•  Jack Nicholson takes considerable umbrage with the length of the Oscar season. [Variety]

•  Jeffrey Wells digs the Oscar nominated short "I Met the Walrus." [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Sasha Stone digs into the Best Actress category, considered sewn up in some quarters, an open field in others. [Awards Daily]

•  Yours truly takes another stab at how the race might be shaping up in a few tricky categories. [In Contention]

•  Tom O'Neil has a chat with Pete Hammond, who thinks Tilda Swinton may pull off an upset.  I'm thinking the exact same thing (see link above). [Gold Derby]

•  Roger Ebert -- no shock here -- picks Ellen Page to win Best Actress. [Chicago Sun Times]

•  John Horn and Gina Piccalo take an interesting angle on the Oscar ceremony: the need to scramble a show together, now that the strike is kaput. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Donna Freydkin sits down with the chipper-as-always Saoirse Ronan. [USA Today]

David Carr bumped into "Michael Clayton" helmer and scribe Tony Gilroy just before the weekend's WGA Awards and grabbed some quality time to discuss the strike amidst all the kudos brou-ha-ha.  Here's what Gilroy had to say:

“I’m trying to get happy about it,” he said, just before the awards started. “As writers and directors, we have our nose in the tent for real for the first time. There are question marks about how it will be implemented, but there is no one who can argue that the strike was not necessary. We would never be in the position we are without it. Anybody who says the strike was a bad idea is dead wrong.”

And if you missed it earlier, here's a clip of Gilroy talking about the strike quite passionately:

According to CNBC and remarks from Disney CEO Michael Eisner, the writers strike is over.  In Eisner's own words:

"It's over," Eisner said. "They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general."

And...

"A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon," Eisner said, adding, "I know a deal's been made. I know it's over."

We'll see if that's the case, but the entire town has been expecting this to come down the pike this week.  Back to normal?  Again, we'll see.  I have the sinking feeling that writers will be the recipients of even LESS respect after these two months of stagnancy, but, yeah......we'll see.

•  Sasha Stone thinks "No Country for Old Men" is on the "Return of the King" trajectory.  Well, it's also kind of the "Brokeback Mountain" trajectory, so let's not do summersaults yet. [Awards Daily]

•  Jeffrey Wells responds to the "news" that the WGA Stike might be very close to a thing of the past. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Michael Cieply is hot on the case at the Gray Lady. [New York Times]

•  Tom O'Neil has the skinny on who's skipping Oscar's nominees luncheon. [Gold Derby]

•  Breaking down one of the visual effects shots from "Transformers." [The Envelope]

"The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Michael Clayton" scribe Tony Gilroy is one of the coolest cats I've had the pleasure to speak with this Oscar season.  Always quick with an answer or thought, but never one that reads as unconsidered, he's one of the sharper tools in the shed to say the least.  Artistically, his attention to precision can easily be found in "Clayton," which wrangled 7 Oscar nominations Tuesday, including two for Gilroy himself (for writing and directing).

I stumbled across this clip yesterday of Gilroy in New York talking about the rights of writers and the issues presented in this season's now infamous WGA strike.  Forgive me if it has been posted elsewhere before, but this is the first I've seen of it.  It's great to see him get so fired up about the issue and clearly have an educated understanding of it, rather than toeing the party line, so to speak, without anything substantial to add to the conversation.

Gina Piccalo and Robert Welkos do a good enough job of rounding up the strike/Oscar situation as it is now in today's LA Times.  The overwhelming tone from sources on the story is one of anticipation of the usual, planes and hotels being booked like normal, plans remaining in place, etc.  Even telecast producer Gil Cates wheels out the same old quote he offered a month an a half ago, with four weeks shaved off this time:

"I don't want to say 'read my lips,' but it's not going to be canceled," said Cates, who also chaired the Directors Guild of America's negotiating committee. "It's a big moment for the town. The granddaddy of all the shows. . . . The strike could be settled by then. Who knows? . . . Four weeks is a long way off."

Earlier in the story:

The tentative settlement reached this week between the Directors Guild and producers bolstered hopes that talks would resume in the writers strike, but it wasn't enough to relieve the queasy reality settling on Hollywood that the Academy Awards may go the way of the celebrity-free ratings downer that was Sunday's Golden Globes.

