The Little Golden Men

The 2008 Academy Awards are closing in and unless you're my grandma who's been diligently following the nominations and celebrity news build-up of the season, it's possible that you've missed a few things along the way.

This year Jon Stewart, best known for his work on the The Daily Show, will be making his second appearance as the host of the awards show and he's looking forward to number 80.

“I’m thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time’s a charm,” said Stewart in an interview with the Oscars people.

The list of people to present the little gold men includes Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad), Steve Carell (The Office, Dan in Real Life) and Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There, Elizabeth: The Golden Age). Most of the actors scheduled to present are on the "A-List," except for maybe Amy Adams, who is someone I've never heard of until I googled her just now.

While browsing through the Academy Awards Web site, I was kind of disappointed to see the list of performers at the show. It's like they went out of their way to pick performances from movies that will never win awards. For example, songs from Enchanted and August Rush are on the bill. However, Kristin Chenoweth, or Olive Snook from Pushing Daisies will sing and we at More Like A Six-Foot Turkey are okay with Pushing Daisies. Actually we’re still recovering from the shock over no more episodes ‘til next fall.

And finally, the nominees are:

Names like George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Daniel Day-Lewis are nominated for their work as leading roles in Michael Clayton, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and There Will Be Blood respectively. It was pleasant too see Hal Holbrook's name in the list for the nominees for best supporting actor for Into the Wild, which is still probably playing at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

Best actress in a leading role nominations include Cate Blanchett, Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard. Even though everyone I know ho saw Juno said it wasn't the greatest thing ever and earned way too much hype, it's getting somewhere with these Academy Awards people.

For the best motion picture of the year:

Juno - Ellen Page, Michael Cera and Jason Bateman
Atonement - Saoirse Ronan and James McAvoy, Kiera Knightly
Michael Clayton - Tim Wilkinson, George Clooney,
No Country for Old Men - Tommy Lee Jones ans Javier Bardem
There Will Be Blood - Daniel Day-Lewis

Miscellaneous: Mark will be happy to know that the armed polar bears in The Golden Compass have the potential to earn the award for achievement in art direction.

Web:
Oscar.com
Oscars.org