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Ever since I first learned about Twitter, the "free social messaging site for staying connected in real-time," I've felt very conflicted about it.

On the one hand, I think it's great that the Internet enables us to stay in touch with each other more easily than any other medium via email, instant messaging, Facebook, and the like. But, on the other hand, I feel that Twitter represents a bit of a tipping point--after all, how many of our lives are interesting enough to justify frequent updates throughout the day? I love my friends but, to be honest, I couldn't care less what most of them are doing throughout the course of an average day. (I'm sure it's mutual.)

Reason seems to dictate that Twitter will have a limited shelf-life. First and foremost, it has not figured out a way to make money. Moreover, Facebook currently provides the same status update/news feed capability, along with many other features that Twitter does not, which makes it the more appealing outlet for our narcissistic inclinations. (Great read, by the way: "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations," by Christopher Lasch.)

And, yet, Twitter--as much as Susan Boyle, Bo Obama, and teabagging--is the phenomenon of the moment. This month, a highly-publicized race broke out between a mainstream cable news network and a mainstream celebrity. CNN, which was led into "tweeting" by anchor/tool-du-jour Rick Sanchez (@RickSanchezCNN), now maintains 45 Twitter accounts, the most popular being its "Breaking News Feed" (@CNNBrk). Ashton Kutcher (@APlusK), the multi-hyphenate probably best known as the host of the celebrity reality show "Punk'd" and Mr. Demi Moore (@MrsKutcher), challenged CNN by claiming that he could attract one million Twitter followers before their Breaking News Feed could. The race was on, and the resulting publicity led even CNN's resident geriatric Larry King to get in the game (@kingsthings), along with the nation's penultimate culture warrior, Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah). Finally, at 2:13am EST last Friday morning, in a result that perhaps raises even more questions about the nature of our society than the existence of Twitter in the first place, Kutcher prevailed. (CNN passed the mark 29 minutes later.)

Note: On March 4, I interviewed Kutcher about a variety of topics, including his online efforts, for my Los Angeles Times blog "The Feinberg Files." At the time, he told me, "As far as my online media that I've been building, I think I have, like, 230,000 followers on my Twitter account, and I have some 350,000 fans on my fan page on Facebook, and I think 150,000 people on my fan page on MySpace that I personally control--I don't control the people, I just control the media that I distribute--and that, in many ways, is really allowing me to take the power back from the tabloid media, because instead of going to a TMZ or a People or an Us and having them profit off of my fame--I wouldn't call it 'my fame,' but the public's interest in me--I've actually created a one-on-one conversation with people who choose to follow me. So I can distribute information much quicker, and much more efficiently, and much more honestly than any tabloid can. And I think that that is gonna become an extraordinarily powerful tool if people choose to use it." And now I must confess: that same day, I gave in and created a Twitter account of my own. You can "follow" me and my work, if your heart desires, @ScottFeinberg.

Photo: Twitter logo (Twitter); Video: Ashton Kutcher celebrates his victory over CNN in the Twitter race. (UStreamTV)

I recently put down a lot of money for "The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection" (1959-1964), a 28-DVD set of what I firmly believe was the most consistently smart and entertaining show in the history of television. The other night, while knocking out a few episodes, I came across one--entitled "Nick of Time" (1960), which focuses on a couple of newlyweds--when something struck me as rather noteworthy. At one point, the husband (a very young William Shatner) says in response to a cynical comment by the wife (a pretty actress named Patricia Breslin), "Little Miss Sunshine, hm?" She responds, "That's me!" What's so odd about this? Well, the young actress who starred in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006) 46 years later was Abigail Breslin! No word yet on whether the two Breslins are in any way related, but I've emailed Abby's dad to inquire.

UPDATE: Mike Breslin was kind enough to get back to me with the following report...

"When I was in the USAF many eons ago, there was a civilian worker at Kirtland AFB where I was stationed. His son was Raymond Michael Breslin, I'm Michael Raymond Breslin. He was married (getting divorced) from a Mormon woman. He told me she'd researched the 'Breslins' at the archives in Salt Lake and determined that ALL Breslins are related. However, we do not know Patricia. And I've seen that show."

