One big name that likely won’t be at this year’s Oscars: Kodak.

The Eastman Kodak Co. received court approval Wednesday to end its sponsorship deal with the Hollywood theater that is the venue for the Academy Awards.

Kodak signed a $74 million deal for naming rights to the theater in 2000. But the struggling photography company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month and wanted to end its contract for naming rights of the glamorous Los Angeles theater as it tries to improve its finances.

The company’s financial advisers said in court documents that the benefits of having the company’s name on the 3,300-seat erstwhile Kodak Theatre aren’t worth the contract’s cost.

Kodak confirmed Wednesday that a U.S. Bankruptcy judge approved its request to end the deal.

It’s unknown what name will be on the theater when the Oscars are awarded Feb. 26. Kodak said the termination is effective immediately and deferred questions on the theater’s name to the venue’s owners and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

CIM Group, the company that owns the theater, declined to comment on the decision or the future of the theater’s name. A representative for the academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the theater’s name, its owners may have to make other tweaks.

The theater has a George Eastman Room, named after Kodak’s founder, which displays one of the nine Oscar statuettes that Kodak has been awarded through the years for its scientific and technical achievements and contributions to the industry, according to the theater’s website

Kodak, based in Rochester, N.Y., is a photography pioneer but has been battered by competition and has failed to keep up with the shift from film to digital technology. It has been in a roughly decade-long turnaround but filed for bankruptcy protection when it ran short on cash.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York handling the case also approved a $950 million debtor-in-possession financing for Kodak on Wednesday that allows it to operate normally during bankruptcy, while it tries to sell its collection of digital-imaging patents.

Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda said the company will still have a presence at the awards show. He noted that seven of the nine films nominated for the Oscar for best picture were shot on Kodak film.

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Wednesday the world lost a creative visionary, a leader, and a great businessman. Apple Inc. Co-founder Steve Jobs, 56, lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. He brought the world what they all craved for: easy to use technology with user friendly designs and a modern flair. That’s not only where it stops though. Steve Jobs leave behind an amazing legacy as a  huge supporter of the gay community.

In 2008, Apple Inc. was at the forefront fighting for Gay Rights making a donation of $100,000 to fight the anti-gay Proposition 8 that was heavily publicized and battled in California proposing the banning of gay marriage.

Apple was also an early adopter of LGBT-friendly hiring practices and scored a perfect 100 in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for offering their employees LGBT-protections, domestic partner benefits, and diversity training—also setting a strong example for other large corporations.

And most recently, as Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO back in August, he hand picked his successor, Tim Cook, as the most powerful gay businessman in the world to run the Apple empire.

For me personally, being able to witness the progression of the changing computer technology whether it be a Windows or Mac, not only saw Steve Jobs as that man in the ugly black turtle neck and blue jeans, but I saw a man that changed the world… quite literally.

Apple products were synonymous with gays. Owning an Apple product was like owning up to being a rebel, a leader in a trend, something the gay community as you know probably fight day and night for. No longer are we stuck inside this corporate square box. We’re able to live our life simplistically thanks to his technology.

Steve, you literally brought out the creative side and inspired millions in this world. You will forever live in our history book as the innovator of our century.

Steve Jobs | 1955-2011

EDITOR’S NOTE – So I got an interesting email today from a company called Popwired Music Group. I did a little Google search on them, which not surprisingly, brought up nothing. Anyways, they alleged us of infringing on their IP and wants us to transfer the domain name over to avoid legal action. Um, excuse me?

The company claims to have represented Key$ha (labeled with RCA) and many others. Anyways you can see the email their “counsel” sent and my unprofessional response after the jump. Crazedhits.com sounds really desperate for visitors, considering that Quantcast.com rated their monthly visits to be only 3,000.

Should we give in or argue this out? Let’s see how this all plays out.

“Granting homosexuals the right to marry is like granting plantation owners the right to own slaves.”

These are the words of three-time presidential hopeful Alan Keyes of the Republican Party. First of all I would really like to thank him for pointing out such a big issue that everyone has overlooked.

If Keyes’ analogy doesn’t represent all that is righteous and holy and you’re naive enough not to see the truth in his statement, that’s fine, cause God will forgive.

But, for the meantime, let us tell you what we think he really wanted to say:

Firstly, he knows that as a slave you have no rights; you must do whatever your master tells you. Similarly, if same sex-marriage is allowed, then straight men and women will have to do whatever the  homosexuals  want. Legalizing same sex-marriage will give homosexuals the power to marry whoever they want and straight men and women will have no say in it.

Secondly, we don’t have slaves anymore because we want equal rights for all. Slaves are also human beings and they too have the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were added to the constitution to protect their rights. Similarly, the Defense of Marriage Act was enacted to protect the rights of straight people who are always tormented by homosexuals who have no moral values.

And finally, come on, oppression of black people isn’t anything at all like the oppression of homosexuals in today’s society. No, sir.

So many of you may have guessed by now that, with Keyes’ right-wing bigotry thinking, he’s probably 200-years-old. He has a lot of experience and knows how our society works more than anyone else so what he says must be correct.

I rest my case. Thank you Mr. Keyes for helping us find the righteous oh glorious light.

You all can read the full story here written by Keyes himself.

Gay marriage? Not at this time.

The Obama Administration’s decision to no longer defend the archaic Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed in 1996 during the Bill Clinton Administration, is a move that will not streamline marriage equality at the Federal level.

Porn downloaders might need a little more than lube to get off this time. The gay porn industry is putting together their army of lawyers and going after video piracy.

Corbin Fisher, known for their videos of “straight” college men have gone out on a full-blown suing campaign to the tune of $150,000. The company was a little nice about it in which they gave offending users a two-week amnesty period to come forward and admit to downloading the videos.

In today’s wonderful series of WTF, porn star Simon Dexter butt heads (hehe) with London-based photographer Dylan Rosser over some racy images — and evidently some misunderstanding of contract law.

So, what’s the deal?

If only porn stars’ reading skills were as good as their performances, this world would be a better place.

Dexter (pictured right) is angry that he was only paid $350 posing for what he thought was a coffee table book campaign. He state that if he knew it was for a “porn website” he would have charged $5000 because, you know, it’s so rare to find a gay person who want to strip naked.

If you enjoy corny lovesick movie lines, stories that take too long to develop, but still relic over a shirtless man then ‘I Am Number Four’ might just be up your alley.

Though the movie screamed cliché, I do have to admit that asides from the fat man behind me snoring his life away and one of my best friend moaning every time Alex Pettyfer came on screen shirtless, the graphics were kind of cool.

Okay you know what, when we’re wrong, we’re wrong. Our wicked stepsister blog, ManHuntDaily, pointed out that we incorrectly mislabeled GLEE’s Darren Criss as a “bear” in our recent post.

We may have been a little hasty and jumped the gun there. We’re sorry for calling him a bear and hurting the feelings of all the hair-grabbers out there. I’m sorry that I’m not accustomed to, er, chest hair.

Rwar!!! That’s the sound we assume GLEE’s Darren Criss would make as evident by his very sexy, and VERY grizzly editorial in the latest issue of OUT Magazine.

He’s partially shirtless for any of you fancier of a bear in the making.  Too bad he’s straight though. Yep, he’s only gay for pay by Fox.

“I think it’s more empowering to everybody, including myself, if I’m articulate about identifying myself as a straight male playing a gay character. Ultimately, that’s more powerful for both communities.”

Powerful for both communities? Yea okay, whatever.

More photos after the jump.