5 days to Oscar Sunday!

It's only going to be five days more before Uncle Oscar (as Stephen King playfully calls the ceremony in his current EW column) will once again bring sunshine to all movie fans everywhere.

This early, predictions are being tossed and controversies are monopolizing the entertainment headlines. It's Oscar week! What can we do? One of the nominated producers of the frontrunner "The Hurt Locker" was banned today by the Academy for violating the sacred rule against negative campaigning. Good for him. At least, he wasn't stripped of his nomination as was originally feared. But to be absent at your own party (assuming Locker does win the big award) is fair enough punishment.

As dear Roger Ebert has concluded in today's Oprah, this year's Academy awards is going to end up being the most predictable ever.

Roger has picked "The Hurt Locker" and Kathryn Bigelow for best picture and best director, respectively. His acting picks are Jeff Bridges (leading actor), Sandra Bullock (leading actress), Christoph Waltz (supporting actor), and Monique (supporting actress).

I somewhat agree to his assessment about probable winners except that i think the best actress is gonna be really tight and i dare say that Meryl Streep could pull an upset in this category. Now, that last sentence is short of being sacriligeous. Meryl is the greatest Hollywood actress alive and to consider her pulling an upset against Sandra is almost unacceptable but that is one of the harsher truths in the Oscar contest: Everything is fair and every performance is judged by one single movie only.

I loved Sandra in "The Blind Side" (i thought the movie was her entire cinematic moment!) and if she wins on Sunday, i will be one of those cheering for her. But if Meryl does win, i'll be the first to claim her victory. Go Meryl!!!