The final acting honor of the evening is handed out and, well -- no major surprise (except maybe for Tom O'Neil!).  Daneil Day-Lewis takes the win for "There Will Be Blood" in what had to be a cake walk.  Here's what we had to say.

You can get your predictions fix in a thousad different quarters this weeekend.  There's David Carr, David Poland, the Gurus o' Gold, Gurus 2.0, the Buzzmeter, hell, even George Clooney has taken a stab.  And don't forget Sasha Ston'e mega-compilation chart, which rounds up a ton of voices for your perusing delight.

In all of that prognosticative commotion, you're bound to see this eyebrow-raising declartion or that, but nothing -- and I mean nothing compares to Tom O'Neil's out-on-a-limb prediction that Clooney will upset a steam-rolling Daniel Day-Lewis in the Best Actor category.  Whaaa?

Yeah, he's going there.  But he isn't doing so sans explanation.  According to O'Neil, who recently posted his reasoning at Gold Derby, Hollywood's man-crush on Clooney might just win out in the end.  He also focuses on the Reel Geezers, who were somewhat dismissive of Day-Lewis and "There Will Be Blood," but made sweet, sweet voting love to Clooney and "Michael Clayton."

Take a look:

The reason that the shockeroos occur is because Hollywooders are a bull-headed, contrary-minded lot and often they don't tip their cards. They also don't like to admit that they're going against the pack — everybody's got to be a team player, after all — but, alone at home where no one is looking and with sly smirks on their faces, they fool Oscarwatchers now and then by checking off their ballots for Marcia Gay Harden or Juliette Binoche.

And read the rest!

By the way, there's at least one more random prediction in the major categories out there: Liz Smith of the New York Post, who declares Best Actress contender Laura Linney the ultimate victor.  Woah.

•  David Carr camps out at the Four Seasons, chats it up with a veritable who's who of the Oscar strategist spectrum. [The Carpetbagger]

•  He also reports at length at the goings on in town this week: the parties, the prep, the pageantry. [New York Times]

•  Michael Cieply, meanwhile, digs into the matter of that Academy museum that can now see the light of day with the strike settlement. [New York Times]

•  Jeffrey Wells rattles off his perspective on the season to an eager podcaster. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Tom O'Neil responds to the final Buzzmeter...and he's still predicting George Clooney! [Gold Derby]

•  Gina Piccalo writes a big, juicy love letter to Oscar savior Gil Cates. [Los Angeles Times]

•  She also profiles Bill Conti, maestro of the musical cues and "45 second rule." [The Envelope]

•  Still hoofing it, Kevin O'Connell talks his plight with Vanity Fair's Cassandra Handley. [Little Gold Men]

•  Ramin Setoodeh rounds out the year with his final guesses.  The most intriguing: an Amy Ryan forecast in Best Supporting Actress. [The Gold Digger]

•  Favorite quotables from this year's nominees. [Cinematical]

•  Leslie Simmons takes note of Marcus Carl Franklin ("I'm Not There") at Friday night's Indie Spirit nominees reception.  So did everyone else, apparently. [Gold Rush]

I have to say, kudos to Greg Ellwood and Sheigh Crabtree for doing such a great job in rounding up a wide array of voices for this year's Buzzmeter at The Envelope.  I think the collective has been more accurate than other such experiments this season, and now, the final tally has been revealed.

There aren't many surprises to be had on the whole, but you'll be interested to find some singular shockers.  Like Tom O'Neil's prediction that George Clooney will trump Daniel Day-Lewis in the Best Actor rave, for instance.  Creative Screenwriting's Jeff Goldsmith went a little crazy in the animated feature race, picking "Persepolis" over "Ratatouille," while local journo Sam Rubin goes REALLY wild, taking Jason Reitman for a stunner in Best Director.

Check it all out here.