However, Gilbert Cates, producer of the award telecast, remains adamant that on Feb. 24 there will be a red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood and an Oscar telecast on ABC despite the Writers Guild of America strike and the threat of a boycott by George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and the rest of the Screen Actors Guild. He hinted that he might not need actors onstage.

"There are enough clips in 80 years of Oscar history to make up a very entertaining show," Cates said in an interview Friday with The Times. "We'd have a lot of people on stage." He declined to give further details but added, "I just hope that the actors are there. I pray that the actors are there. I'm planning that the actors are there."

Read the rest.

In his latest Notes on a Season column at The Envelope, Pete Hammond has really dug into the matter of AMPAS president Sid Ganis' strategy (along with telecast producer Gil Cates) refraining from even asking the WGA for a waiver to benefit the Oscar show.  Juicy stuff there, I gotta say.

Hammond also gets into the foreign film fiasco of this week, which left Romanian entry "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" flapping in the wind along with French entry "Persepolis."  He wrangled a quote from one member of the comittee that makes you want to jump off a building:

We spoke with three foreign language committee members to get the other side, and all were perplexed by the outcry at their choices.

"I voted for Austria, Canada, Italy and Poland among the films that made the final list, and I saw over 50 movies," one voter who has been on the committee since 1993 told us. "I did not like '4 Months.' I thought it was depressing. I've lived through the whole abortion thing. I didn't get anything out of it."

This same voter gave low scores to "City of God" [also nixed early on by the committee] as well saying, "I thought it was so violent. Who needs to watch 11-year-old kids killing people?"

Eesh...

•  "Lust, Caution" and "Warlords" tops list of Asian Film Award nominations. [Variety]

•  Not Oscar related, but let us all take a moment to thank Warner Bros. for letting "Justice League" die a silent death.  Boy was THAT giving me an icky feeling inside. [Variety]

•  Anne Thompson responds to the BAFTA nominations, wonders whether "Atonement" can manage peripheral nods with the Academy, even though Best Picture is looking like a tough sell. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  But Jeffrey Wells wants to make sure you realize the film is "dead." [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  David Thompson, meanwhile, thinks the coast is clear for director Joe Wright.  Back and forth, back and forth. [Guardian]

•  The Times of London wonders if the BAFTAs could one-up the Oscars for once, given the hammer-lock AMPAS is in. [Times Online]

•  But, mind you, the show will go on.  In what capacity, well...we'll see. [Variety]

•  But if it's business as usual, the ceremony WILL BE PICKETED. [Scribe Vibe]

•  Scott Foundas is pretty pissed about that AMPAS snub of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days."  But "Academy Awards infamy" is typically reaching. [LA Weekly]

•  So is Nancy Vialatte. [Hollywood Wiretap]

•  Tom O'Neil rounds up a provocative list of thesps nominated for the "wrong" performance. [Gold Derby]

•  The Gurus o' Gold check int, post-Globes and, assumably, for the final time before next week's Oscar nominations announcement. [Movie City News]

•  New York Magazine wants the Academy to remember "The Host" in the Best Picture category. [Vulture]

•  New York Magazine takes the horns to Miramax's campaign for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" campaign... [Vulture]

•  ...and advocates Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance in "Zodiac." [Vulture]

•  Speaking of "Zodiac," Jeffrey Wells responds to yesterday's WGA awards announcement, which included James Vanderbuilt's adaptation. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  The WGA calls off its awards show, hours after rnominating screen contenders. [Variety]

•  Meanwhile, the Guild continues to make side deals with distributors. [New York Times]

•  Tom Hanks is kind of over it all. [The Envelope]

•  Oh, and the Beverly Hilton is in a pickle to say the least. [The Envelope]

•  Sasha Stone previews the ACE awards announcement. [Awards Daily]

•  Todd Martens ponders the Best Original Song race at the Golden Globes. [Extended Play]

•  Tom O'Neil tries his hand at hacking the WGA webmasters' intentions with the order in which yesterday's nominees were announced. [Gold Derby]

•  David Poland is on the same path, and also reports (sourceless, as usual) that many of the "snubbed" didn't send WGA screeners to members. [The Hot Blog]

•  He also inexplicably keeps "Into the Wild" out of his list of predicted Best Picture nominees. [Movie City News]

•  Lou Lumenick talks the Oscar season with O'Neil. [New York Post]

The only thing moderately surprising about today's WGA nominations is the inclusion of "Zodiac" in the field of adapted scripts.  Sure, the James Vanderbuilt adaptation of the Robert Graysmith novel received a nomination for the USC Scripter prize, but I felt that might have been more attributed to Graysmith than the actual script itself, which really has no structure to speak of and wouldn't seem the "typical" choice for this guild.  But, in any case, this reveals that industry support is indeed there.

