I was surprised to learn<B> </B>from Alexander Payne's casting director last week that Payne's next movie, "Nebraska," will not be distributed by Fox Searchlight, as were his previous films<B> </B>"Sideways" and "The Descendants."

Instead, that pleasure goes to Paramount Studios, one of the three oldest continuously operating movie studios in the world - and the only major studio that is still actually located in Hollywood.

Paramount is celebrating its 100th birthday this year along with Universal, which claims the title of oldest American studio because it was founded six weeks before Paramount.

You may have seen the glitzy photo in Vanity Fair magazine earlier this year that included more than 100 big-name actors, directors and producers posed for a Paramount centennial photo.

It reminded me of the studios' golden age in the 1930s and '40s when MGM used to boast "more stars than there are in the heavens."

Well, Paramount has some significant bragging rights of its own on that score.