Well...virtual Ernest Borngine, that is:

BEST ACTOR: George Clooney, Michael Clayton

"Oh, I know Daniel Day-Lewis has all the momentum -- but Jesus, what was that movie about? It scared me! His mustache scared me! And what the hell is he talking about milkshakes for if he's an oilman? I liked Johnny Depp as Sweeney Razorhands -- oh, no, wait, different movie -- and I turned Eastern Promises off after the second cut throat, so good luck Viggo Mortensen. I love Tommy Lee, but who the hell saw that movie? Heck, who can pronounce it? And Clooney is a real old-school movie star; heck, he must be good if they named the movie after his character!"

Check out the rest at Cinematical.

•  Anne Thompson writes up Saturday night's Art Directors Guild Awards. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Rachel Abramowitz checks in with Tom Wilkinson, enjoying his great winter romance with the screen. [The Envelope]

•  David Carr explains the fascination with Oscar. [The Carpetbagger]

•  David Denby hearts the Coen brothers. [New Yorker]

•  Sasha Stone points us to the AP's Oscar week countdown. [Awards Daily]

•  Tom O'Neil concocts some Best Actor odds, wonders if George Clooney can pull an upset (uh...no). [Gold Derby]

•  Kim Voynar takes a stab at predicting the Oscar outcome... [Cinematical]

•  ...and explains why the Best Foreign Language Film category is something of a, well...a joke this year. [Cinematical]

(A piece regarding last night's ACE awards will be on the way later in the afternoon.  Lots of fun, lots to discuss.  Sorry for the delay.)

•  With the Indie Spirits fast approaching, Anne Thompson points us to an interview with "I'm Not There" casting director Laura Rosenthal. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Sasha Stone takes in the IMDb polls to get a leg up on predicting who's going to win what. [Awards Daily]

•  Oh, but wait -- she finds another poll with an even bigger pool of participants from AOL. [Awards Daily]

•  Jeffrey Wells also digs that eleventh hour "Jesse James" ad for Casey Affleck. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Dennis Lim writes up the largely fresh crop of helmers nominated for Best Director this year. [The Envelope]

•  Now that yesterday's big wave of confirmed Oscar presenters has been revealed, Tom O'Neil ponders who will present what. [Gold Derby]

•  In case you missed it, David Carr looks into the field of lead actor contenders and thinks against the grain of the Day-Lewis foregone conclusion. [The Carpetbagger]

•  John Horn spends some quality time with Best Adapted Screenplay nominee Sarah Polley. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Meanwhile, source authors for much of the year's contenders get noe respect, says Daniel Ulin. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Mat Fraser isn't too happy with BAFTA brass feeling "uncomfortable" with screening Richard Butchins' "The Last American Freak Show." [Guardian]

•  From the weekend, David Gritten wonders whether Daniel Day-Lewis is a considerable talent or merely a ham. [Daily Telegraph]

Actor in a Leading Role Daniel Day-Lewis
Art Direction Jack Fisk (Art Direction); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration)
Cinematography Robert Elswit
Directing Paul Thomas Anderson
Film Editing Dylan Tichenor
Best Picture JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers
Sound Editing Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

(This wraps up our nominees series.  Hopefully it brought back some good memories for viewers and voters alike.  Four more days until polls close!)

There's a really fun feature Variety cranked out this week for the Eye on the Oscars: The Actor/Actress issue that gives some added voices to various contenders and their chances.  It's a why and why not scenario for each nominee's hopes, plus a critical quote for added measure on each.  Yours truly wrote up the supporting actors.

Oh, I suppose I shouldn't forget the lede, which is kind of a cross-section of performances that walked a fine line between getting charismatic characters just right and flying off the rails of histrionics in 2007.  Also written by your truly.

Meanwhile, there's a "down to the wire" showcase, featuring four stories to sooth your Oscar sweet tooth in the coming weeks.  Jennifer Hutt gets into theps taking on dialect coaches to assist in their award-nominted portrayals, while Justin Chang digs into next year's crop of contenders, believe it or not (more on that in a moment).

There's also an interesting take on the editorial style of "There Will Be Blood" from David Bordwell, as well as an interesting Iain Blair story about some unusual places where you might unexpectedly find an Oscar.

We all knew who the WGA winners were going to be, given the slip up with announcing the nominees in order of vote tally.  But I decide to hit the beach for the early part of this weekend, and BAFTA goes and shoots its accidental load all over the net.

