By that headline, you might think that Dallas expat actor Owen Wilson were himself nominated for an Academy Award. Though I think his performance might have been worthy, he’s not. Midnight in Paris really only has that single, tenuous local connection.

So it’s a stretch. Which wouldn’t be so bad except that there’s another film on the list of Best Picture nominees that actually had segments filmed in downtown Dallas: Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. The Chapel of Thanksgiving and Reunion Tower can both be prominently seen in the movie.

Plus Art and Seek notes a local nominee in the Best Animated Short category.

But yes, I know, Owen Wilson has got more star power.

Since then, not much has been heard of Carruth, though he apparently is still working on his next project. IMDB says he’s in preproduction on something called Upstream Color. This week, The Colony Courier-Leader reports, Carruth was visiting family in The Colony and Frisco, and decided to get a little work done on his film at the The Colony Aquatic Park. The crew consisted of just Carruth, his producer, and a “well-known actress” from the Dallas area whose name the newspaper was asked to withhold from the article:

Attired in a one-piece, modest, black swimsuit, she worked tirelessly diving to the bottom of the pool, performing an action that may have been pretending to pick up things. She and the director did this over and over.

All of this went on for several hours after the pool closed. The Colony Aquatic Park Manager Elise Knox stood by to make sure the trio had everything they needed. Lifeguard Josh Naph also was on hand, just in case.

Knox said she thought at first Carruth was doing a film project for school, but was delighted to discover she had seen his first film, “Primer.”

She charged them the same rate a small group renting the pool for a party would be charged. She also showed the director other locations he could use. She said he would consider The Colony for other projects.

“It took two hours and we got about 10 seconds of film we’ll use,” Carruth said as he dried off.

Friday

I’ll start by noting that if you still want to go to the game out in Arlington that’s not really the Cotton Bowl, there are tickets available online. And if you’re a fan of Anderson Cooper’s favorite “comedian,” she’s in town too.

Those who prefer a higher brow evening should hit the First Friday at the Modern in Fort Worth. I know, I know, it’s such a long drive to get to Cowtown, but where else are you going to be able to enjoy cocktails, dinner, jazz by the group Outer Circles, a docent-led tour of the museum galleries, plus a movie about the Shakespeare of Germany, Young Goethe in Love?  Yep, nowhere else.

Saturday

Your last chance to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra perform Philip Glass’ American Four Seasons and pieces by Mikhail Glinka and Tchaikovsky is on Saturday night. The DSO needs, and deserves, your support.

If you’re not musically inclined, WaterTower Theatre is opening its production of The Diary of Anne Frank this weekend. That’s a story I hope never to see as a musical.

Sunday

There are great options for entertaining the small people who may live in your home as well. I’d drag my kids (if I had any) to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to see the exhibit on George Washington. Last year I read Joseph Ellis’ biography of our first president, His Excellency, George Washington, and finished the book with a much greater esteem for the man than I’d ever had before. He ranks as one of our more underrated presidents, not like that weasel Jefferson.

But if you give your children the option of visiting animatronic dinosaurs at the Heard Museum in McKinney instead, then I wouldn’t expect them to be begging you at the end of the day for a visit to Mount Vernon.

Other things to do in Dallas this weekend here.

We’re glad you shared so much of your valuable wasting-time-at-work with us this year at DMagazine.com. We feel it’s our sacred duty to provide you hilarious, insightful, provocative, sexy content. Even when we’re all off on our holiday break.

So we humbly present to you a countdown of the 10 most popular postings of the year from our D Empire of Web Logs, including FrontBurner, SideDish, FrontRow, ShopTalk, BridalBuzz, RealPoints, D Home, and StyleSheet.

Don’t blame us if you don’t like the list. You’re the people who kept clicking on these things.

10. Call Off the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade (FrontBurner)

In which Tim Rogers decries the “tragedy” of the news that Dallas Police are not going to allow people to wander around with open containers of alcohol during the annual event that he calls “the best day to be alive in Dallas every year.” Only the story he’d heard wasn’t quite right.

The cast of Big Rich Texas

9. The Big Rich Texas Off Camera Feud (FrontBurner)

When we’re gathered together at our fancy dinner parties, sipping wine and polishing our monocles, we agree wholeheartedly that “reality” television most assuredly spells the death of American culture. Then we retire to our homes, flip on our DVRs, and binge on a Real Housewives marathon. Point is, we know you secretly care about this crap. We’ve got the numbers to prove it.

8. In-N-Out Burger Opening Madness (SideDish)

Frequent FrontBurner and SideDish commenter Brooks Powell filed this report about the crazy opening day of the first In-N-Out Burger in Texas back in May. Millions of years of evolutionary development, and yet the human species retains the capacity to believe that a fast-food burger could ever be worth waiting hours in line.

7. First In-N-Out Burger in Dallas is Approved For Garland Texas!! (SideDish)

How did we know we wanted to print a D Magazine cover story on the impending arrival of In-N-Out Burger in North Texas? Because when Nancy Nichols posted this item in May of 2010, the inbound traffic that it generated crashed our website. It remained a top draw this year, as the In-N-Out Burger invasion began.

Dude, I haven't been this excited since the McRib came back.

6. Cameron Mitchell: No Glee For Me (FrontBurner)

Hadn’t heard of Cameron Mitchell, or The Glee Project, before our Christine Perez caught us up to speed about the reality show in which contestants were vying for a role on the Fox TV show about high school kids who suffer under the curse of a nefarious dancing demon who forces them to break into overblown, overproduced renditions of top 40 hits. (OK, OK, that’s not entirely accurate. But wouldn’t you rather watch that show?)

