It's starting to go viral now, but the Sun-Times' Bill Zwecker broke the story first a couple of days back, so we're returning to the source.  Or rather, to his sources, who told Zwecker that Oprah Winfrey is topping the list of candidates to host next February's Oscars on ABC.  Not only is she thought likely to increase the show's audience, but a separate deal could increase viewers for the Oprah Winfrey Network, with a behind-the-scenes special and post-Oscars show airing only on OWN.

A new entertainment industry group called Creative America has been formed to combat content piracy. Citing such statistics as Web sites trafficking in stolen film and TV content getting nearly 150 million visits every day, Sheila Shayon writes that the organization is lobbying for support of a Congressional bill, the Protect IP Act, which aims to combat foreign trafficking in stolen movies, television shows and other intellectual property. Members include NBC Universal, SAG, Sony Pictures Entertainment, AFTRA, CBS, the DGA, IATSE, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom, Disney and Warner Bros. They call themselves a "grassroots organization" supporting 2 million Americans …

Playing off the Atlanta Journal Constitution's revelations -- and subsequent positive publicity -- regarding a cheating scandal in Atlanta public schools Wonkette's Blair Burke finds that such investigative journalism may just save newspapers. "Education is destroyed," she writes, "but newspapers will survive after all, as long as they adapt to their new job of making sure kids get the awful test scores they deserve."

Used to be that New York's Duane Reade would be the last place you'd find any kind of innovation. But the regional drug store chain, now owned by Walgreens, has been upgrading its outlets, and its Manhattan flagship has now become the first retailer with a new kind of digital out-of-home display: a virtual assistant. The holographic female, supplied by a firm called Lawrence, greets shoppers with seven different scripts when they enter the store. Not having had any firsthand experience with this new store employee yet, we'll refrain from any jokes comparing her abilities with Duane Reade's established …

The cover image of a silhouetted figure falling from a tall building looks familiar. But Jim Glover's new novel "Mad Man," while also focused on the ad industry, is a far cry from Matthew Weiner's TV series "Mad Men." In this blog post, Pepper Miller of Chicago's Hunter-Miller Group looks at how the contemporary suspense thriller about a brilliant black creative director at the end of his rope provides real insights into the continuing un-level playing field between blacks and whites on Madison Avenue.

Having been canceled by CBS, the venerable "Hallmark Hall of Fame" will move to ABC next season for three holiday-timed airings, followed a week later by rebroadcasts on cable's Hallmark Channel. The Kansas City Star's TV critic, Aaron Barnhart, noting that the support of Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards has kept the "Hall of Fame" alive for six decades, also reveals that Betty White will return to the series next year.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who played himself on a 2005 episode of Aaron Sorkin's NBC series "The West Wing," won't be making a repeat appearance in Sorkin's new HBO pilot about a fictional all-news cable network, "More As This Story Develops." Josef Adalian writes that MSNBC execs nixed the idea, with Adalian's "spy" speculating "the network's brass may have taken issue with the way More portrays the world of cable news and its corporate culture. In the pilot script we've seen, it's a land of egomaniacs working for wealthy drunks."

The executive producers of USA Network's "Royal Pains" plan to continue ABC's "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" on a new online video network once those long-running shows finish their ABC runs in September, according to the New York Post's Claire Atkinson. Prospect Park, run by "Royal Pains" show runners Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz, acquired the online rights from ABC and plans to use the same cast, crew and talent, including Susan Lucci, Atkinson says. The new Hulu-type channel is currently being funded, she adds.

Suzanne Kolb will be the new president of E Entertainment, the network revealed today. Kolb has been at E since 2005, and most recently held the post of president of marketing, news and online for E and its sister network, Style.

As CBS reportedly considers the launch of a 3D cable channel, Phillip Swann presents "10 Reasons Why People Won't Watch 3D TV."  Number one: "3D TV Interrupts Your Viewing Experience," followed by "It Makes You Sick."