Italy faces post-vote stalemate, spooking investors


ROME (Reuters) - The Italian stock market fell and state borrowing costs rose on Tuesday as investors took fright at political deadlock after a stunning election that saw a comedian's protest party lead the poll and no group secure a clear majority in parliament.


"The winner is: Ingovernability" ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the stalemate the country would have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies would be forced to work together to form a government.


In a sign of where that might lead, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi indicated his center-right might be open to a grand coalition with the center-left bloc of Pier Luigi Bersani, which will have a majority in the lower house thanks to a premium of seats given to the largest bloc in the chamber.


Results in the upper house, the Senate, where seats are awarded on a region-by-region basis, indicated the center-left would end up with about 119 seats, compared with 117 for the center-right. But 158 are needed for a majority to govern.


Any coalition administration that may be formed must have a working majority in both houses in order to pass legislation.


Comedian Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement won the most votes of any single party, taking 25 percent. He shows no immediate inclination to cooperate with other groups.


Despite talk of a new election, the main established parties seem likely to try to avoid that, fearing even more humiliation.


World financial markets reacted nervously to the prospect of a stalemate in the euro zone's third largest economy with memories still fresh of the crisis that took the 17-member currency bloc to the brink of collapse in 2011.


In a clear sign of worry at the top over what effect the elections could have on the economy, Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose austerity policies were repudiated by voters, called a meeting with the governor of the central bank, the economy minister and the European affairs minister for later on Tuesday.


Other governments in the euro zone sounded uneasy. Allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel made no secret of disappointment at Monti's debacle and urged Rome to continue with economic reforms Berlin sees as vital to stabilizing the common currency.


France's Socialist finance minister also expressed "worry" at the prospect of legislative deadlock in Italy but said that Italians had rejected austerity and hoped Bersani's center-left could form a stable government to help foster growth in Europe.


INSTABILITY


Fabio Fois, an economist at Barclays bank, said: "Political instability is likely to prevail in the near term and slow the implementation of much needed structural reforms unless a grand coalition among center-left, center-right and center is formed."


Berlusconi, a media magnate whose campaigning all but wiped out Bersani's once commanding opinion poll lead, hinted in a telephone call to a morning television show that he would be open to a deal with the center-left - but not with Monti, the technocrat summoned to replace him in a crisis 15 months ago.


"Italy must be governed," Berlusconi said, adding that he "must reflect" on a possible deal with the center-left. "Everyone must be prepared to make sacrifices," he said of the groups which now have a share of the legislature.


The Milan bourse was down more than four percent and the premium Italy pays over Germany to borrow on 10-year widened to a yield spread of 338.7 basis points, the highest since December 10.


At an auction of six-month Treasury bills, the government's borrowing costs shot up by more than two thirds. Investors demanded a yield of 1.237 percent, the highest since October and compared to just 0.730 percent in a similar sale a month ago.


Berlusconi, who was forced from office in November 2011 as borrowing costs approached levels investors feared would become unsustainable, said he was "not worried" about market reaction to the election and played down the significance of the spread.


The poor showing by Monti's centrist bloc reflected a weariness with austerity that was exploited by both Berlusconi and Grillo; only with the help of center-left allies did Bersani beat 5-Star, by just 125,000 votes, to control the lower house.


The worries immediately went beyond Italy's borders.


"What is crucial now is that a stable functioning government can be built as swiftly as possible," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "This is not only in the interests of Italy but in the interests of all Europe."


The euro skidded to an almost seven-week low against the dollar in Asia on fears about the euro zone's debt crisis. It fell as far as $1.3042, its lowest since January 10.


"NON-PARTY" SURGES TO THE TOP


Commentators said all Grillo's adversaries underestimated the appeal of a grassroots movement that called itself a "non-party", particularly its allure among young Italians who find themselves without jobs and the prospect of a decent future.


The 5-star Movement's score of 25.5 percent in the lower house was just ahead of the 25.4 percent for Bersani's Democratic Party, which ran in a coalition with the leftist SEL party, and it won almost 8.7 million votes overall - more than any other single party.


"The 'non-party' has become the largest party in the country," said Massimo Giannini, commentator for Rome newspaper La Repubblica, of Grillo, who mixes fierce attacks on corruption with policies ranging from clean energy to free Internet.