Tom O'Neil is pointing us to BAFTA's website announcing the winners in advance, and Sasha Stone is doing the same.  "Atonement," of course, will be taking Best Film, while Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood") and Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose") took top acting honors.  The Coen brothers willt ake Best Director.

"Will take."  I sound like I'm Nostradamus.  But hey, apparently, it's true!

I love how devilish and downright evil Daniel Day-Lewis looks in this shot, which is currently being used for Oscar publicity here at Variety.  Look at that face:

Actor in a Leading Role  Tommy Lee Jones

Wading back out into the Oscar waters for post-nominations coverage is Variety's Features department, this weekend spotlighting the nominees in a few of the major races and a look at critical praise for nominated thesps.

Stu Levine has the lede on the former, running down the films in competition from the angle of wild card success.  Christine Champagne then steps in with a list of whys and why nots on the potential of the year's Best Picture contenders.

Also covered in similar fashion by various writers are the screenplay, directing, foreign language, animated feature and documentary races.  Yours truly will be on the supporting actor side of things with this next week, by the way.

Meanwhile, David Mermelstein kicks things off for the talent involved as he dives in from the perspective of foreign thesps opening U.S. doors with their Oscar bids.  I wrote a similar story last year for Variety with 2006's crop of foreign ladies in focus.  Awards success for foreign theps an interesting and ever-expanding trend.

Finally, there's all those love-fest quotes from various critics on the year's lead acting contenders.  Check it out.

Actor in a Leading Role  Johnny Depp
Art Direction  Dante Ferretti (Art Direction); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration)
Costume Design  Colleen Atwood

•  David Poland is none too pleased with The Hollywood Reporter's handling of that Sean Young thing.  I don't think it's worth this much fuss, but to each his own. [The Hot Blog]

•  Sasha Stone keys us in to yesterday's ballot mailing.  T-minus 19 days of voting and counting. [Awards Daily]

•  Tom O'Neil wonders if Ruby Dee can repeat her SAG success next month at the Kodak Theatre. [Gold Derby]

•  Michael Ordoña talks to the guys behind "Michael Clayton," George Clooney and Tony Gilroy. [The Envelope]

•  "Juno" becomes the first soundtrack to top the charts since "Dreamgirls." [Extended Play]

•  Andrew O'Hehir talks to "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" helmer Cristian Mungiu. [Salon]

•  Dennis Lim gets the director's ear as well. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Andrew Sarris thinks "Juno" might just beat out the competition in about a month's time. [New York Observer]

•  Lou Lumenick buys in, calls Stu VanAirsdale a "film snob" in the process.  Ouch. [New York Post]

•  Friendly joshing with Woody Harrelson and Javier Bardem. [People]

•  Robert Downey, Jr. wins Male Actor of the Year honors at ShoWest. [Variety]

•  "I Am Legend" and "Spider-Man 3" are among the nominees for this year's Epiphany Awards, honoring family and religious films.  Yes, family and religious films. [Variety]

I sort of stopped reading David Edelstein's New York Magazine blog, The Projectionist, because -- well -- he just didn't update enough.  But I came across his reaction to yesterday's Oscar nominations via Nathaniel Rogers' Film Experience Blog this morning.  Glad to see he's still generating some web content.

He spends plenty of time essentially re-reviewing "Juno" and calling the film's fans "duped" (no fan is he) before finally getting into some snubs he considers rather egregious. Frank Langella's performance in "Starting Out in the Evening," Ashley Judd's raw portrayal in "Bug" and the box office-challenged "Grace is Gone" are among them.

He starts out like so:

The announcement of the Academy Award nominations is always the saddest day of the year, not because the voters’ choices are lousy (although they tend to be) but because so many worthy movies suddenly lose their luster. As long as the potential for a nomination exists, attention will be paid. Once the field dwindles, audiences desert the also-rans faster than you can say “Fred Thompson.” And it’s on to DVD…

And wraps it up thusly:

What of the rest? The Academy went with the critics in giving No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood its love, but my hunch is that neither has many enthusiastic supporters among the voters and will split the vote anyway. Too grim, too weird. Atonement would have been perfect Oscar bait if it had been any good. Michael Clayton is terrific — but is it too conventional a conversion melodrama? Could Juno squeak through? Diablo Cody might be one doodle that can’t be undid.

