The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Debra Winger and Rights Camera Action!

James Byrd Jr. and the Struggle for Tolerance

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Video of the Week: 5 Tips for Reducing Your Garbage

The Week in Green Politics

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Andy Kondrat:

Disappearing Destinations: Visit Before They Vanish

Chuck Norris Wants America to Start Drilling for Oil Here and Now!

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Jon Popham:

NASA Plans Voyage to the Sun

The Girl Effect

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Giulia Rozzi:

Gay Discrimination at Seattle Baseball Game

Bison Brucellosis

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Gina Telaroli:

Fathers Day Celebration of Movie Dads #1

My Father’s Gift of Tecumseh!

Debra Winger, the actress best known for her performances in Terms of Endearment and Urban Cowbow, can add another profession to her resume– writer. Winger has just released her first book entitled Undiscovered. Winger shares her thoughts on acting, explaining “I love the work, and don’t much care for the business.” Winger also discusses the double standards faced by men and women in Hollywood:

Age is an issue in society as well as in the movies. If a man has an affair with a woman 20 years his junior, then most people see him as virile. But if a woman has an affair with someone 20 years her junior, most people look askance. Movies are a reflection of our society. I’ve come to a point where I’m interested in the freedom that comes when your sexuality and yourself are one. When you are younger, you tend to be posturing in your sexuality. And when you’re older, you tend to be at one with your sexuality.

Now Winger is not only a writer and actress, but an activist who has worked with the ACLU and is part of the ACLU’s Rights Camera Action campaign. The website explains

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Stop the presses! Forget about the war! Forget about the election! Forget anything that matters because photos of a seductive Miley Cyrus have been leaked on the Internet! This, THIS is super important news because at 12:30 pm it was the number one searched story on Google.

According to the AP “less-than-wholesome photos of a girl bearing a close resemblance to the 15-year-old superstar are making the rounds on the Internet. One photo shows the Cyrus look-alike tugging at her white tank top to reveal a green bra. In another shot, she flaunts her bare midriff while draped over a young male, who rests his hand on her hip. Another shot shows her cuddling up to the same guy…Cyrus, star of the TV show “Hannah Montana” and role model for countless young girls, is one of the biggest ” and most G-rated ” acts in the country. [Associated Press]

“Less than wholesome?” Who cares? If these photos are indeed Cyrus, they weren’t taken with the intention of being displayed online. Few people in this world behave 100% G-rated behind closed doors, unfortunately the web likes to open those

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A sex tape of iconic starlet Marilyn Monroe has been sold for 1.5 million dollars and the new owner is determined to not let the tape go public.

Ummmm right. This tape is being discussed all over the Internet and please, how often are notorious sex tapes kept private?

The 15-minute black and white video was said to have been shot in the 1950s, before the sultry star became famous the world over. The tape, which was found by memorabilia collector Keya Morgan as he researched a documentary on the star, shows Monroe performing a sex act on an unidentified man.

It is graphic,” Morgan told Lara Spencer on The Early Show Tuesday. “I was obviously shocked when I saw it.” [CBS]

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It isn’t a good time to be a great film director…

We’ve recently parted ways with Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Kon Ichikawa, and Antony Minghella (who may not be great, but is definitely worth mentioning). I’m sad to say that you can now add Jules Dassin to that list. Dassin was probably best known for his heist films and love of the Hollywood crime genre. Films of note include Rififi, Brute Force, The Naked City, Thieves’ Highway, and Night and the City:

His promising career hit a snag when he was named as a Communist in 1952, blacklisted, and forced to continue his career outside the U.S. Fleeing to France, he directed Rififi, which has influenced countless filmmakers with its 30-minute dialogue-free heist sequence, as well as Dassin’s eye for the Parisian underworld. Other post-blacklist Dassin films included The Law and He Who Must Die.

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While most folks are buzzing about who will win at the Oscars, some Hollywood favorites already received honors this weekend at the Film Independent’s Spirit Awards.

Over the last two decades the casual Spirit Awards has become one of the hottest events in Hollywood. Honoring films that are independent and low-budget, eligible films must be at least 70 minutes in length and cost of the completed film, including post-production, has to be less than $20 million. Hosted by Rainn Wilson of “The Office”, this years show aired live yesterday on Independent Film Channel and again last night on AMC.

“Juno” cleaned up at the ceremony winning for best feature film, best actress honors for Ellen Page and best first screenplay for Diablo Cody. Page and Cody are also nominated for Oscars, along with director Jason Reitman.

“I’m Not There”, one of Heath Ledger’s last films won two honors.

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Since the Academy Awards coincide with Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight the top 10 black actors who have won Oscars for Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role. So Hollywood–which harbors, aids and abets, politically-correct, identity-politics-spouting, hand-out giving, limousine liberals–can finally shut up about the so-called “racism” and all the other fake “isms” they claim exist and need to be addressed. Here’s the list of black Academy Award Winners for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Leading Role, in chronological order.

1. 1963: Sidney Poitier wins for his role as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field, becoming the first African-American actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

1964-2000: Lots of white winners.

2. 2001: Denzel Washington wins for his role as civil rights luminary and martyr Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, wins for his role as Rubin Carter, the real life legendary boxer, convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, who overcomes the racist criminal justice system, police corruption and brutality, and proves his innocence through his persuasive and passionate autobiography in Hurricane, for his role as the corrupt, criminal, violent, lecherous cop, Alonzo Harris, in Training Day.

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According to a recent UCLA study, California’s film industry is the state’s second largest polluter. (Next to the oil industry, adding insult to injury.)

And the AP newswire reported: “No amount of public service announcements or celebrities driving hybrid cars can mask the fact that movie and TV production is a gritty industrial operation, consuming enormous amounts of power to feed bright lights, run sophisticated cameras, and feed a cast of thousands.”

But fear not, many actors, actresses, directors and producers are trying to help environmental efforts and the Dailygreen.com has a wonderful article giving credit to many of the green moves being made in Hollywood.

Some are using humor to spread the green love like in this hilarious short by will Ferrell and friends (NOTE: this video has language and content that may be offensive to some):

And others are doing their green part by making significantly earth friendly workplace changes such as:

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With the writer’s strike officially over, I can actually start to get excited about The Oscars. And this year there’s actually a lot to get excited about. While I usually have maybe 1 or 2 films or people I’m rooting for amidst of sea of disappointment, this year a bunch of my favs got nominated, and Michael Clayton is definitely one of them.

Michael Clayton deals with 2 men that have spent their professional lives helping immoral, corrupt people and companies stay out of trouble. The film opens with one of them (Tom Wilkinson’s Arthur Edens) violently trying to change his ways and as the film progresses, the other man (George Clooney’s Michael Clayton) slowly realizes he wants to change his as well.

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The three-month old Hollywood writers strike could end as soon as next week, just in time to avoid disrupting the Oscars on February 24th. Sources say the WGA bargaining committee and studio executives are still haggling over the precise language in the contract. Neither parties were authorized to comment on the specifics of the negotiations, but the agreement is said to include significant increases in the residuals received for online use of film and television. For more from Breitbart on the contract negotiations, click here.

by sharing your thoughts on the Writers Guild strike at NY Times ArtsBeat. Discuss how the strike has affected your life, and what you think can be done to resolve it.