Grillo's surge in the final weeks of the campaign threw the race open, with hundreds of thousands turning up at his rallies to hear him lay into targets ranging from corrupt politicians and bankers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.


In just three years, his 5-Star Movement, heavily backed by a frustrated generation of young Italians increasingly shut out from permanent full-time jobs, has grown from a marginal group to one of the most talked about political forces in Europe.


RECESSION


"It's a classic result. Typically Italian," said Roberta Federica, a 36-year-old office worker in Rome. "It means the country is not united. It is an expression of a country that does not work. I knew this would happen."


Italy's borrowing costs have come down in recent months, helped by the promise of European Central Bank support but the election result confirmed fears of many European countries that it would not produce a government strong enough to implement effective reforms.


A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties fed a bitter public mood that saw more than half of Italian voters back parties that rejected the austerity policies pursued by Monti with the backing of Italy's European partners.


Monti suffered a major setback. His centrist grouping won only 10.6 percent and two of his key centrist allies, Pier Ferdinando Casini and lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, both of parliamentarians for decades, were booted out.


"It's not that surprising if you consider how much people were let down by politics in its traditional forms," Monti said.


Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.


Even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.


Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.


But Monti struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth, and a weak center-left government may not find it any easier.


(Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Catherine Hornby, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer and Naomi O'Leary; Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)



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Jennifer Lawrence Dyes Her Hair Jet Black









02/26/2013 at 09:15 AM EST







Jennifer Lawrence, blonde (left) and brunette


Jason Merritt/Getty; AKM-GSI


Oscar's golden girl, Jennifer Lawrence, has gone brunette – almost jet black, in fact!

The day after winning Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, Lawrence, 22, was right back at work – emerging from a Beverly Hills salon with newly dyed black hair as she prepares to play Katniss Everdeen in reshoots for the next Hunger Games movie.

The actress was dressed mostly in black, too – with a black cardigan and black skirt to go along with a gray T-shirt.

It was quite a contrast to her dazzling look on Sunday, with her golden hair and Dior Haute Couture dress with Chopard jewels, a Roger Vivier clutch and Brian Atwood shoes.

One thing she was still sporting, though, was her glowing smile.

Reshoots for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are expected to begin as soon as this week, reportedly in Hawaii. The movie is due in theaters at Thanksgiving.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.


The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.


Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.


"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."


Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.


The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.


The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.


Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.


FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.


Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.


FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer


Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.


Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.


Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.


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Wall Street edges up after Italy exit polls


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened slightly higher on Monday after initial polls showed pro-reform center-leftists could win the Italian general election, though caution remained as defensive sectors led gains on the S&P 500.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 41.47 points or 0.3 percent, to 14,042.04, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 6.81 points or 0.45 percent, to 1,522.41 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 18.79 points or 0.59 percent, to 3,180.61.


(Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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Playstation 4 Games Warn of PS-Style Surveillance






The debut of the PlayStation 4 in New York City Wednesday (Feb. 20) was as remarkable for what it showed as for what it didn’t show: Sony unveiled a raft of beautiful, incredibly realistic new games, but not the console itself. The device, perhaps in a straight-from-the-lab rough appearance, was somewhere offstage, driving the giant projectors that broadcast previews of upcoming games around the Hammerstein Ballroom.


Out-of-site-yet-everywhere seems to be the overall metaphor of the PlayStation 4 (PS4), as Sony described it. The PS4 (which Sony plans to sell by year’s end) is not so much a machine as a network — with games delivered from the cloud, games that can follow you as you move from the PS4 to a mobile device, and the ability to post video clips of your adventures or even broadcast entire games online.






“We’re making it so your friends can look over your shoulder virtually and interact with you as you play,” said David Perry, co-founder of Gaikai, a company that Sony bought to build its cloud-gaming network.


But not only friends will be watching. Sony will. “The PlayStation network will get to know you by understanding your personal preferences and the preferences of your community and turn this knowledge into useful information that will enhance your gameplay,” Perry said.


Every important technology has good and bad uses. Some of the upcoming games that Sony showcased for the PS4 explore, perhaps unwittingly, the darker side of omnipresent, omniscient networks similar to what Sony is building.