The presence of "Knocked Up" in the original ranks should come as a shock to no one.  Judd Apatow was cited for his work two years ago on "The 40 Year Old Virgin" by the guild.  I don't expect this to translate to Oscar, however, given the WGA's penchant for recognizing comedies that AMPAS is fine with ignoring ("Stranger Than Fiction," "Thank You for Smoking," "Garden State," "Mean Girls,""Bend It Like Beckham," "The Station Agent," "Best in Show," "High Fidelity," the list goes on and on).

Otherwise, it was buisness as usual.  "Into the Wild" and "No Country for Old Men" remain the standouts during the precursor season that matters, as "There Will Be Blood" continues to make a case for itself as a Best Picture contender.  That, frankly, is shocking to me.  And the potential is all too possible for Scott Rudin to be his own worst enemy this season, because if both "No Country" and "Blood" make Oscar's final five, I could tell you a day-long story about how they will cancel each other out in the voting process.  Which means things ought to be looking even better for "Wild" -- but that's a whole other conversation.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is also still in the thick of the year's competition, grabbing two makjor guild mentions this week, while "Atonement" has officially sunk like the heaviest stone one could have imagined.  At this point, the only hope for Joe Wright's film is the entire BAFTA/AMPAS crossover contingent to stick it in the #1 spot on their ballots.  Then, and only then, does it seem to have a prayer of finding a Best Picture nomination.

Ah, the malleability of an Oscar season.

•  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]

We tend to steer clear of politics around these parts.  Ted Johnson does a fine job of rounding it all up for us over at Wilshire and Washington, but this one-liner from John Bowman in an AP story on returning late night talk shows made me laugh out loud:

"Huckabee claims he didn't know ['The Tonight Show' didn't have a WGA waiver],” chief union negotiator John Bowman said.  "I don’t know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."

Yes, the talk shows came back last night, though no Oscar hopefuls were in sight.  Politics was higher on the agenda, as Hilary Clinton taped an intro for Letterman while Mike Hucakbee, as mentioned, took to Jay Leno's stage.

Lots of strike jokes, some inspired, many lame and derivative.  Letterman's "Top 10 List of Writers' Demands" was capped with a hardy-har "Producers should immediately remove their heads from their asses," while Leno took some questions from his audience in the absence of writers, which was actually quite effective and refreshingly out of the ordinary, even if necessarily so.

Letterman mentioned that the prospect of awards show cancellations in the wake of the strike was "something good" to have come of all of this.  An easy target, but there we are.  Leno, meanwhile: "For those of you who don't know, the awards season here in Hollywood lasts from January 1st through December 31st every year."

Letterman and Conan O'Brien (who floundered considerably) sported beards and Leno wrote his own jokes for the monologue.

Ellen Page lands at Letterman tomorrow night for a key "Juno" appearance.

•  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]

I'm late to the table on this one, but Nathaniel Rogers has an intriguing list of 5 ways to make the Oscars entertaining without the use of film clips.

As you may have heard, the WGA is not allowing old film clips to be showcased at this year's Oscar and Golden Globes ceremonies.  The upside is we won't have to sit through endless montages that amount to nothing.  The downside is we'll have less bathroom breaks during the 10-hour extravaganza.

My favorite of Nathaniel's cheeky suggestions:

"Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There) forced on stage to impersonate all of her fellow supporting actress nominees. Can she “do” Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) as well as she apes Dylan & Hepburn? Would capturing the precocious bad seed Saorsie Ronan (Atonement) finally prove too much for her estimable technique? If she pulls it off can they hand her 6 Oscars on the spot. One for each mimicry job + Bob Dylan."