Read the rest.

It seems that the only film to receive multiple acting nominations was "Michael Clayton," which garnered three citations for George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson.  That has to be a first, though I haven't dug into researching that notion.

•  Sasha Stone digs uop the International Film Music Award nominees.  Alexandre Desplat leads the pack. [Awards Daily]

•  Keeping things intresting during the Oscar season, The Envelope launches a nifty new Sundance section for full coverage. [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil wonders if the DGA's deal with the producers is the lifeline Gil Cates and the Oscar ceremony was banking on. [Gold Derby]

•  Noah Forrest cranks out a personal Oscar ballot full of unique and inspired choices. [Movie City News]

•  Nathaniel Rogers, meanwhile, has his own ballot for the acting contenders.  He says to hell with a supporting actor campaign on Casey Affleck's performance in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."  Lead all the way, baby. [The Film Experience]

•  New York Magazine is high on Imelda Staunton's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" turn (also showing up on Rogers' ballot). [Vulture]

•  David Poland talks with "Juno" star Ellen Page. [The Hot Blog]

Tom Hanks landed on the Late Show Tuesday night to talk "Charlie Wilson's War" with David Letterman.  The segment is split into two parts on YouTube, but here's the second half, which includes some politics discussion and the "Charlie" bits:



There was also this writers strike bit.  Hanks was slated to be on the show on a date that came amidst the strike, and the gag is he didn't realize the strike hadn't resolved itself.  Funny stuff:



Speaking of Letterman and the strike, I saw a picketer carrying a "ViaCON" sign in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater yesterday afternoon. Not overly clever, but "ouch" nontheless.

•  More awards talk from The Paper of Record as Dennis Lim digs into the audio details and silent eccentricities of the "No Country for Old Men" soundtrack... [New York Times]

•  ...Mark Harris spotlights the benefits of seamless editing... [New York Times]

•  ...and production designer Jack Fisk offers up some of his sketches for "There Will Be Blood." [New York Times]

•  John Horn gets into the box office of "Charlie Wilson's War" and the neccessity of a light-hearted stance to get it there. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Nathaniel Rogers takes in a conversation between Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson in NYC.  Kris Tapley is jealous.  So jealous. [The Film Experience]

•  Anne Thompson rounds up the awards announcements of the week, plus looks at Buzzmeter and Gurus o' Gold updates, with a dash of her own speculation thrown in for good measure. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Tom O'Neil has some DGA thoughts on tomorrow's announcement. [Gold Derby]

•  Edward Copeland surveys the hisory of Best Actor Oscar winners from worst to best. [Edward Copeland on Film]

•  Sasha Stone previews tonight's Critics Choice Awards. [Awards Daily]

Variety looks at the acting races this weekend with an Awards Season Focus: 10 stories, all built around the thespians.

To kick it off, Stu Levine surveys the dark horse Oscar hopefuls that grabbed Golden Globe nominations, James McAvoy ("Atonement") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Sweeney Todd") among them.  But it begs the question, and not just for the dark horses that already need all the publicity they can get: Will contenders simply be hurting themselves by not showing up?  The dress rehearsal for Oscar is always the acceptance speech at a Golden Globe ceremony, so...just sayin...

Anyway, continuing, Robert Hofler gets into comedic performances getting the shaft, while Peter Debruge takes a healthy look at critical consensus building for various portrayals.  Despite consensus, however, Robert Abele wonders whether old-timers like Frank Langella ("Starting Out in the Evening") or youthful hopefuls like Emile Hirsch ("Into the Wild") could step in and surprise a la Adrien Brody's 2002 victory for "The Pianist."

There's also a great piece from Sandee Angulo Chen about the modern abandonment of Method acting technique, but take a look at the full range of stories, there's plenty to chew on.

