Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, Savages, released this year. The favor? A trip to Del Toro’s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during a news conference Friday in the U.S. territory, where he and Stone are helping raise money for one of the island’s largest art museums. Each man praised the other’s work, with both saying they would like to work together again. “I deeply admire him as an actor, the way he thinks, the way he expresses himself,” Stone said. “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the most interesting.” Stone said Del Toro always delivers surprises while acting, even when it’s something as subtle as certain gestures between dialogue. “I think Benicio is the master of keeping you watching,” he said. Stone said he enjoys meeting up with Del Toro off the set because he’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can talk about something other than movies. “He is very interested in the world around him,” Stone said, adding that the conversations sometimes center around politics and other topics.

Oscar host Seth MacFarlane is inviting college students to join him onstage at the Academy Awards. The Family Guy creator made a surprise appearance at UCLA to announce a contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU that will allow winning college students to appear on the Feb. 24 Oscar telecast. The contest invites students to submit videos on the academy’s Facebook page describing how they’ll contribute to the future of film. At least six winners willserve as trophy carriers on the Oscar show, replacing the leggy models who usually perform the duties.