LOS ANGELES — This year’s Oscar ceremony will go ahead without an official host for only the second time in its history, an ABC television executive said on Tuesday.

A FARRELLY movie up for the Oscars?

6 films to see on the week of February 8 — February 14, 2019

FOR the 6^th concert in its 36^th concert season on Feb. 8, 8 p.m., at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Main Theater, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), under the baton of Yoshikazu Fukumura, will perform Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz Oveture, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, K.543 in flat major, and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, op 73 in D major. For inquiries and tickets, contact the CCP Box Office (832-3704), visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph, or contact TicketWorld (www.ticketworld.com.ph, 891-9999).

TOYMAKER Mattel Inc. continued its pivot toward entertainment, hiring a Walt Disney Co. veteran to run its burgeoning television unit.

Ilustrado Restaurant and Café in Intramuros, Manila has come up with a five-course Valentine meal — the amuse bouche is Beet and goat cheese arancini; a choice of three appetizers namely Mushroom duo, Jamon and melon, and Salmon mille-feuille; Roasted tomato soup; cucumber melon sorbet; entrée choices include Australian lamb ribs, Barramundi fillet, and US beef tenderloin; and for dessert either Chocolate Fantasy or Berry Bavarois.

THE FIRST flames of love are nothing short of magical. But what happens when the flames die down? Through the years, lingering smoke and smolder between two loving individuals is all that’s needed to stay together, and that sexy, calming ember is captured perfectly by the Valentine’s Dinner offering of 22 Prime in the Discovery Suites.

AFTER merely a year of operations, “glorified turo-turo” restaurant concept Bench Café, is set to open more locations within the year after its second branch opened in Greenbelt 3, Makati City this month and the success it garnered at the flagship branch in Bonifacio Global City (BGC)in Taguig.

THE 15-year-old snack bar brand, New York Fries & Dips (NYFD), is looking to appeal to a wider range of customers this year as the brand, now under a new management, aims to open 100 branches nationwide, according to a company executive.

MADRID — Spanish celebrity chef Ferran Adria is to reopen his once world-famous elBulli venture next year — but not serving food.

THEATER FANS from outside Metro Manila now have a chance to see a story of love, deception, and power as M. Butterfly is set to tour six cities this year.

MANILA in 2019 is a bustling concrete jungle where the middle class and urban poor strive to have decent life, but in reality its streets are riddled with victims of extrajudicial killings, nine-year-old street urchins used by drug peddlers, inefficient public transport, and other inequalities and injustices.