•  Tom O'Neil has a little inside scoop from yesterday's National Society of Film Critics awards voting. [Gold Derby]

•  Sasha Stone, meanwhile, perhaps jumps the gun by insisting "There Will Be Blood" is the Best Picture frontrunner (with nothing to go on but critical awards and one nomination in the guild arena thus far). [Awards Daily]

•  Speaking of which, Ed Pilkington sits down with "Blood" helmer Paul Thomas Anderson. [Guardian]

•  Jeffrey Wells talks "Sweeney Todd" with the "affable" Tim Burton. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  The Oscar season gets a hard look from the Gray Lady's critics, starting with a love letter to "Zodiac" from Manohla Dargis. [New York Times]
    
     Dargis' original review of the film dated Mar. 2, 2007. [New York Times]

•  A.O. Scott, meanwhile, digs back into Alexander Supertramp and "Into the Wild." [New York Times]
    
     Scott's original review of the film, dated Sept. 27, 2007. [New York Times]

•  And Stephen Holden goes "Across the Universe" one more time for good measure (thinking a little more outside the Oscar box than his colleagues). [New York Times]
    
     Holden's original review, dated Sept. 14, 2007. [New York Times]

•  David Carr, meanwhile, takes a look at the WGA strike's implications on Oscar. [New York Times]

•  And finally, Caryn James digs into the career of Best Actor hopeful George Clooney. [New York Times]

•  Some photos from thee Palm Springs International Film Festival, well underway. [The Envelope]

•  First looks at Demian Bichir in next year's Oscar hopefuls "The Argentine" and "Guerilla" (both from Steven Soderbergh). [Ain't It Cool News]

•  AMPAS narrows Best Visual Effects down to seven. [Variety]

•  BAFTA nominated five foreign language films. [Variety]

•  Sasha Stone calls Jodie Foster the year's "silent standout" in "The Brave One." [Awards Daily]

•  Tom O'Neil and Pete Hammond look at the lead acting contenders in a podcast. [Gold Derby]

•  David Poland sizes things up in the his first Oscar column of 2008, calls the season "one of the most legitimately competitive" seasons in a long time. [Movie City News]

•  Meanwhile, the Gurus o' Gold are back with scattered opinions. [Movie City News]

•  Nathaniel Rogers takes a look ahead to the Best Actress race of 2008. [The Film Experience]

•  Scott Bowles runs through the acting frontrunners, but gets a few journos on the record touting contenders not to be forgotten. [USA Today]

•  New York Magazine keeps its own FYC train moving along.  This week: Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz." [Vulture]

•  Matt Zoller Sitz plays psychiatrist to Paul Thomas Anderson's genius. [New York Times]

•  Oh, and in case your head has been in the sand, Huckabee and Obama won in Iowa. [MSNBC]

First and foremost, a happy and safe New Year to you all.  With 2008 coming in, oh, about fifteen and a half hours (for us west coasters, anyway), I thought it would be beneficial to offer up a list of important dates.  A lot of key events are slated for the next few weeks and the Oscar season will pretty much be full steam ahead from here on out.

The guilds are the focus of January, all of which are more likely to forecast the Oscar situation more than any critics group thus far, of that you can be sure.  Taking a measure of the guilds is key when it comes to gauging apparent disinterest ("Cold Mountain") or surprising unanimity for films that might have otherwise been considered far-fetched in the big race ("Capote," "Little Miss Sunshine").

Here's what to look for next month:

January 3: Five finalists for USC Scripter award announced.
January 7: BFCA hosts the Critics Choice Awards (Live on VH1).
January 7: VES nominees announced (Visual Effects Society).
January 7: ASC theatrical and TV nominees announced (American Society of Cinematographers)*
January 8: DGA feature film nominees announced (Directors Guild of America).
January 9: Winners of USC Scripter awards announced.
January 10: CAS nominees announced (Cinema Audio Society).
January 10: DGA documentary nominees announced.
January 10: WGA screen nominees announced (Writers Guild of America).
January 11: ACE nominees announced (American Cinema Editors).
January 11: ADG announces nominees (Art Directors Guild).
January 12: AMPAS nominations polls close, end of Oscar voting.
January 13: HFPA hosts Golden Globe Awards (Live on NBC...maybe).
January 14: PGA motion picture and long-form television nominees announced. (Producers Guild of America).
January 16: AMPAS announces seven bake-off finalists for Best Visual Effects category.
January 16: BAFTA nominations announced (British Academy).
January 18: CDG nomees announced (Costume Designers Guild).
January 22: Oscar nominees announced for the 80th Annual Academy Awards (Live on E!, et al).
January 26: DGA Awards.
January 27: SAG Awards (Live on TNT, except on west coast).

