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.

Those of you who watched "Shootout" on AMC Sunday mornings are familiar enough with our own Peter Bart and his co-host, producer Peter Guber.  You may, then, have come across the show's Oscar nominees special from earlier this month, which featured interviews with George Clooney, Julian Schnabel, Laura Linney, Marion Cotillard, Hal Holbrook and Brad Bird.

Here's a look at Clooney discussing this year's crop and some differences between the current filmmaking climate and the "glory days" when Bart was hustling material around town:




And Julian Schnabel, yet again talking about his personal fear of being locked into his body and reasons for making "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."  But for me, it never gets old:



There is plenty more to chew on. Give it a look.

Actress in a Leading Role Laura Linney
Writing (Original Screenplay) Tamara Jenkins

Okay, well, one fact.  First and foremost, I love the girls and guys at USA Today.  The "McPaper" jab in the headline here is more in friendly jest, believe me.  But with that out of the way, two items in Gary Strauss' Oscar reactions piece bother me:

The pundits quoted are David Poland (ubiquitous as always), Scott Feinberg and Andy Scott.

First, Scott indicates that Laura Linney "was completely off the radar" for her performance in Tamara Jenkins' "The Savages."  This is hardly the case, and is kind of indicative of how beneficial it can be to actually be in the pipeline out here.  Linney worked this film hand-in-hand with Jenkins for months...hard.  If someone was going to miss, it was going to be Linney who took the spot.  This wasn't some out-of-nowhere nomination like Tommy Lee Jones' "In the Valley of Elah" performance, which had clearly run out of steam months before the season got into full swing.  But this entire point is subjective in some ways, so it gets a pass.  Maybe I'm just being feisty.

Second, sticking with the lead actress category, Feinberg is quoted as saying "We knew Angelina was a fringe contender, and Keira wasn't nominated last year for a bigger role in Pride & Prejudice."  Well he's half right (though arguably so) and half wrong.  Obviously, Ms. Knightley did in fact receive a nomination for Joe Wright's "Pride & Prejudice," which released in 2005, not "last year."

I understand Strauss was under a deadline here, but fact-checking is fact checking, no?  I was supposed to call him up and participate, but I was so clogged with the day's twisted events that I never got around to returning.  Sorry to see some of these folks send up some bogus info for publication under his byline, but that's the way it goes sometimes, I guess.

Erik Childress' "Oscar Eye" column has the full list of Chicago Film Critics nominations mixed in with his tally of who's won what.  You have to kind of pick things out, but the full list is there.

"No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" continue to show up, but the group went out of its way to personally champion "Once" in more than a few areas, including Best Picture.

Casey Affleck popped up again for his supporting turn in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," while Viggo Mortensen found some Best Actor love for his work in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises."  Frank Langella also made another appearance in the lead field for "Starting Out in the Evening."

Another key contender showing up in the nominations is "Zodiac," which managed citations for Best Director (david Fincher) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

"Michael Clayton" led the way with seven nominations.  "Blood" wasn't far behind with six.  Nothing for "The Kite Runner" or "Sweeney Todd."

Best Picture
"Into the Wild"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Once"
"There Will Be Blood"

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"
David Fincher, "Zodiac"
Jason Reitman, "Juno"

Best Actor
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Frank Langella, "Starting Out in the Evening"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"

Best Actress
Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
Angelina Jolie, "A Mighty Heart"
Laura Linney, "The Savages"
Ellen Page, "Juno"

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"
Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchet, "I'm Not There"
Jennifer Jason Leigh, "Margot at the Wedding"
Leslie Mann, "Knocked Up"
Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"

Best Adapted Screenplay
"Atonement"
"Into the Wild"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"
"Zodiac"

Best Original Screenplay
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
"Juno"
"Michael Clayton"
"Ratatouille"
"The Savages"

Best Cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
"Atonement"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"

Best Score
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
"Atonement"
"Lust, Caution"
"Once"
"There Will Be Blood"

Best Animated Feature
"Beowulf"
"Meet the Robinsons"
"Persepolis"
"Ratatouille"
"The Simpsons Movie"

Best Foreign Film
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"La Vie en Rose"
"Lust, Caution"
"The Orphanage"

Best Documentary
"Darfur Now"
"The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"
"Lake of Fire"
"No End in Sight"
"Sicko"

Promising Director
Ben Affleck, "Gone Baby Gone"
John Carney, "Once"
Craig Gillespie, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"
Sarah Polley, "Away from Her"

Promising Performer
Nikki Blonsky, "Hairspray"
Michael Cera, "Juno"/"Superbad"
Glen Hansard, "Once"
Carice van Houten, "Black Book"
Tang Wei, "Lust, Caution"

Tamara Jenkins' "The Savages" opened to raves across the board today, judging from the solid 91% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a 92% Cream of the Crop collective assessment.  This shower of praise keeps the question on the table: Will the film's familial themes appeal to the Academy enough to generate legitimate Best Picture potential?

"The Savages" has been visible for nearly a year since its bow in Sundance back in January.  The film arguably would have been better served as a surprise rather than Fox Searchlight unveiling it so early (they went into the fest with the film in hand, it wasn't a purchased commodity).  Then again, Sundance was the perfect environment for this little ditty and what's done is done.  Moot point.

The studio now finds itself in a situation similar to Paramount Vantage: Which film to highlight?  The Buzzmeter has finally caught up to the potential of "Juno" in the big race, and when that film opens next month, the critical community will likely go as ga-ga as they have for "Savages."  Searchlight has sent screeners of each of their titles to the memberships of various entities.  And while it's foolish to think studios think in the "one film, one campaign" frame of mind, it's also naive to think a decision doesn't need to be made.

Whatever the case, "The Savages" rules the day for now.