OSCAR EDITION

At 5:38:30 this morning, while I slept off a slight wine hangover from last night's decadent dinner, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for the 79th Annual Academy Awards. In a year when several major categories are already locked, announcing five nominees seems like a waste of time. It is certain that Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker will take home trophies, so I propose that other nominated actors (Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Rinko Kikuchi) stay home and save themselves limo and fashion expenses. At least there's a little bit of mystery brewing in the Best Supporting Actor race. It's terrific that voters recognized Jackie Earle Haley for his brilliant work in Little Children, and Alan Arkin could be a formidable contender for his acerbic grandpa role in Little Miss Sunshine. But who am I kidding? It will probably be Eddie Murphy all the way for Dreamgirls.

Speaking of Dreamgirls, I was ecstatic that the Academy had the sense to block this one-dimensional overblown music video from the Best Picture and Best Director categories (though the film did earn 8 nominations in all, more than any other film). Apart from this, the most surprising omission has to be Volver in the Best Foreign Language Film category. I thought it was the film to beat, but at least now the amazing Mexican film Pan's Labyrinth may have a clear path to the victory podium.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see that the haunting Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple got shafted for Best Documentary. I'm all for Al Gore's campaign against global warming, but the bottom line is that An Inconvenient Truth is a lecture, not a film.

And it will probably win on Oscar night.

Finally we have the neverending Oscar war between Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. Famously, Scorsese has never won Best Director honors even though he's responsible for a big handful of the best films of the past 30 years. So far he's won most of the critics awards leading up to this year's Oscars, but you can never count Clint out because he's so damned beloved by his Hollywood cronies. A mystifying phenomenon considering that Eastwood's cinema - though technically well-crafted - is often so heavy-handed and cliched. And after sweeping the ceremonies with Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, he simply doesn't need to bask in Oscar's spotlight anymore.