Photos: Patricia Breslin, with William Shatner, in "Nick of Time" (CBS); Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)

Turner Classic Movies, the cable network that feeds the addiction of classic movie lovers like me with around-the-clock and commercial-free programming, has just released a list of "The 15 Most Influential Films of All Time" as part of its 15th anniversary celebration.

It's actually amazed me that TCM has taken this long to get into the list-making game, which provokes tremendous discussion about the included and excluded films, as well as for the list-maker, as the American Film Institute discovered a decade ago with its "100 Years... 100 Movies" special, which spawned an annual series devoted to different genres and sub-categories.

The TCM list which was selected by a group of experts including Robert Osborne, a film historian and Hollywood Reporter columnist who has become the face of TCM while serving as its prime-time host since its inception. Osborne says, "There were some great debates over which movies to include. It's tough to agree on only 15 titles, but the ones we selected cover a range of great work."

And they are (chronologically):

1. "The Birth of a Nation" (1915)

2. "Battleship Potemkin" (1925, Russia)

3. "Metropolis" (1927, Germany)

4. "42nd Street" (1933)

5. "It Happened One Night" (1934)

6. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937)

7. "Gone with the Wind" (1939)

8. "Stagecoach" (1939)

9. "Citizen Kane" (1941)

10. "Bicycle Thieves" (1947, Italy)

11. "Rashomon" (1950, Japan)

12. "The Searchers" (1956)

13. "Breathless" (1959, France)

14. "Psycho" (1960)

15. "Star Wars" (1977)

I think it's a solid list, for the most part, but I do question one or two selections. For instance, although "42nd Street" (1933) saved Warner Brothers during the Depression and helped usher in a brief wave of Busby Berkeley-choreographed musicals, I don't really see how it had much long-term influence. I would instead submit that another film from that same year, "King Kong" (1933), had a more enduring impact--all the special-effects and CGI driven films that continue to dominate the box-office to this day are indebted to it.

And, while I know you can't include everything, I do wish there had been space for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) and/or "On the Waterfront" (1954), the two Marlon Brando films that forever changed the way actors approach their performances; "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) and/or "The Wild Bunch" (1969), which literally and figuratively shot up the Production Code that, for better or worse, had censored Hollywood for roughly 35 years throughout its Golden Age; "Jaws" (1975), which two years before "Star Wars" (1977) introduced the summer blockbuster and the notion that a film's theatrical release should be determined by its opening-weekend box-office receipts; and "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989) and/or "Pulp Fiction" (1994), which more than any other films demonstrated the artistic and commercial capacity for independent film and paved the way for the Miramax-led indie craze that has been a force in the industry ever since.

Photo: "Metropolis" (1927). Credit: UFA

Greetings!

It's been a while since this site was last active on a daily basis. For the six months leading up to last year's Academy Awards, my primary outlet was "The Feinberg Files" on the Los Angeles Times web site "The Envelope," and this site was used only once a week to showcase my overall awards forecast. Then, for the last month or so since the big night, both sites have been pretty silent, as I've focused on chipping away at a book project.

I've also been laying the groundwork for a revival of this blog (ATWI), which has held and will always hold a special place in my heart because, well, it was my first. As I embark on my fifth year of covering the film industry here on ATWI, I hope you, its readers, will continue to regularly check out what I have to say and share what you have to say in the comments section that follows each post. The ability to have this sort of a back-and-forth is what has made blogs the medium of our future, and I hope you'll make this blog a part of yours.

Let the games begin (again)!

Scott

For LIVE coverage from the Academy Awards -- instant results, commentary, and statistical analysis -- please join me tonight at latimesblogs.latimes.com/files!

