"Avatar" trounced the competition at Thursday's Saturn Awards, winning all 10 of its bids, including best sci-fi film, the four acting prizes for leads Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana and supporting players Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, and two trophies for writer-director James Cameron. Cameron, who already held the record with six previous wins, also was feted with the Visionary Award.

This 36th annual edition of the awards honored films across four genres, with the other top films being "Watchmen" (fantasy), "Drag Me to Hell" (horror) and "Inglourious Basterds" (action/adventure/thriller). Though there are four best film awards, the other categories cull nominees from all the genres.

"Sherlock Holmes" was blanked despite eight nominations. One seven-time nominee, "Watchmen," also won costumes and DVD while another, "Inglourious Basterds," had to settle for just that top film award. Both "District 9" and "Star Trek" were kept to just one win in six races: best international film and makeup, respectively.

This was the fifth victory for Cameron in the best director race. Among those he edged out were Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker"), who beat him at the Academy Awards, and fellow Oscar nominee Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds").

• Actress Sigourney Weaver certainly believes in standing by her director, telling the Brazilian news website Folha Online that her good friend James Cameron was snubbed at the recent Oscars due to reverse sexism. "Jim didn't have breasts, and I think that was the reason [he didn't win]," she said in this candid interview. And Weaver thinks that the record box office takings of "Avatar" kept it from collecting more gold. "In the past, 'Avatar' would have won because they [Oscar voters] loved to hand out awards to big productions, like 'Ben-Hur.' Today it's fashionable to give the Oscar to a small movie that nobody saw."

• Meryl Streep may also have been snubbed at this year's Oscars -- as she has been with 13 of her 15 other  nominations -- but she made history Monday as the first person extended honorary membership in the 112-year old American Academy of Arts and Letters solely for their acting work. Other screen notables admitted -- including the late Orson Welles and current member Woody Allen -- worked behind the camera as well as in front of it. Streep admitted, "I have to say that I was stunned, and when they sent me the roster of people in the academy I just burst into tears. I couldn't believe that I'd be even allowed in the kitchen." AP

• For the producers of the 2006 Tony-winning "Jersey Boys," imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. They "have sued a touring stage show called 'The Boys,' labeling it a 'copycat' production that competes unfairly with the original musical." As per the lawsuit filed in Manhattan, the producers are seeking "an injunction against further performances of 'The Boys' that make use of copyrighted or too similar materials, and asked for $150,000 in damages for each copyrighted song 'The Boys' might have used." REUTERS

• The fall-out from yesterday's announcement of "Next to Normal" as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama continues. First the jury chair -- Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty -- vented about the board overruling the recommendations of his panel, chiding them for "geographical myopia, a vision of the American theater that starts in Times Square and ends just a short taxi ride away." (The last work to win the Pulitzer without a New York run was "Anna in the Tropics" in 2003.) Now Patrick Healy reports that since none of the jury's three finalists failed to earn the requisite approval by the majority of the board last Thursday, the 20 members looked further afield among the 70 or so works submitted for consideration. It seems "a lot of them" went to see "Next to Normal" that night and voted it the winner the next day. NEW YORK TIMES

• The Grammy Awards are shifting back to their traditional February time slot next year. The 53rd annual edition of these top musical awards will take place on Sunday, Feb. 13 at the Staple Center in Los Angeles and air on CBS. This year, the Grammys were handed out on Jan. 31 so as to avoid competing with the Winter Olympics for viewers. That strategy paid off as the kudocast earned the best ratings since 2004. However, as that earlier date meant abbreviating the eligibility period by one month, next year's awards will reward discs released from Sept. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30, 2010.

• The 13th annual Teen Choice Awards will air on Monday Aug. 9 on Fox. These kudos -- honoring teen icons in movies, TV, music, sports and fashion -- are voted on by the public. Last year, "Twilight" won a record 11 surfboards -- including two for star Robert Pattinson -- while the Jonas Brothers took home five awards and Miley Cyrus won an even half dozen times.

• Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas ("The English Patient") will be mistress of ceremonies once more at the Cannes film festival this year. This English rose is equally at home in France and will emcee the opening ceremony on May 12 as well as the closing festivities and awards presentation on May 23. She also performed these hosting duties back in 1999.

• "Polytechnique" -- a black-and-white docudrama about a 1984 Montreal school shooting that left 14 women dead -- swept the 30th annual Genie Awards Monday winning nine of its leading 11 nominations. The film made simultaneously in both French and English dominated Canada's version of the Oscars taking home best picture, director (Denis Villeneuve), lead actress (Karine Vanasse), supporting actor Maxim Gaudette, screenplay (Jacques Davidts), cinematography (Pierre Gill), editing (Richard Comeau), overall sound and sound editing. Joshua Jackson won lead actor for "One Week" while Martha Burns won supporting actress for "Love & Savagery." The full list of winners can be found at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television website. GENIES

• Don Mischer will once again be involved in the staging of the academy's Governor awards this year. At the event set for Saturday, Nov. 13, one or more of the kudos approved by the academy board -- the Thalberg and Hersholt awards and the honorary Oscar -- will be presented.

Top photo: James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver on the set of "Avatar." Credit: Fox

Middle photo: Pulitzer prize medals. Credit: Pulitzer Prizes

Bottom photo: "Polytechnique" poster. Credit: Don Carmody Productions

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