Whew.  Hope you're ready...

*This is listed as "week of" at the ASC's official website, so expect a date to be nailed down in due time.

The hunt for the Best Actor trophy has been an interesting one all year long.

At one point along the way, somebody out there floated the idea that nothing seemed strong enough to compete with Daniel Day-Lewis or Johnny Depp and that the race was likely between those two scenery-chewing performances.  That settled into the conventional wisdom for a spell, then George Clooney began to take down critics award after critics award, making him in that hunt to say the least.  But Clooney just won the Oscar two years ago for "Syriana," albeit a supporting trophy.  And then Depp couldn't manage a nomination from the guild that gave him a win in this category fur years ago for playing a pirate.

All of this is the long way of getting to today's conventional wisdom, which is that Daniel Day-Lewis has the win in the bag.  It's been nearly 20 years since "My Left Foot," the performance is one for the ages, the movie is burning up the critical scene like wildfire.  In a season determined to be elusive (does ANYONE have a convincing argument for one of the films in play taking Best Picture?), maybe we can all finally put this one to bed.

But...still...I've done this long enough to know that things aren't always as they seem.

•  Rainn Wilson will be stepping in for Sarah Silverman as host of the IFP Awards. [Variety]

•  Following in the footsteps of Nathaniel Rogers, David Carr offers up a list of contingency plans for a non-telecast Oscar ceremony. [The Carpetbagger]

•  Tom O'Neil becomes Oscar blogger #603 to quote A.O. Scott's "Sweeney Todd" review for all it's worth. [Gold Derby]

•  Slow news week much?  The LA Times offers up a gallery of Oscar winners turned blockbuster performers... [The Envelope]

•  ...and one covering the goings-on of Hollywood couples this year, of all things. [The Envelope]

•  Jeffrey Wells gives year's worst honors to "Are We Done Yet?" [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Ryan Pearson profiles "The Bucket List" star Jack Nicholson. [Associated Press]

•  Sasha Stone surveys the Best Picture field one...more...time, and keeps the ball rolling on Jamie Lynn Spears/"Juno."  Personally, I think that whole idea is a media creation. [Awards Daily]

•  David Poland offers one more Oscar column for 2007, somehow thinks the SAG-ignored "Sweeney Todd" is ahead of the SAG-embraced "Into the Wild." [Movie City News]

•  But at least he has his head in the right place regarding the fact that the Oscar ceremony simply won't shut down due to the strike. [The Hot Blog]

•  After this week's Vulture commentary on male nudity in films this year, Ramin Setoodeh offers up his list of 2007's top 10 nude scenes. [The Gold Digger]

•  Geoff Boucher cataches up with the brilliant Marjane Satrapi. [Los Angeles Times]

•  And Paul Brownfield catches up with the eccentric Julian Schnabel. [Los Angeles Times]

•  "There Will Be Blood" and "Zodiac" top a critics poll of the year's best. [indieWIRE]

•  Gerard Kennedy surveys the top contenders for Best Original Song. [In Contention]

•  Award Central begins its Golden Globes countdown in the Features department. [Variety]

•  Pete Hammond weighs in on SAG and the blows felt by "Atonement" and "Sweeney Todd" yesterday. [The Envelope]

•  But Tom O'Neil makes sure it's clear that the winner of Best Cast doesn't always forecast the winner of Best Picture. [Gold Derby]

•  And David Poland is bored with the announcement, as usual. [The Hot Blog]