Here are a few of the most memorable, in no particular order -- click their descriptions (which are listed alongside the year of the ceremony) to see video footage of them:

• Roberto Benigni ("Life Is Beautiful") goes nuts after winning the Oscar for best foreign language film (1999)
• Charlie Chaplin welcomed back from exile with an honorary Oscar and the longest standing ovation in Academy Awards history (1972)
• Denzel Washington ("Training Day") wins the best actor Oscar on the same night that Sidney Poitier, the only other black man who had won it up to that point, received an honorary Oscar (2002)
• Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball") wins the best actress Oscar on the same night that Sidney Poitier, the only other black person to have won an Oscar for a leading performance up to that point, received an honorary Oscar (2002)
• Cuba Gooding, Jr. ("Jerry Maguire") wins the best supporting actor Oscar and gives a high-energy acceptance speech after the orchestra tries to play him off the stage (1997)
• Woody Allen makes an unannounced appearance at the Oscars to introduce a tribute to films made in New York just months after 9/11 (2002)
• Gerda Weissman Klein, Holocaust survivor and subject of the documentary short "One Survivor Remembers," speaks movingly after the film wins the Oscar (1997)
• Michael Moore ("Bowling for Columbine") wins the Oscar for best documentary and gives a rousing anti-Iraq War, anti-George W. Bush speech (2003)
• Tom Cruise opens the first post-9/11 Oscars ceremony by reminding people about the importance of the movies (2002)
• Stanley Donen, co-director of "Singin' in the Rain" and director of numerous other classic musicals, accepts his honorary Oscar and does a dance (1998)
• Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro present Elia Kazan with an honorary Oscar as the audience, and the audience offers a highly-mixed reaction (1999)
• Kirk Douglas receives an honorary Oscar just months after having a speech-altering stroke (1995)
• Jack Palance ("City Slickers") wins the best supporting actor Oscar at the age of 73 and proves he's still vibrant by doing one-arm pushups on stage (1992)
• Marlon Brando ("The Godfather") wins the best actor Oscar but, via "Sacheen Littlefeather," says he is unable to accept it (1973)
• Beatrice Straight ("Network") wins the best supporting actress Oscar for a performance lasting four minutes and thirty seconds (1977)

BEST PICTURE
(1) "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight, 11/12, trailer)
(2) "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount, 12/19, trailer)
(3) "Milk" (Focus Features, 12/5, trailer)
(4) "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company, 12/12, trailer)
(5) "Frost/Nixon" (Universal, 12/5, trailer)

BEST DIRECTOR
(1) Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire")
(2) David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")
(3) Gus Van Sant ("Milk")
(4) Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon")
(5) Stephen Daldry ("The Reader")

BEST ACTOR
(1) Sean Penn ("Milk")
(2) Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler")
(3) Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon")
(4) Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor")
(5) Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")

BEST ACTRESS
(1) Kate Winslet ("The Reader")
(2) Meryl Streep ("Doubt")
(3) Anne Hathaway ("Rachel Getting Married")
(4) Melissa Leo ("Frozen River")
(5) Angelina Jolie ("Changeling")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
(1) Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight")
(2) Robert Downey, Jr. ("Tropic Thunder")
(3) Josh Brolin ("Milk")
(4) Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Doubt")
(5) Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
(1) Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona")
(2) Viola Davis ("Doubt")
(3) Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler")
(4) Taraji P. Henson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")
(5) Amy Adams ("Doubt")

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
(1) Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire")
(2) Eric Roth, Robin Swicord ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")
(3) Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon")
(4) David Hare ("The Reader")
(5) John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt")

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Projected Nominees
(1) Dustin Lance Black ("Milk")
(2) Jim Reardon, Andrew Stanton ("WALL-E")
(3) Courtney Hunt ("Frozen River")
(4) Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)
(5) Martin McDonagh ("In Bruges")

BEST ANIMATED FILM (FEATURE)
(1) "WALL-E"
(2) "Kung Fu Panda"
(3) "Bolt"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM (FEATURE)
(1) "Man on Wire"
(2) "Trouble the Water"
(3) "The Betrayal"
(4) "Encounters at the End of the World"
(5) "The Garden"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Projected Nominees
(1) "Waltz with Bashir" (Israel)
(2) "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (Germany)
(3) "The Class" (France)
(4) "Departures" (Japan)
(5) "Revanche" (Austria)

The time has finally arrived: my final 2008 Oscar nomination projections can now be seen on my Los Angeles Times blog "The Feinberg Files" -- just click HERE!