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5 Terrific Twitterers: Academy Awards Edition!

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Lots of musicians tweet — but all that Twitters is not gold.

That’s why you’ll want to check out SPIN.com every Friday to see whose tweets we’re reading this week — then update your TweetDeck! (Obligatory Self-Promotion: …while you’re at it, be sure to follow @SPINmagazine!)

This week’s winners are all headed to the Academy Awards this weekend. Follow them from the limo to the red carpet to the stage!

This week’s winners:

  • James Franco
    @jamesfranco

    Why You Should Follow: Actor, director, soap opera star, fiction writer, artist, Ph.D. student at Yale University… James Franco does it all (often with a knowing smirk). Sunday he’s co-hosting the 83rd Annual Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway — and he’s nominated for a Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston in the movie 127 Hours, too. Follow his journey to the Oscars on Twitter, where he posts random, trippy Twitpics, comic strips, and videos, and tweets back and forth with people like Steve Martin and filmmaker Brett Ratner. Right now, he’s still brand-new to the site, but we have a feeling he’ll be tweeting up a storm in no time — how could he pass up this amazing opportunity to mess with people’s heads?

    Best Tweet of the Week: This video authenticating his Twitter page — in case you had any doubts.

  • Mark Ruffalo
    @Mruff221

    Why You Should Follow: Ruffalo is nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award for his role in The Kids Are All Right, and he already has a plan for Oscars night: “I’m going to hold my wife’s hand and try and make out with her during the commercial breaks if she lets me.” Until then, you can find him on Twitter, answering fans’ questions and speaking out about the issues that matter to him, from LGBT equality to union rights to protecting the environment (right now, he’s protesting hydrofracking in the Delaware River). Look out for Twitpics taken in front of the White House, lots of political talk, “Kumbaya”-type tweets (“All in all we are in a most inspiring time. Look at us. All of us communicating freely at this moment connected all over the world. Beauty”), and the occasional “Shut the front door!”

    Best Tweet of the Week: “It’s taken me 20 years to get to this moment. I’m blessed to be here. It may be another 20 before I’m back again. I am soaking it in.”

  • Florence Welch
    @flo_tweet

    Why You Should Follow: For the first time since 2008, the Academy Awards will feature full performances of each of the tracks nominated for Best Song — and Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) has been tapped to sing “If I Rise” from 127 Hours. The song was composed by Academy Award winner A.R. Rahman and originally sung by Dido, who can’t make it to Sunday’s ceremony… hence this little treat for Florence and the Machine fans! Welch is always full of crazy stories (“there’s a bear in my dressing room. x”) and amazing Twitpics (like this one of “breakfast with the Beatles”), so keep an eye on her page during the Oscars — you never know, she might encounter a bear or a Beatle on the red carpet.

    Best Tweet of the Week: This lovely iPhone photo of Florence, her sister, and a cocktail.

  • Trent Reznor
    @trent_reznor

    Why You Should Follow: We’ve been following Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor’s tweets pretty closely since his music for The Social Network earned him a Golden Globe win and Academy Awards nod for Best Original Score. Unfortunately, it seems he’s been a little too busy celebrating (and working on his next project, a score for David Fincher’s upcoming adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) to devote much time to Twitter. Let’s hope that by the time the big night rolls around, he at least tweets a picture of himself in a tux!

    Best Tweet of the Week: He posted this link to info about the behind-the-scenes documentary about The Social Network, which is aptly called How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?

  • Ellen Page
    @EllenPage

    Why You Should Follow: Like Franco, Page is a Twitter newbie, but she’s already mastered the art of the tweet, posting random thoughts (“Think how much water they must have to put on a space ship”), giving shout-outs to friends Drew Barrymore and @rainnwilson, and writing dispatches from her daily trips to the park near her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia (“Park report: Today I witnessed no duck ‘loving’. I did run slightly from a goose. They are basically my size”). The Inception star will be attending the Oscars to see if her film picks up any of the eight awards it’s nominated for, so look out for more awkward-but-endearing Twitpics.

    Best Tweet of the Week: Her first tweet, “ah. the pressure is overwhelming.”