5. Cameron Mitchell: A Glee Project Winner After All (FrontBurner)

Apparently young Cameron Mitchell gained a significant fan base after bowing out of the Glee Project due to some vague moral objection. And apparently DMagazine.com became the Web’s No. 1 source for Cameron Mitchell news.

4. Big Rich Texas Episode 1 Recap (FrontRow)

See, told you that you care about this crap. Merritt Patterson wrote the Web’s best weekly recap of this train wreck of a show.

You're honestly telling me you'd rather gawk at Rosie Huntington-Whiteley than Optimus Prime?

3. Movie Review: Can Transformers 3 Overcome a Disastrous Second Installment? (FrontRow)

Can a movie’s leading lady be so hot that she distracts you from being able to enjoy the giant robot battles you paid to see? Is this ever a valid criticism, especially of a Michael Bay film? These and other Autobot-vs-Decepticon matters are dissected in the epic comments section of this post. This is what the Internet was invented for.

2. Leslie Birkland of Style Network’s Big Rich Texas Speaks Out About Pamela Martin Duarte (FrontRow)

Or maybe this is what the Internet was invented for.

And now, the most popular blog post of 2011:

It's tough to be a football god.

1. Troy Aikman and His Wife Split Up (FrontBurner)

We didn’t know we’d be breaking the news of Troy Aikman’s separation from his wife (they were later divorced) when we put him on our February cover ahead of Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium and included a line about how the Cowboys legend spoke to us “on marriage and loss.” We swear. No, really. Really, we didn’t.

I mean, really.

FrontRow Live is something we’re calling the “one night high brow, low brow blowout,” and all that means is that we have created an event at the Dallas Contemporary that will bring together an eclectic mix of all sorts of cultural exploits.

Like what? Jump

Well, we’ll have three DJs so that you can dance your face off (Play-n-Skillz, DJ Prince William, and DJ Sober); live video by the great Lars Larson, creator of the analog video synthesizer; a short film screening room; a dance troupe (battle dancers Rhythm Knightz); a pop up coffee shop from Pearl Cup; five food trucks; free beer courtesy of Michelob Ultra — all in the context of the Dallas Contemporary, where you will be able to see works by artists Aaron Parazette, Jennifer Rubell, plus live screen printing with Brian Gibb.

Sound like fun? Well, that’s not all. Now we have added violinist Richmond Punch and The Dallas Family Band to the mix. Punch will perform in between the DJ sets and the Dallas Family Band will busk outside the Contemporary while you sample the offerings from the food trucks.

Like I said, tickets, which are FREE, are right here. Oh, and here’s the best part: your first three beers are on us!

Do we have a sponsor on this one Grubes? You bet. Thanks always to our good friends at Chevy who are helping to make all of this possible. See you there.

You guys fill in the rest of the cast.

Well then, you won’t want to miss what is sure to be one of the most exciting, entertaining, and unique events to hit Dallas this year: FrontRow Live at the Dallas Contempoary on November 3 from 8 p.m. to midnight, brought to you by Chevy.

Headlined by Grammy Award-winning producers and DJ duo Play-N-Skillz, the event we’re calling the “one night high-brow, low-brow blowout” will feature three DJs, a live theater performance to kick off the evening, screen-printing by The Public Trust’s Brian Gibb, a pop-up screening room featuring short films, a pop-up coffee shop provided by The Pearl Cup, food trucks, free beer provided by Michelob Ultra, and more. And here’s the best part: it is all FREE!

You want details? You want free tickets right now? Then get over to our FrontRow Live page.

“I’m very contrarian where The Searchers are concerned, because I know a whole lot more about the history of Northwest Texas than I did 50 years ago,” McMurtry told 60 or 70 people gathered in an open field for the outdoor screening near Snyder’s old VFW hall Friday night.  “… Ford was an autocrat. He simply decided that Monument Valley was the best place to film, so he turned Monument Valley into the West. Monument Valley isn’t the West. There were no Comanches there.

“The kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker, the mother of Quanah Parker, [took place] in 1836, not 1868 [as shown in the film, when] Comanche power was diminishing,” McMurtry went on. ” It also “didn’t take that long to find out where Cynthia Ann Parker was. But here we have a four- to five-year search. … I’m not saying it’s an ineffective movie. It’s very potent. But there are some discrepancies that bother people like myself.”

The following morning, the author of Lonesome Dove and other best-selling novels showed up at the crowded Manhattan Coffeehouse, on the Snyder town square, and spent nearly an hour answering questions from fans and festival-goers. Asked what he thought of Wayne, the focal point of Snyder’s 72-hour movie marathon, McMurtry replied: “John Wayne is a very powerful iconic American actor. I think his work varied, according to the director.”

Since many novelists and filmmakers take historical liberties, the writer was asked, do the discrepancies he referred to Friday night make The Searchers less of a film? (The movie, after all, was voted the best western of all time by the American Film Institute.)

“The historical discrepancies make it less of a good movie for me,” McMurtry replied. “Movies are not stories; they’re pictures … [and] the visuals are extraordinary. … The story can be bulls***; it’s the pictures and acting that matter. [Wayne] spends five years looking for the girl [in the film, just] so that he can kill her? How did he change [in deciding against killing her, in the end]? When did he change? That bothers me. It’s a mystery.

“I think [the film company] got better work out of John Wayne than it did out of John Ford.”

But that’s not all, as with all of our Kessler Theater screenings this summer, the night will be opened with a performance by Barry Kooda. Then, before the feature, we’ll screen the short film “For Rent” by local director Madison Liane and staring none other than Paris, Texas star Hunter Carson.

Doors open at 6 p.m. You won’t want to miss this. Here’s all the info you need.