Roger Ross Williams hated his job as a television producer. Desperate for something different, he went to the Catskills, N.Y. home of his neighbor, Elinor Burkett, an author and journalist who also has a home in Zimbabwe. "'Save me,'" Burkett jokingly recalls Williams said to her, to an audience in the Catskills in early 2009.

Williams laughs and explains, "I was working in television and I was sick of it. And I couldn't deal with it anymore and I wanted to make an independent feature. And I knew I wanted to do something in Africa. So I said to [Burkett] find me a story in Africa. She found me this amazing story."

The story Williams and Burkett worked on together followed Liyana, a band of disabled musicians in Zimbabwe, featuring a limbless lead singer named Prudence. The documentary, Music by Prudence, won an Academy Award last night for best documentary short. Unfortunately, the film will also be remembered for Burkett, a brash redhead, "Kanye-ing" Williams' acceptance speech. "Let the woman talk. Isn't that the classic thing?" she said, as she commandeered the mic. How did a seemingly natural collaboration go so wrong?

Watching their acceptance speech debacle was an awkward, -- where did this redhead woman come from? Is she drunk?-- and entertaining blemish on an otherwise classic Oscars night. The next day, Alison Bulman, the Senior Editor of the American Journal of Nursing, emailed me that she had met the embattled producers and the inspirational musicians of their documentary.

How did these two neighbors and media professionals become the biggest drama of the night?

USA Today reports on the importance of prenuptial agreements.

Of course, prenups are inherently unromantic ("I love you but in case I decide I don't, sign this so you don't get my money"), but they're becoming increasingly popular, perhaps motivated by the plights of the rich, famous, and divorced.

Rupert Murdoch paid $1.7 billion to extract himself from his marriage, and he's not alone. Check out this list of the 15 Most Expensive Divorces.

But do prenups really only make sense for the rich? Not according to that renowned financial adviser, comedian Chris Rock. "Everybody needs a prenup," he once said in a stand-up performance explaining that he understood why O.J. Simpson killed his wife.

Get a Kenneth Cole coupon for 20% off when you donate a pair of gently used shoes through March 31.

All the shoes collected will be donated to earthquake victims in Haiti. You can also make a monetary donation to get the discount, which is good on your entire purchase.

For this benefit Kenneth Cole is partnering with Soles4Souls, which partners with organizations to collect and donate shoes to needy people around the world. Kenneth Cole retailers and outlets are participating.

Remember, this deal ends March 31.

Thanks, Su May.

New Yorkers finally got an answer recently to what hotel will be included in a massive mixed-use development currently under construction in Manhattan's bustling theater district: The Yotel.

Bloggers speculated for months about the design and makeup of an $800-million hotel and residential development at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue in Times Square. Curbed NY even went so far as to post leaked plans for the 60-story complex that developer Related Companies claimed were inaccurate.

First off, to my esteemed colleague Nick, who assumes I "haven't heard of or experienced" either the dizzying heights of education costs or the depressing depths of student loan debt, I have just one little number for you: $30,000.

Or at least I think it's around $30,000-ish. I stopped keeping track of how much student loan debt I have after I signed my fourth-ish (or was it fifth?) loan application to continue my education at a private Jesuit college. I'm pretty sure some banker somewhere is holding a promissory note signed in blood for my first-born child.

Welcome to "Debate Team," a new Money College feature where two students duke it out on the financial issues that mean the most to their peers. Should college students protest funding cuts, as they've done recently at Berkeley and elsewhere? Haverford College student Nick Farina says absolutely, and takes issue with those who disagree -- including his Money College cohort, LeeAnn Maton.

If you're lucky, you might have heard or read about the rapidly rising cost of attending college.

If you're unlucky, you might be deeply in debt, facing an uncertain job market, and regretting your entire decision to go to college in the first place.

Feeling creative? Well, Dollar Tree is having a contest that requires more than just filling out a form and answering a skill-testing question.

The folks at Dollar Tree want you to tell them why you love your Dollar Tree by putting it in writing, making an audio or video file or expressing it in a picture to win up to $1,250 in cash.

At least eight more companies, including McCormick's, have recalled their products since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration acknowledged on Friday that an obscure ingredient, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, could be tainted with Salmonella -- creating a chain-reaction of recalls of foods using the flavor-enhancer.

HVP is similar to Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and can lead to similar issues for those sensitive to MSG, including headaches. Salmonella was discovered in the Las Vegas plant of Basic Food Flavors, a major HVP supplier.

It's a variation of "you can run, but you can't hide," in the case of underwater homeowners (those whose homes are now worth less than the remaining mortgage). In increasing numbers, according to reports, people are simply walking away from their homes. Now banks and other lending institutions are starting to run after them.

According to the Detroit Free Press, more and more lenders are either hiring collection agencies or "getting deficiency judgments -- court orders that allow banks to collect on mortgage balances."

And that is bad news for the walkaway ex-homeowner. Such a court order would allow the bank to do everything from garnishing wages to grabbing any tax refund he might be expecting.

If you haven't heard of Prosper.com until now, a $1,000 contest and a new web site might get you interested.

Prosper.com is a peer-to-peer lending site. The idea is that if you're having trouble getting a loan at a bank, or maybe you're feeling a bit anti-bank these days and would rather see someone else profit off your money, you might want to seek out a loan with Prosper.com.

Or conversely, if you'd like to invest a bit of your money and see where your funds are going, you may want to check out this site. You can borrow or lend, from the public, instead of the banks.