The Help | featured news

The Screen Actors Guild on Sunday picked the actors in drama "The Help" as the top ensemble cast of 2011 and gave it two other awards for best lead actress and supporting actress, in a surprise over heavily favored silent movie romance "The Artist."

The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards are out and below is the full list. This year, nine films are contending for BEST PICTURE instead of the usual five. Hugo leads all contenders with 11 nominations; The Artist has 10 nominations; Moneyball and War Horse both have 6 noms; The Descendants and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tie with five noms; The Help and Midnight in Paris have four each.

"The Help" has been served eight Image Award nominations. The adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel about black maids speaking out about their white employers during the civil-rights movement led the 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards nominations Thursday with eight nods in film categories, including outstanding motion picture against "Jumping the Broom," "Pariah," "The First Grader" and "Tower Heist."

"The Artist" and "The Help" lead with three Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations each as Hollywood's movie awards season revved up Wednesday. "The Artist," a French movie about the silent film era, is competing for best movie, while Jean Dujardin was nominated for best actor and Berenice Bejo for best supporting actress.

"The Help" has stayed on the job over Labor Day, finishing as the No. 1 film for the third-straight weekend. The acclaimed drama about Southern black maids speaking out during the civil-rights movement took in $19 million over the long holiday weekend, according to studio estimates Monday.

Early Friday returns indicate that The Help will gross around $14 million for the four-day holiday weekend. By Monday, the female-fueled drama will have jumped $120 million mark--exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. DreamWorks and Participant Media produced and co-financed the $25 million movie.

"The Help" remained Hollywood's top draw with $14.3 million on a slow late-summer weekend whose business was even more sluggish as many East Coast theaters closed to ride out the storm there....

Zoe Saldana's "Colombiana" comes in at No. 2, followed by "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" and "Our Idiot Brother," with Hurricane Irene taking a big bite out of the domestic box office as theaters close on the East Coast.

A handwritten letter from author Kathryn Stockett has become the focal point of a lawsuit over her bestselling novel "The Help," which has been made into a box office hit....

“The Help” continues to clean up at the box office, taking over the No. 1 spot with $20.5 million in its second weekend. The drama about Southern black maids had debuted in second-place a week earlier. “The Help” raised its domestic total to $71.8 million and bumped “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which slipped to No. 2 with $16.3 million after two weekends at the top.