Oscar Watch: Part One

This week the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards. There’ve been some changes this year – like 10 movies being nominated for Best Picture instead of five in years past. Also, a studio promotion snafu actually kept one actor from being in contention for an award as they promoted him for Best Supporting actor when in fact, he should have been promoted for Best Actor.

Studio Head of Promotions: “Dude, my bad.” More on this in future posts.

Not sure if selecting twice as many nominees for Best Pic is a good thing or a bad thing yet… only time will tell.

I’ll be commenting on nominees in various categories from time to time between now and March 7, but today I shall be focusing on the performances of two of the nominees for Best Actress.

First a funny about the two ladies in question:

Upon learning of her nomination, first time nominee Sandra Bullock called 16 time nominee and two time Oscar winner Meryl Streep and left a voice message which said “You’ve got to watch your back. I’m gonna cut you. I’m gonna take you down. Don’t wear the same thing.”

Meryl responded with sending Bullock dead orchids and told her to die. All this followed a tongue-in-mouth kiss Bullock planted on Streep when they tied at the Critic’s Choice Movie Awards. Lord knows the world loves a good cat fight as long as there is a big make-up kissy kiss, huh?

Anyway…Both ladies are nominated for their portrayals of real women.

Sandra plays Leigh Ann Tuohy; a gutsy Southern matriarch and adopted mother of Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher in the movie The Blind Side.
Meryl plays the very tall Julia Child; the chef who nearly single-handedly made the art of French cooking assessable to American woman in the early 1960’s in the film Julie & Julia.

Great movies, both of them. EXCELLENT performances by these ladies…BOTH of these ladies.



I saw The Blind Side first and thought “Wow, no other woman will come close to the performance Sandra Bullock gives in this movie.” She was awesome! She was cute, sweet and gutsy all rolled up into a protective Southern Belle mama that could rival any other.



Day before yesterday, I watched Julie & Julia. Now, all I can say are two things: “Glad it’s not me making this decision.”, and “No wonder the Critic’s Choice Movie Awards people could not decide.” Meryl Steep nailed, and I do mean NAILED Julia Child. She totally rocked – the voice, the mannerisms, everything. They even somehow managed to make her look 6’2”, even though she is only 5’6”.

And as badly as I would love to see Sandra Bullock win her first Oscar, I have to say to the Academy Voters: “Flip a coin, people. You’ll be a winner either way.”

Do yourselves a favor and check out the stellar performances by these great actresses. You won’t be disappointed!