People descibed the 46-year-old (I know, wow) actor as “the king of cool with killer cheekbones.”

Depp last won the honor in 2003, and this year, he joins the likes of Brad Pitt and George Clooney in winning twice. After Depp, the rest of the top five are Ryan Reynolds at number two, Jake Gyllanhaal at number three, Bradley Cooper at number four, and Robert Downey Jr. at number five.

Rabid Twilight fans might be disappointed to know that Robert Pattinson ranked 15th, but the rest of us will wonder how he ranked so high.

Pick up People magazine to check out the full list.

Protector Collection necklaces. Photo: Asprey.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are working with British jewelery designed Asprey to create a line of snake-like jewelery, People.com reported.

The serpentile pieces include bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings and even spoons. The net proceeds will go to the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which the couple has already given $1 million through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. The snake-theme came from Angelina’s pregnancy with Shiloh in 2006, when a friend gave her a protective snake ring. Since then, snakes have become a symbol of protection for the family.

Initially, the jewelery line was meant for children, but it expanded to become the high-end “Protector Collection.” It will become available Nov. 17.

Photos: Getty Images

Academy President Sid Ganis, along with Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, announced the awards at a live news conference. “Benjamin Button” led the pack with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt) and Best Director (David Fincher). The film, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, is about a man (Pitt) who ages backwards.

“Slumdog Millionaire” wasn’t far behind “Button” with 10 nominations, also including Best Picture and Best Director (Danny Boyle). “Millionaire,” about a young Mumbai man who gets on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be Millionaire,” won Best Picture at the Golden Globe awards on Jan. 11. It’s considered the biggest surprise hit of the year.

One of the bigger surprises was the nomination for “The Reader” for Best Picture, Best Director (Stephen Daldry) Best Actress (Kate Winslet) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has gotten seriously mixed reviews, and despite garnering a Golden Globe for Kate Winslet, was largely believed to be inferior to Winslet’s other film this year, “Revolutionary Road”. The latter film received a Supporting Actor nod to Michael Shannon in the acting categories.

As predicted, Heath Ledger was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Dark Knight.” The announcement came on the one year anniversary of Ledger’s death from an accidental overdose. Ledger received a posthumous Best Supporting Actor award at the Golden Globes.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences distributes the awards. The academy is made up of professionals in all aspects of the film industry, who judge the nominees in their respective categories. The Academy Awards themselves will take place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC network on Feb. 22.

Complete list of nominees on the next page.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Based on the story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has been transformed by director David Fincher from a novella to an epic. By fleshing out Fitzgerald’s brisk tale of a man who ages backwards, he makes “Button” breathe again.

Spanning the course of nearly a century, Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button, a child born with all of the deteriorations of a man in his eighties. Discarded by his father into the loving arms of Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), an owner of an early form of a nursing home, Benjamin ages backwards but, by doing so, is able to learn the important lessons of life both backwards and forwards.

He meets Daisy (who grows up to be Cate Blanchett) when she was just 7 years old. They age together and yet separately, when he starts his life on a tugboat sailing out of New Orleans when he is just about age 16. Daisy, who he always views as the love of his life, lives a very different life in New York City as a dancer.

Benjamin seems to live many different lives over the course of the movie. But, with the film stretching close to three hours long, it takes a while to get past the preliminary portion of the film and into its heart – the relationship between Daisy and Benjamin.

Pitt plays Benjamin from about age seven to age 70 by using advanced CGI-techniques. “Button” was clearly created to be more of a fairy tale than a real story, but because of the aging backwards process, the CGI makes it hard to tell just how old Benjamin is supposed to be. Audience members uncomfortably questioned whether it was proper for Benjamin to have his first woman before realizing he was not around age 10 like they thought and was closer to age 16.

The fairy tale aspect of the film takes away from its message a bit. “Button” loses itself in its length, caught between telling a story and relaying a moral. Ultimately, “Button” was trying to explain that it is never too late to start your life over – a theme created for the film. There wasn’t enough to the film to justify its length.

Overall, “Button” was a good film. Pitt and Blanchett deliver beautiful performances as usual, and Fincher put together a wonderful piece of art. But “Button” begins to feel like a chore to watch once it gets into its second hour and thus losing the power a more concise film would have had.

Brad Pitt leads the pack on a list that includes Jessica Alba and Katherine Heigl.

“Fans searching for “Brad Pitt,” “Brad Pitt downloads,” and Brad Pitt wallpaper, screen savers and pictures have an 18% chance of having their PCs infected with online threats, such as spyware, spam, phishing, adware, viruses and other malware,” McAfee said. “Cybercriminals are using A-listers’ names and images, like Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, to lure Internet users who surf the Web for the latest gossip, screen savers and ringtones to “fake” Web sites that look legitimate.”

The list includes:

1. Brad Pitt – When “Brad Pitt screensavers” was searched, more than half of the resulting Web sites were identified as containing malicious downloads with spyware, adware and potential viruses.

2. Beyoncé – Inputting “Beyoncé ringtones” into a search engine yields risky Web sites that promote misleading offers to gather consumers’ personal information.

3. Justin Timberlake – Interest in his high-profile relationships makes him an easy target for spammers and hackers. When searching for “Justin Timberlake downloads” one Web site advertised free music downloads that were flagged as directly leading to spam, spyware and adware.

4. Heidi Montag – “The Hills” star is a popular search term when it comes to searching for wallpaper. A host of wallpaper Web sites contained hundreds of malware-laden downloads.

5. Mariah Carey – Spammers and hackers are using Mariah Carey screen saver Web sites to link to other sites proven to contain spyware, adware and other threatening downloads.