Suckerpunch’s new game “inFAMOUS: Second Son” explores the surveillance state. “Right now, there are 4.2 million security cameras distributed all around Great Britain. That’s one camera for every 14 citizens,” said game director Nate Fox, in a dramatic introduction to the game. “It is hard to put your finger on what that sense of security is worth, but it is easy to say what it costs — our freedom.”


Like Great Britain, the PS4 will also have a vast network of cameras — not one for every 14 citizens, but one for every console owner. At the presentation, Marc Cerny, head of the PlayStation hardware platform, showed a photo of a depth-sensing stereo camera for the PS4, designed to track the new Dualshock controller as it moves.


The danger in “Second Son” is that some individuals have developed super-human powers (a la “Heroes”) that make them living weapons. They carry no traditional weapons and show no physical signs of danger — rendering all the modern surveillance tech impotent.


But what if new security technology could go beyond the physical? What if it could read people’s intentions and predict their next moves?


What if it were like the PS4?


Sony believes that PlayStation owners simply give off so much data as they interact intensively with the console, other devices and the network that it can know what its users intend to do.


“People haven’t’ changed, but now everybody’s broadcasting. And once you’ve seen it, all of it, how do you look away?”


That’s not a quote from a Sony or game-company executive. It’s from the lead character in the upcoming Ubisoft game “Watch Dogs.” It follows a vigilante character with access to all that information. As he walks through Chicago, message windows pop up, showing details about the people he passes. Marcus Rhodes, a 43-year-old Iraq War veteran, is unemployed. Sandy Higgins, a grade-school teacher, recently won a child-custody battle and has a 30 percent chance of being a crime victim. [See also: Is Your Cellphone Under Surveillance?]


In the clip, the vigilante uses the knowledge to find a woman in danger and to track her attacker in a chase through the city. But as the police then pursue him, the game shows how much data the protagonist himself is giving off.


It’s rather unlikely that the PlayStation 4 was designed to be a mass surveillance device, a Trojan Horse of a game console designed to slip spooks into the living room. Far likelier, Sony just wants the games to be more involving and better targeted for the customers, so they will buy and play more games.


“If we know enough about you to predict the next game you’ll purchase, then that game can be loaded and ready to go before you even click the button,” Marc Cerny said.


But still, the PS4 will collect a lot of information. That itself, in the right imagination, could be fodder for a good dystopian video game.


This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook. Follow Sean Captain @seancaptain


Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Jennifer Lawrence: Her Most Memorable 2013 Awards Season Moments









02/25/2013 at 08:00 AM EST



It wasn't just Jennifer Lawrence's wins making news during 2013's awards season.

The Silver Linings Playbook star, 22, was the subject of headlines for everything from her speeches to Sunday's tumble at the 85th Annual Academy Awards.

Relive Lawrence's most memorable moments here ...

Golden Globes

Lawrence kicked off awards season with an eyebrow-raising comment in her acceptance speech. After saying, "What does it say? I beat Meryl," some people – including Lindsay Lohan, who Tweeted about it – initially thought it was a jab at Meryl Streep. Lawrence later explained the comment to David Letterman, telling him it was a quote from The First Wives Club.

"First of all, it's Meryl Streep. You can't offend Meryl Streep," she said. "And then all of the sudden I hate Meryl Streep. Is that what this turned into? I don't like Meryl Streep? As if I had my eyes on getting that girl forever and I was like, 'Finally! I knew it would happen one day!' "

SAG Awards

Lawrence's Dior Haute Couture gown stole the show, but not just because of its beautiful style. While getting up to accept an award, the actress's "pants fell off", she later joked of what appeared to be a tear in the material. Lawrence, who showed off a lot of leg, made light of the incident on Piers Morgan.
Academy Awards

Hollywood's biggest night was memorable for Lawrence not only for walking away with the Best Actress statuette, but also for the way she received it. While getting up to accept the prestigious honor, she took a little tumble on the stairs in her Christian Dior Couture gown. After fellow nominee Hugh Jackman helped her up, she joked to the audience, "You guys are just standing up 'cause you feel bad that I fell and that's really embarrassing, but thank you."

