Its a Wonderful Night for Oscar.......

Coming up with my Oscar picks this year has been a little tough. Not that there weren't some great, award worthy performances. Its just that I like so many of the nominees, and it makes it hard to be as snarky as I like to be. But, I will push forward and try my best. After all, my audience, all 5 of you, are depending on me.

I will say that other than my picks for Best Director and Best Movie, I know that none of my other choices probably have a chance in Hell to win tonight. In fact, when I entered my picks to win a prize on CNN.com, I did not go with the picks from my heart - I went with predictable. So I know my percentages will suck when this is over. But I still wanted to put it out there into the Universe, just to give them all a boost. So anyway, here we go:

Best Supporting Actress

Also known as the Career Kiss of Death Award, so why put that off on someone I like. Truthfully, I care nothing for Rachel Weisz, who has won all the preOscar awards of value. So, if she wins, which she probably will, and we never hear from her again, that will actually be OK for me. I never heard of Amy Adams, so I don't guess I'd miss her either. Frances McDormand already has a win, but if she won again, and then disappeared, it would be a good thing for all actresses over 40 who still have their original faces and boobs, because then they could have a chance to play the hot actresses' normal best friend/coworker/older sister roles. If we take the CKoD factor out of it, seeing Catherine Keener win would be a real treat since she has been wonderful in everything I've ever seen her in and has been overlooked for so long. And, we'd have the fun of holding our breath to see if she thanks her husband, Dermot Mulroney, or if she calls him Dylan McDermott by mistake. (It could happen!) Finally, there is my pick, Michelle Williams, playing the wife/significant other of a secretly gay man - and way more convincingly than her former Dawson's Creek costar has done this past year. You know, Catherine Keener will always have the opportunity to play these quirky, award caliber roles, while I worry that Michelle will always be Jen from DC to most and won't have that many future chances to be in this spot. She probably won't win it, but I'll have my fingers crossed for her.

Best Supporting Actor

I'm sort of rooting against William Hurt in this one. He already has an Oscar, and for some reason, he just bugs me. And while many are pointing toward Paul Giamatti as pay back for not being nominated in the last few years, he bugs as well. So, its working out to be a Battle of my Crushes. - 85's Crush Matt Dillion, 95's Crush George Clooney and 05's Crush Jake Gyllenhall. I want one of my hot boys to win, and I'm terribly torn between the three. I'd love to see Matt win just because it has been a long dry career - awards wise. And, as the only acting nominee for Crash, he could win as the representative of a larger group. And George - yeah, your politics irritate, but at least you have a good sense of humor (uhum, Sean Penn, I'm looking at you)and so I could get behind a Clooney win. But, usually, when you have the multiple nominations, that pretty much guarantees you the Screenwriting Award. But in this case, it looks like the writers for Crash really deserve that one, so maybe the acting award will be the consolation prize for a change. But my pick, even though I'm pretty sure I'll lose on this one too, is Jake. Loved him in Donnie Darko. Loved him more in this one. But even if he doesn't get it, I'm sure we'll see him back here again.

Best Actress

While not rooting against Judi Dench or Charlize Theron, I really don't want to see either of them win. They have Oscars, they don't need to be greedy. And I'm still kind of traumatized from Charlize being so orange when she won a few years back, that I don't want to have to see her on the front page of everything tomorrow, cause I might have a flashback. Keira Knightly is young, and she's British, so she'll have plenty of chances in the future. I say, wait until she is a Dame before we give her one. Reese Witherspoon is just as cute as a bunny and learned to sing and play instruments for her role. She will probably win. My only thought against her is that she didn't really have to ugly it up for the role, so that might count against her in the end. I truly hope that this will allow Felicity Huffman to slip in and win. I've loved her since Sports Night, and I've enjoyed watching her do so well in the last two years. I just hope they don't hold that Emmy against her. Cause an Emmy and an Oscar in the same year seems sort of greedy.


Best Actor

Philip Seymor Hoffman has been a fine actor and overlooked for years. He deserves to win, and probably will, but I just don't want him to. He is always brilliant, so he will always have another chance. (Yeah, I know he'll win, but I can hold on to my dream until at least 11:30 p.m. tonight) But on the odd chance he doesn't win, there were some great performances, and no one in this category has an Oscar, so I'd be happy for any of them. Although, I'd sort of be afraid of what Joaquin Phoenix would do or say if he made it to the stage. Not that he'd be obnoxious politically, but that he'd have another hallucination and think a lizard was in his ear or something. I really don't think that David Strathairn has much of a chance at all - but I'm sure it was an honor just to be nominated. I was so set to jump on the Heath Ledger train, cause he was just awesome in his role, but then I saw Terrance Howard on Oprah this week, and dang if I'm not in love. The man has the most awesome smile. If he wins, I will be doing a happy dance. But in the end, I'm sticking with Heath (and not just because I love his Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream flavor.)


Best Director

Bennett Miller. Who? Out. Steven Spielberg, enjoy the after party. Clooney gets his acting award, Paul Haggis wins for his Crash screenplay, and Ang Lee gets a well deserved directing award.

Best Picture

I have an hour to complete this post, take a shower, put on my PJs, get curled up with my blanky and a pint of Ben and Jerry's Heath Bar Crunch and start watching Isaac Mizrahi molest some people on the red carpet. Therefore, I'm cutting to the chase. Brokeback Mountain wins.

So there you have it. Good Night and Good Luck.