•  Sasha Stone has a comparison chart for contending performances this Oscar season across three awards-giving bodies. [Awards Daily]

•  Gurus 2.0 go on the record again, pre-SAG, having hastily knocked "Into the Wild" down far too many pegs in response to the HFPA near shut-out. [Movie City News]

•  Nathaniel Rogers can't get "Sweeney" tunes out of his head. [The Film Experience]

•  Hank Rosenfeld draws out the similarities between Nicole Kidman's evil Ms. Coulter ("The Golden Compass") and conservative nut-job Ann Coulter. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Scott Bowles gets in some quality time with Daniel Day-Lewis. [USA Today]

•  And a final list of awards designations before the holiday, courtesy of yours truly. [In Contention]

The Screen Actors Guild announced its list of nominees in five cateogries today, and boy did Focus Features' "Atonement" take a major hit.  The Golden Globe nom leader showed a big goose egg from the actors, leaving some serious doubt for its Best Picture prospects this season.

On the other hand, Paramount Vantage's "Into the Wild" picked up a major head of steam after a weak HFPA showing by grabbing four nods, including a mention for Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.  The film led the pack with four nods altogether.

Surprises included Johnny Depp (and his film, "Sweeney Todd") being absent from the roster, the first major mention of the season for Ruby Dee's supporting performance in "American Gangster" and, in a total head-spinner, "3:10 to Yuma" picking up some attention for its enemble.

Regarding the latter, it seems all the hard work Ben Foster and Peter Fonda have been putting into Q&A appearances for the film, not to mention Christian Bale's latest wave of December publicity here in town, paid off in the long run.  I couldn't be happier as I've been waiting patiently for some awards notice for the film all season long.

Typically SAG gets the ladies' categories right when i t comes to forecasting Oscar, especially in the leading category.  So we might have those arenas sewn up.  The fellas' areas are a different bag of tricks, however, seeing past mentions for actors like Russel Crowe ("Cinderella Man"), Don Cheadle ("Crash") and James Garner ("The Notebook") that didn't carry over with AMPAS.  With that in mind, I would personally say the weak spots are Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Viggo Mortensen ("Eastern Promises") and Tommy Lee Jones ("No Country for Old Men").

Today's announcement is significant in that it is the first set of nominations to come from the industry rather than critics groups and journalists.  The guilds are where it's at where predicting Oscar is concerned, so stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.

The full list of nominees:

Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"

Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
Angelina Jolie, "A Mighty Heart"
Ellen Page, "Juno"

Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
Tommy Lee Jones, "No Country for Old Men"
Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"

Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"
Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"
Catherine Keener, "Into the Wild"
Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"

Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
"3:10 to Yuma"
"American Gangster"
"Hairspray"
"Into the Wild"
"No Country for Old Men"

Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
"300"
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"I Am Legend"
"The Kingdom"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

We're anxiously awaiting the SAG announcement, but in the meantime...

•  Hilton Als calls "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" a "visual essay about physical and spiritual isolation," compares the film to Elaine Scarry's "The Body in Pain."  Heavy. [The New Yorker]

•  Golden Globe nominee Tom Hanks apparently tells unruly and disrespectful MySpacers to go f*** themselves. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Todd Martens gets "Juno" composer Mateo Messina to answer a few queries about his experimental score and, of course, working in the shadow of Sonic Youth and the Kinks on the film's soundtrack. [Extended Play]

•  Sasha Stone thinks it might be time to take "Charlie Wilson's War" seriously again.  Eh. [Awards Daily]

•  Speaking of which, here's yet another pre-release piece on the film. [USA Today]

•  Ramin Satoodeh points us to David Ansen's mixed-bag top 10 list (and his own to boot). [The Gold Digger]

•  The strike gives David Cronenberg second thoughts about attending the Golden Globes -- he expects to be a no-show. [Gold Rush]

•  New York Magazine stretches for a story by indicating rash of recent pregnancies as perhaps detrimental to the awards success of "Juno." [Vulture]

•  BUT, they also start a cool "For Your Consideration" feature.  This week" McLovin' for Best Supporting Actor. [Vulture]