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.


The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.


Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.


"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."


Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.


The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.


The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.


Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.


FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.


Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.


FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer


Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.


Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.


Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.


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Investors face another Washington deadline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it's not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the "fiscal cliff" loomed large.


Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling.


Talks on the U.S. budget crisis began again this week leading up to the March 1 deadline for the so-called sequestration when $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.


"It's at this point a political hot button in Washington but a very low level investor concern," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The fight pits President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats against congressional Republicans.


Stocks rallied in early January after a compromise temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> has risen 6.3 percent since the start of the year.


But the benchmark index lost steam this week, posting its first week of losses since the start of the year. Minutes on Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank may slow or stop its stimulus policy sooner than expected, provided the catalyst.


National elections in Italy on Sunday and Monday could also add to investor concern. Most investors expect a government headed by Pier Luigi Bersani to win and continue with reforms to tackle Italy's debt problems. However, a resurgence by former leader Silvio Berlusconi has raised doubts.


"Europe has been in the last six months less of a topic for the stock market, but the problems haven't gone away. This may bring back investor attention to that," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.


OPTIONS BULLS TARGET GAINS


The spending cuts, if they go ahead, could hit the defense industry particularly hard.


Yet in the options market, bulls were targeting gains in Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's biggest supplier.


Calls on the stock far outpaced puts, suggesting that many investors anticipate the stock to move higher. Overall options volume on the stock was 2.8 times the daily average with 17,000 calls and 3,360 puts traded, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.


"The upside call buying in Lockheed solidifies the idea that option investors are not pricing in a lot of downside risk in most defense stocks from the likely impact of sequestration," said Jared Woodard, a founder of research and advisory firm condoroptions.com in Forest, Virginia.


The stock ended up 0.6 percent at $88.12 on Friday.


If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on reducing the U.S. budget deficit in the next few days, a sequester would include significant cuts in defense spending. Companies such as General Dynamics Corp and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp could be affected.


General Dynamics Corp shares rose 1.2 percent to $67.32 and Smith & Wesson added 4.6 percent to $9.18 on Friday.


EYES ON GDP DATA, APPLE


The latest data on fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is expected on Thursday, and some analysts predict an upward revision following trade data that showed America's deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years.


U.S. GDP unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, according to an earlier government estimate, but analysts said there was no reason for panic, given that consumer spending and business investment picked up.


Investors will be looking for any hints of changes in the Fed's policy of monetary easing when Fed Chairman Ben Bernake speaks before congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.


Shares of Apple will be watched closely next week when the company's annual stockholders' meeting is held.


On Friday, a U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with the iPhone maker, blocking the company from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company's ability to issue preferred stock.


(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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Big studios behind swag-fueled Oscar push






LOS ANGELES (AP) — Giant coffee table books, iPod Shuffles, signed letters from directors, even “Lincoln” turkey roasting pans. That’s just some of the largesse doled out by the studios to voters for awards presented earlier this season — each with the potential to influence the outcome of Hollywood’s most important awards, Sunday night’s Oscars.


Such gifts are strictly forbidden by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But for studios, the stakes are high, and they’ve been creative in working around the rules to give their movies the best spotlight possible. A best picture win can boost a film’s commercial appeal and solidify relations with big-name actors and directors.






This year, top Oscar contenders “Argo” from Warner Bros. and “Lincoln” from Disney pitted two deep-pocketed rivals against each other in what some say was an unprecedented level of Oscar campaigning. There was even some targeted sniping about the films’ bending of historical facts.


Part of what’s behind the seemingly unrestrained lobbying is that this year, an unusually large number of best picture nominees are also doing well at the box office, giving the studios dry powder for their campaigns.


Six of the nine contenders for the top Oscar have reaped $ 100 million or more in ticket sales domestically, and collectively they’ve earned $ 309 million since the nominations Jan. 10, according to Hollywood.com. This record-setting “Oscar bump” dwarfs the $ 111 million the nine best picture nominees made between the nominations and the awards ceremony last year. It also trumps the season that 2009′s megahit “Avatar” was in the running, when 10 nominees brought in $ 204 million in bump.


