It begins!!

Hooray! It's Awards Season again, and the countdown to the Oscars begins tomorrow when the Golden Globes are announced. Gotta say, this isn’t as interesting a year as the last one, partly because I haven’t seen the majority of the films up for nomination, but mostly because there’s going to be about sixty five percent less The Clooney. But he will be presenting at the Oscars (as is tradition, the previous years winner of Best Supporting Actor will present Best Supporting Actress, so Jennifer Hudson from Dreamgirls should just start practicing her best Holy Crap The Clooney Just Kissed Me On The Cheek And You Expect Me To Give A Frakkin’ Speech??!! face ready now).

And the nominations are :

Film:
Best Picture Drama is a toss up between Babel and The Departed. Entirely my own fault that I haven’t seen them because they’ve both been released here already, but Babel is on the list in the next few weeks and The Departed is Scorsese and I find it hard to love that man. My pick : The Departed because those weirdos at the Hollywood Foreign Press probably think that it’s Scorsese’s Time. Which actually means it might be Babel and Scorsese will get Best Director. The only other potential here is Little Children, but not really.

Comedy/Musical isn’t likely to be anything else but the critically acclaimed Dreamgirls which Fosse and I are booked in to see Thursday night when it opens. The whole Beyonce factor aside, I’ve only read one damning review and it is getting freaking awesome press – mostly for Jennifer Hudson, but still, good award buzz press is good award buzz press. But I adored the hell out of Little Miss Sunshine and would LOVE it to surprise everyone and steal the show.

Actor/Actress in Drama? You’re looking at Forest Whitaker for The Last King Of Scotland and Helen Mirren for The Queen. Those two are freaking going to win everything this year. Just watch.

Actor/Actress in Comedy? Tougher. Meryl Streep should win for The Devil Wears Prada just ‘cause she’s Meryl and freaking awe inspiringly good in that film. The guys are a strange mix, I mean I love Johnny Depp but why is he nominated for Pirates Two? And Will Ferrell looks great in Stranger Than Fiction but I think Sacha Baron Cohen might get this one for Borat, which means he won’t get nominated for an Oscar but he’ll most likely score an invite to the ceremony (hell, maybe he’ll get to present) which means that against all odds, Isla Fisher from Home and Away will be at the Academy Awards this year. Probably looking slammin’ but still –

ISLA FISHER. Academy Awards.

Supporting Roles might look something like this : Ben Affleck for Hollywoodland or Jack Nicholson for The Departed (which means, instead of a million Clooney jokes, we’ll get a million Nicholson Is A Stud jokes which makes me sad because I thought we’d moved beyond that and crowned Clooney the new Playboy Of All He Surveys).

And none of the other women nominated for Supporting Actress will come anywhere near beating Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls. The ex-American Idol contestant is this years Supporting Sure Thing.

Television :

Best Drama : Ooooh, its another mixed bag this year and this is where the Foreign Press sometimes goes waaaaaaaaaay off the rails and surprises everyone. For instance, I can’t believe that Grey’s Anatomy is nominated for Best Drama, no really it is, when it is clearly not a) a drama and b) the best. It is certainly enjoyable soapy television and nothing made me cry like Denny’s death and Izzy’s breakdown but still, it's Days Of Our Medical Lives. Dexter should be here instead. Battlestar Galactica should be here instead, Veronica Mars, The Soprano's, House or freaking DEADWOOD should be here, but no. That being said, I think Heroes or 24 will win this one.

Best Comedy : new show Ugly Betty might just upset The Office. This is actually a great category (Desperate Housewives aside) because the other nominees Weeds and Entourage are also great shows and as long as the incredibly terrible Season Two of Housewives doesn’t take this, I’ll be happy.

Actor :
Comedy. Well, although it would really be nice to see Zach Braff win for freaking once, I think Tony Shalhoub might win this one again for Monk. Although Alec Baldwin is apparently BRILLIANT in 30 Rock, Steve Carrell is amazing in The Office and Jason Lee is the funniest he’s ever been in My Name Is Earl. Crapshoot, but my money’s on Shalhoub, they love him.

Drama. If Michael C Hall doesn’t win for his amazingly great portrayal of Dexter, the serial killing serial killer (seriously brilliant television and he is so very very verrrrrrry good in it. Also hot. Yeah, who knew?), then the only consolation will be if Hugh Laurie takes it instead for House. If Patrick Dempsey wins for Grey’s I will put my foot through the television.

Actress :
Comedy. I love Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds and I usually can’t stand her, so she’s doing something right as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know who will win this one, it might be America Ferrera from Ugly Betty or Felicity Huffman for Housewives . . . consider this one up in the air.

Drama. Hollywood Foreign Press?? Where is my Veronica Mars love? Where is Kirsten Bell’s nomination you bastards, where?? Kirsten Bell should win this . . . but seeing as she isn’t nominated, I’ll have to go with Edie Falco for The Soprano’s or Patricia Arquette for Medium. Ellen Pompeo can take her squinty annoying face back to the set of Grey’s Anatomy and have a consolatory drink with Dempsey. (Having said that, I think they might be writing Pompeo’s character on Grey’s to actually be that annoying so potentially she's doing a brilliant job and I just can’t see it because she bugs me so very much.)

The Supporting kudo’s for the GG’s are always hell to pick because the Supporting category encompasses not only both the Drama and Comedy but also Mini-series and TV Movie all in one. Actor could be either Masi Oka in Heroes (who is great and funny) or The Piv, Jeremy Piven for Entourage in which he is all things brilliant and stellar, seriously Ari Gold is the character Piven was born to play. He eats up that role with a big ol’ spoon and I don’t mind that it gets all over his chin and in his hair a little and down his shirt . . . he is great.

I would LOVE to see Sarah Paulson from Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip win her category, not only because it has been slammed in the press for not rating well and Aaron Sorkin has been accused of being a smug, lefty snob who hates reality tv and the internet and should just lighten the hell up (I love him, keep doing what you’re doing Aaron and if they don’t give you a second season then they can just bite me) but also because she’s actually pretty damn good. If you haven’t seen any of it, when it does get on Australian tv and gets played for two episodes before being unceremoniously dumped in summer viewing at eleven thirty, try and stick with it because Matthew Perry proves he is not in any way Chandler Bing any more, Brad Whitford gives the most amazingly romantic speech to Amanda Peet, Nate Corddry is single-handedly the MOST ADORABLE thing I’ve seen on tv in MANY MANY years (especially when he’s wearing a lobster costume) and Sarah Paulson’s Holly Hunter impersonation is so freaking spot on, it is scary. She should win purely for that. But Katherine Heigl will probably win for Grey’s Anatomy – the ONLY Grey’s win I will concede – because the whole Denny thing was great and she looked amazing in that pink dress bawling her eyes out and made me cry so much I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel.

GOD, I love this time of year . . . it makes me giddy . . .