6. Jessica Alba – Red-ranked risky sites were identified when searching for “Jessica Alba” and “Jessica Alba downloads.” The sites contained hundreds of malicious downloads, links to other bad sites, misleading offers to gather information, and a high number of spam emails when an email address was provided.

7. Lindsay Lohan – This young Hollywood starlet is as dangerous to search online as she is famous. Searching for “Lindsay Lohan downloads” resulted in several dangerous Web sites laden with hidden adware.

8. Cameron Diaz – Cybercriminals use download Web sites related to Cameron Diaz’s image to link to other harmful sites containing spyware.

9. George Clooney, Rihanna – The technology found one Web site embedded with hundreds of dangerous wallpaper and photo downloads after inputting “George Clooney downloads.” “Rihanna pictures” was also a risky search term, as McAfee identified a site that spammed its test email address.

11. Angelina Jolie – When “Angelina Jolie downloads” was searched, the software highlighted a risky site with 978 hidden malware-infected wallpaper and photo downloads, as well as links to other potentially dangerous URLs.

12. Fergie – A Fergie screen saver site was flagged as offering 111 risky downloads that could seriously compromise a PC’s privacy with unwanted spyware and adware.

13. David Beckham, Katie Holmes – The “David Beckham” search term generated a great deal of wallpaper and screen saver downloads veiled with malware. Consumers should also exercise caution when searching for “Katie Holmes” online – one download site advertised free screen savers that, if downloaded, would infect your computer with malicious programs like spyware.

15. Katherine Heigl – Hollywood’s big headliner in recent years is now susceptible to Internet lurkers too. “Katherine Heigl” was searched and a site was identified containing hundreds of malware-infected pictures.

 ”Cybercriminals employ numerous methods, yet one of the simplest but most effective ways is to trick consumers into infecting themselves by capitalizing on Americans’ interest in celebrity gossip,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee’s Product Development and Avert Labs. “Tapping into current events, pop culture or commonly browsed sites is an easy way to achieve this. And because of Americans’ obsession with following celebrities’ lifestyles, they are an obvious target. We have to take precautions in casually navigating the Web since many subtle sites may be rife with malware for consumers’ computers.”

The list was compiled using McAfee SiteAdvisor, which can be downloaded for free at www.mcafee.com/siteadvisor.

The Women

Who: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher

What: Ryan plays a clothing designer who finds out that her husband is cheating on her with another woman (Mendes) and then, with the help of her friends, all hell breaks loose.

When: September 12

Why: Meg Ryan hasn’t had a good chick flick since “Kate & Leopold” in 2001, but this movie looks like it could be her big comeback. The cast is fantastic and looks to have great chemistry. Plus, the whole “Sex and the City” vibe it is channeling is so in this year.

Burn After Reading

This is a redband trailer and not suitable for all audiences

Who: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons

What: The Coen brothers’ latest flick about two gym employees (Pitt and McDormand) who get their hands on the memoir of an ex-CIA official (Malkovich) and plan to take advantage of their discovery.

When: September 12

Why: The Coen brothers look like they’re going more for “O Brother, Where Art Thou” than “No Country For Old Men” in this one, but the change of pace is nice.. The cast is beyond A-list; this is Clooney and Pitt’s first movie together since “Ocean’s Thirteen,” and Swinton and Clooney are reunited after last year’s “Michael Clayton.” Plus, when have the Coen brothers ever failed to deliver?

Righteous Kill

Who: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg

What: Two veteran detectives (De Niro and Pacino) work to identify whether there is a connection between their current murder case and one they put to rest years before.

When: September 12

Why: This is De Niro and Pacino’s second movie together, but unlike “Heat” where they only had about five minutes of mutual face time; “Righteous Kill” looks like it will really show of their chemistry. Plus the good cop/bad copy storyline has “Oscar” written all over it.

The Duchess

Who: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling

What: Knightly plays Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, the head of high society who proved she could out-gamble, out-drink, and outwit most of the men she surrounded herself with. However, when she tries to follow an illicit love, she brings upon the wrath of her husband (Fiennes) and all of London.

When: September 19

Why: Keira Knightly looks fascinating and ravishing as the Duchess. Plus, the “it-girl” vibe has been a bit outdone this year when taking place in modern times, so why not watch the same story take place in regency era England?

Choke

Who: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brad Henke, Clark Gregg

What: An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Choke is the story of a sex-addicted colonial theme park worker (Rockwell) who creates an elaborate scheme to pay for his mother’s hospital bills.

When: September 26

Why: It’s based on a Chuck Palahniuk book. Remember “Fight Club”? Yeah, it’s enough to make me go see it too.

Igor

Who: John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Arsenio Hall, Sean Hayes

What: A hunchbacked lab assistant, or Igor (Cusack), breaks away from his traditional role in society and tries to win Malaria’s annual science fair.

When: September 19

Why: Sure it won’t beat “WALL-E”, but the voice talents are funny in real life, so why not in a movie too?

Miracle at St. Anna

Who: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Valentina Cervi

What: Spike Lee’s story of four black American soldiers find themselves separated from their unit and trapped behind enemy lines in Italy during World War II. Working with a village of Italian rebels, they try to avoid the Nazis and save the life of an Italian boy.

When: September 26

Why: The trailer is really intriguing in a kind of skip-to-the-last-scene kind of way. Spike Lee has a good track record too.

Eagle Eye

Who: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Chiklis

What:  Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are two strangers being manipulated by a mysterious woman via cell phone who controls their every move. Together they must outwit the woman and outrun the FBI who thinks that they are responsible for crimes they did not commit.

When:  September 26

Why: Apparently this has been Steven Spielberg’s brain child for years, and the trailers look promising. It could end up being a total flop, but LaBeouf has been having good (on screen) luck this year.