That means there’s plenty of reason for studios to keep spending — even to the extent of papering the walls of the popular Beverly Hills restaurant Kate Mantilini with campaign posters, which conveniently tower over diners just a block from the motion picture academy itself.


“I have never seen such an assault in terms of stuff being sent to us,” said Pete Hammond, a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which hosts the Critics Choice Awards, and a columnist for the Hollywood blog Deadline.com.


Hammond is one of several voters for the earlier awards where wins translate into momentum for Oscar hopefuls. They say their mailboxes were swamped with swag this year — all of it an attempt to reach the 5,800 academy members who vote on the Oscars, albeit through indirect means.


From the campaign of Steven Spielberg‘s “Lincoln,” members of the broadcast critics group say they received no less than four coffee table books, an intricately framed DVD for review purposes and even a hand-signed letter from Spielberg himself, thanking them for recognizing the film with so many nominations. Some awards voters also received “Lincoln” turkey roasting pans, according to an industry insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.


The broadcast critics also received an iPod Shuffle, which retails for $ 49, containing the soundtrack to Universal Pictures’ “Les Miserables,” which is up for music and sound mixing awards.


Several voters said this level of giveaway was unusual, but then again, in recent times, well-funded major studios haven’t been that involved.


In the last two years, the movie industry’s top honor went to The Weinstein Co.’s “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech.” Previous to that, 2009′s winner was “The Hurt Locker,” whose backer Summit Entertainment was just starting to get its “Twilight” mojo and was yet to be flush with cash.


Before that it was Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and before that “No Country for Old Men” by Paramount Vantage — both smaller arms of major studios that have smaller marketing budgets than their larger siblings.


This year, the majors are back in the game in a big way. In addition to Warner’s “Argo” and Disney’s “Lincoln,” Sony Pictures is behind “Zero Dark Thirty,” 20th Century Fox is backing “Life of Pi” and Universal is the force behind “Les Miserables.”


While The Weinstein Co.’s “Silver Linings Playbook” is earning boffo business above $ 100 million in ticket sales following co-chairman Harvey Weinstein‘s familiar script of making the most of awards season, it appears that this year, the majors have studied up.


“Nobody ever did it besides Harvey, and now everybody’s done it this year,” said David Poland of MovieCityNews.com, which means more intense campaigning because there’s more money to spend.


One look at the release pattern of “Zero Dark Thirty” and it’s clear that Sony didn’t want to repeat what happened to “The Hurt Locker,” another Kathryn Bigelow-directed war film that despite its best picture win, made just $ 19 million in theaters worldwide. Part of the problem with “Hurt” was that it came out in June and was all but gone from theaters by the time the Oscar nominations rolled around.


Instead, “ZDT” showed in just a handful of theaters in December to qualify for the 2012 Oscars, but burst onto 3,000 theaters the day after the nominations in January, capturing the top spot at the box office that weekend.


“We designed our release campaign to take advantage of key dates in the awards season,” said Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer. “With approximately $ 90 million in box office to date, the film has been a huge critical and commercial success and no matter how we do at the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, we couldn’t be more pleased with the film’s performance.”


Starting small and then going wide after the nominations is the “Playbook” that The Weinstein Co. has followed for years, although company co-chairman Harvey Weinstein denies the pattern.


“There is no playbook, there is no campaigning,” Weinstein said. “I have always said the most important thing is to get people to see the films and everything else is mostly fluff.”


Even films at the tail end of their box-office run are pumping up the volume. “Argo,” which came out in October, was heavily advertised by Warner Bros. ahead of the DVD release this Tuesday. The studio began selling digital downloads two weeks ahead of that. Fox followed a similar strategy for “Life of Pi.”


“Because these films are so strong, all the companies are buying (ads),” said Michael Parker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, whose film “Amour” is also up for best picture.


Critic Anne Thompson of Indiewire said this year’s extravagance is due to the fact that big studios have high hopes for their films. Amid her swag pile are “Wreck-It Ralph” plastic fists, a toy bow and arrow from “Brave,” and a printed page of the John Williams score from “Lincoln.”


“The factors here are a) the studios involved and b) big hit movies that had extra money,” she said. “And the fact you have a close race between two big studio movies. They have reason to believe they have a chance to win.”


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