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Oscar won't be tacking a happy ending onto Capitalism: A Love Story.

Michael Moore's latest diatribe against the powers that be, this one directed at Wall Street and the government that let it run amok, did not make the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' short list of films that still have a shot at winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Instead, the eye-opening Food, Inc. is the top muckracker of the bunch, joining Facing Ali (but not Tyson) and Valentino: The Last Emperor (but not The September Issue) in the in-between stage of Oscar consideration.

Of 89 feature-length docs submitted, 15 made the list, most of them focusing on international politics and global issues, such as illegal immigration (Which Way Home) and cultural oppression in Zimbabwe (Mugabe and the White African).

Moore's Bowling for Columbine, his stab at U.S. gun-control policy, was named Best Documentary in 2003, and Sicko, about the state of health care in the U.S., scored a nomination last year. But the Academy stayed far, far away from his 2004 blockbuster, Fahrenheit 9/11, perhaps not wanting to encourage another "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" speech so soon after the first one.

Check out which 15 documentaries are in the running for Hollywood's highest honor after the jump:

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EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT POOL

The stakes have gone up along with the price tag.

The Los Angeles City Council is still gunning for Anschutz Entertainment Group to reimburse it for the star-studded memorial service for Michael Jackson that took place at AEG-owned Staples Center in July, and the Public Safety Committee will review the issue at a meeting next week.

While AEG and the Jackson family hosted the actual service, some guys with calculators have determined that the city spent $3.2 million to help pull it off, mainly in the form of security and increased police presence around the venue and locations where the Jackson family congregated in the days following the King of Pop's death on June 25.

The cost was originally estimated at $1.4 million.

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Oprah Winfrey is no Katie Couric. Which, for Sarah Palin, has got to be a blessing.

The former vice presidential candidate has completed her much-hyped interview with the openly Obama-favoring queen of daytime, and although the highly anticipated summit won't air until Monday, we got a taste of their sit-down today.

Based on the clips and transcripts, it looks like Winfrey managed to get in the questions inquiring minds want to know without Palin pulling off her microphone and sitting silently in protest.

Like that infamous, potentially campaign-costing Couric interview. Palin admits it wasn't her proudest moment, but didn't take the bait when asked if she regarded it as game-changer.

"I did not. And neither did the campaign. In fact, that is why segment 2 and 3 and 4 and maybe 5 were scheduled. The campaign said, 'Right on. Good. You're showing your independence. This is what America needs to see and it was a good interview.'

"And of course I'm thinking, 'If you thought that was a good interview, I don't know what a bad interview is,' because it was a bad interview."

Oprah, of course, knows from good interviews and has no trouble going there. Which means Levi Johnston's ears are burning.

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Who knew Sesame Street would one day join the ranks of Real Time With Bill Maher, South Park and The Daily Show?

You'd expect jabs at Fox News from the politically minded comedic shows, but not the kid's program celebrating its 40th anniversary tomorrow.

The show recently reaired an episode from two years ago in which Oscar the Grouch launches his own television channel called "GNN," for Grouchy News Network. Grundgetta, a female Muppet viewer, calls into Oscar's show and threatens to turn the dial. "From now on, I'm watching Pox News. Now there's a trashy news show," she exclaims.

Now, conservative bloggers are getting their panties in a bunch over this.

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Shat happens.

Most recently, on Wednesday night, when William Shatner gifted the viral video gods with yet another dramatic interpretation of awe-inspiring tweets, this time seemingly from the mind and keyboard of pro leg-spreader Levi Johnston.

Only they weren't.

"We'd been following Levi on Twitter and felt his gift for the written word needed to be shared with the world," Conan O'Brien explained. "Today I wake up very late, I sleep in, and I got some shocking news: Apparently the tweets that we read are counterfeit. They were written by a clever imposter posing as the witty Levi Johnston.

"And the real Levi is angry with us now."

So what better way to redress the balance than by inviting the beat poet extraordinaire back out to the stage to reinterpret some bona fide Johnston sound bites.

"The first thing Sarah said to me at the hotel was, You gotta cut your hair," the Shatman recited. "I told her I didn't want to. I had a mullet at the time.

"Guess what? I shot a bigass bear," he went on. "I just get naked, that's what I do."

On second thought, he might have been better off laying claim to the counterfeit quotes.

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Want more funny videos? Check out the offerings from resident funnylady Chelsea Handler!

If we were Bristol Palin, we'd shut down our Twitter account now. After all, getting mocked dramatically reinterpreted by William Shatner has turned into a family affair for Alaska's former first family, as estranged baby-daddy turned professional trou-dropper Levi Johnston is the latest tweeter to get caught in Captain Kirk's crosshairs.

As he did with Sarah Palin (twice) before, the Shat man grabbed his bongos, his bass and his never-bland delivery, and gifted the Tonight Show audience with a beat-tastic reading of Johnston's 140-character musings.

Let's just say, he makes Palin look like a veritable wordsmith.

"Maybe I'm a genius and not even know it," Shatner recited. "Maybe I don't exist and it only seems like I do. Maybe this is a parallel universe where I don't. Anybody know where I can get some good weed?"

Turns out, you can take the hick out of Wasilla, but not out of tweets.

"What's the deal with taxi drivers not speaking English, is it a law against it?" he mused. The blissfully ignorant questions didn't stop there.

"Is it true that fat kids never get kidnapped?"

And no tweet reenactment would be complete without touching on his upcoming, highly unanticipated Playgirl spread.

"You know you're a celebrity when strangers want to see your penis. LMAO."

Yes, Levi. But only to L their own AO.

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Judging by her public comments, this is one comedy bit Sarah Palin can probably get behind.

AP Photo/Chris Miller; AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

It's not often that we agree with Sarah Palin this strongly.

The former Republican vice presidential nominee has been known to state the preposterous, but calling her daughter's baby daddy desperate hits below the belt and right on the money.

Levi Johnston, who will be showing all of his assets in an upcoming issue of Playgirl, appeared on The Early Show Wednesday morning and claimed the former Alaska governor refers to her infant son with Down syndrome, Trig, as "retarded."

"We have purposefully ignored the mean-spirited, malicious and untrue attacks on our family," Bristol Palin's mom said in a statement. "We, like many, are appalled at the inflammatory statements being made or implied. Trig is our 'blessed little angel' who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even the thought that anyone would refer to Trig by any disparaging name is sickening and sad."

And then comes the big finish.

"Consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies—those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention and are likely to say and do anything for even more attention."

Hey, she said it!

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Speaking of people who say the darndest things, have you seen Paris and the pumpkin in Big Pic?