last month: ""They call it the simple life? Have you ever tried to get cows**t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f***ing simple."

DirecTV appears unlikely to engage in a costly price war with rival satellite service Dish-TV, operated by EchoStar Communications, as several analysts had predicted. Both companies indicated on Monday that, far from lowering prices, they expect to implement a small increase in subscription fees for their most popular packages within the next two months. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen was quoted in today's (Tuesday) Hollywood Reporter as saying that word that DirecTV, which was recently taken over by Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox operation, and EchoStar had resolved most of their differences "eliminates the specter ... of discounted pricing at News Corp./Fox-controlled DirecTV, potentially triggering a new era of promotional pricing for video service."

CNN cofounder Reese Schonfeld has scoffed at CNN's decision to create four regional bureaus to supervise the eleven existing domestic bureaus, describing the plan as an effort to put "a new layer of management between Atlanta [CNN headquarters] and its bureau managers." In a memo to CNN staff on Saturday, General Manager Princell Hair also said that the four regional bureaus will be integrated into a new planning bureau for developing future stories and that a new features unit would be created. Commented Schonfeld on his website : "It's as if someone at CNN thinks its tepid ratings result from a lack of bureaucrats."

ABC Sports has pounced on a football handicapper in Delray Beach, FL who runs a site called Mondaynight-football.com, accusing him of trademark infringement. As reported by the Palm Beach Post, the operator of the site, Darren Cleveland, claimed that he was surprised by the suit and was unaware that the words were trademarked. In its law suit, ABC Sports alleges that Cleveland's Internet operation could lead the public to believe that it was approved by the network and its parent, the Walt Disney Co. The company demands that Cleveland turn over three times the profit he made from his operation as well as attorneys fees.

A judge on the British version of American Idol has continued to criticize a contestant long after she won the competition. Record producer Pete Waterman, a judge on the original Pop Idol show, told the London Sun that Michelle McManus, whose first single hit the British record charts at number one this month, "is simply not a big talent and is certainly not a pop idol. ... The winner was rubbish, and I think her low sales probably reflect that. She won't even last six months." Waterman was reported to have stormed off the set last month following the show in which McManus was named the winner. The singer has also reportedly run afoul of Waterman's fellow judge, Nicki Chapman, who had originally signed on to manage her career, but who apparently has dropped her after a personal falling-out.