Saturday's somewhat surprising victory for "No Country for Old Men" at the Cinema Audio Society Awards has people wondering whether long-time nominees Kevin O'Connell and Greg P. Russell will perhaps miss yet again for their heavily detailed work on "Transformers."  As it turns out, "No Country" mixer Greg Orloff is hoping the duo can finally pull it out.

As Tom O'Neil reports:

"I'm rooting hard for Kevin to win," Orloff said. "Nothing would make me happier than to see him finally get his due. He's a great sound mixer. I've known Kevin for 25 years and worked with him on movies like 'Armageddon.' I know how good he is."

It's pretty hard NOT to root for them at this stage in the game.  This being their final collaboration together, it would just be a sweet end to a great ride.

There was also this bit regarding last year's sound mixer nastiness that I found interesting:

When "Dreamgirls" beat O'Connell's "Apocalypto" last year, the loss got mired in a tragic mess, I'm sure you'll recall. During the Oscar ceremony, O'Connell had to rush off to the hospital where his mother died in his arms. Meantime, backstage at the Kodak Theatre, "Dreamgirls" winner Michael Minkler trashed O'Connell to reporters, saying that it was time O'Connell went into another line of work. Minkler issued an apology later, but, as far as I know, the two have not spoken personally.

Last night they were both in the same ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, all eyes were on them, of course, but they didn't connect.

At one point before the ceremony started, I hooked up with Kevin to arrange plans with him to shoot a video chat later out in the lobby.

"Where are you sitting?" he asked me.

"Over there at that table next to Bill Condon," I replied, forgetting for a second about the "Dreamgirls" connection as I pointed to the film's director.

"Would you introduce me to Bill, please?" Kevin said. "I'd really like to meet him."

Suddenly, I froze. Yikes. "Sure," I said and led him over to Bill and made the introductions.

Bill jumped up from his seat with a big smile, shook Kevin's hand eagerly and said, "Kevin, I'd like to apologize to you on behalf of my team."

Kevin nodded graciously and they had a cheery chat. Later, when I needed someone to run camera while I did the video chat with Kevin, Bill volunteered.

Never knew there could be so much backstage drama at a little ole' mixers' shindig, did ya?