The last Guru gang-up is here... Few surprises, lots of agreement and the locks, shocks and surprises that would rock. The Charts Last Week's Closing Ballots

20 Weeks To Oscar
One More For The Road
by David Poland

The Oscars are not a science… they aren't brain surgery… they aren't The Truth. They are a very large variation on a kid's sporting event. Everyone who is on the team gets to play. You can root for your kid, but don't stick your leg out into the field of play to trip an opposing player or curse at the other kids on your child's team for not playing hard enough. It would be naïve not to recognize that there is a whole industry built up around this event. God knows MCN benefits from it. But the spirit gets lost too easily and too often. Discourse has become dis' coarse… and that is a loss for everyone.

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
Domino
by Doug Pratt

" I'm scared of failure. I'm scared I'm not going to satisfy not just myself, but satisfy my film family, my larger family. I want people to like what I do, and I'm scared that I'm going to fail in doing that. So that's why every morning when I wake up, I'm always bolt upright 5 minutes before the alarm clock, whether I've had 1 hour's sleep, 2 hours' sleep or 10 hours' sleep-I don't get 10 hours' sleep, my max is about 5-I'm always bolt upright in fear, in fear of failure, in fear of not actually making my mark, in fear I haven't been able to execute what I wanted to do creatively as good as I could have done it. I think it's healthy to have that fear. I wake up with that same fear whether I'm doing a commercial or whether I'm doing a major movie, and I think my fear with Domino was that I kept pushing the boundaries in terms of what could be perceived as 'too rock 'n roll' and then being silly."

It's Oscartown, Jake
The Close Races
As The Race Closes
by Kristopher Tapley

One more column before the Oscars come and go and the only thing I can think of that is worthy of discussion this late in the game is the close races.

One of the first categories of the night will answer a heated question right off the bat. Will the Academy see fit to honor George Clooney for his magnificent year with a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Syriana, or will they be overwhelmed with the desire to make up for two snubs in a row and give the award to Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man

Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

City of God and Amores Perros are the most recognizable examples of the trend, but also representative are such merciless treatises as Our Lady of the Assassins, Sweet Sixteen, the little-seen Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (from Argentine, it recently was released here on DVD by Facets Video) and the woefully under-screened, On the Outs. While vastly different from each other, newcomers Tsotsi and Dirty fit the same mold of pictures fueled by heartless violence, pulsating variations of American hip-hop music, nearly indecipherable street patois and a refusal by their directors to offer easy solutions or Hollywood endings.

MCN DVD Wrap-Up
Rent

It took 10 years for Rent to make the leap from Broadway to Hollywood, but only a month to disappear from the megaplexes. More >>

MCN Review: If Rent: The Movie was cut by 30 minutes, since somehow, on film, the rent battle becomes truly uninteresting, it might have been really terrific.

Pride, Unprejudiced: Chris Columbus says Rent is the movie he was born to make.

Plus: Wallace and Gromit, Domino, North Country, Rent, Zathura, All The President's Men, Emmanuel's Gift, Grey's Anatomy, The Journey, Just Like Heaven, La Bete Humaine, Midnight Cowboy, MirrorMask, Nine Lives, The Pretender, Proof, Significant Others, The Thing About My Folks, The Dick Cavett Show

Five short documentaries about the number 12… What did you want to be when you were 12? Did you ever see a 12-toed cat? People—and animals—will always surprise you.

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 12:40 am

The Guardian Offers A Cranky Neil Gaiman Followed By A Cranky JG Ballard

The Man, Sadly, Puts Her Money Down On That Classic Critics' Sucker Bet Of Using Oscar And Box Office To Mirror The State Of The Art

The Paper Of Record Takes A Shot At Walk The Line... Eve Without An Oscar Angle

The Ambition Of Mr Mudd Malkovich

Arriving At The Red Carpet In A Green Hybrid

Trying To Interview Sarah Silverman Before She Hosts The Indie Spirits Can Be Hard On Your Balls

John Travolta Follows In Harvey Fierstein's Footsteps As Hairspray's Edna Turnblad

LA Weekly Tries To Make A Show Business Impact Beyond The Normal Crowd Looking For Massages With Happy Endings By Giving Nikki Finke A Blog... Which She Doesn't Want To Call A Blog... But Hey, It's Better Than Podcasting

The Tyler Perry Parade
White America Discovers The Modern Chitlin Circuit Of Live Black Theater
And - TP's Heading For Television And He's Creating A Brand New Producing And Delivery Concept

Garrett Scott, Co-Director Of Operation Dreamland, Passes Away At The Tragic Age Of 37

The Stinkers Of 2005

After Kicking Roger Ebert For Two Weeks For Picking Crash To Win, The Bagger Puts On The Clown Shoes And Carjacks His Original Horse

Colleen Atwood's Oscar Week Diary

Pevere Goes To Towne.... Robert Towne

Peter Howell's Will & Should Oscar List

With The Skill Of An Award Winning Photoshop Artist & The Generosity Of Santa, Anne Thompson Lays Out What Each Player In The Universal/ DreamWorks/ Paramount Dance Wants You To Think Happened And Will Happen

Tom Hanks Gives Advice To Oscar Nominees In A How-To Make The Perfect (Or At Least Within The Time LImit) Speech Video

Cannibalism Is One Thing, But He Draws The Line At Being Part Of A Horror Film

Ben Karlin... The Man Behind Jon Stewart

The Smoking Gun Goes Hollywood With A Series Of Budgets For Shyamalan Movies

Is That A Prod In Your Hand Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?
The American Humane Association Brands Brokeback Mountain A Sheep Abuser

Oscar Nominee Joyeux Noel Uses The Gunner Palace Argument... Gets CARA To Flop An R To A PG-13

Shortly Following The Publicists Guild Awards Walk The Line, Fox Awards Searchlight's Head Of Publicity Breena Camden Jeff Godsick's HOP Slot At The Big Studio (He's Moving Further Up Into More Of a Marketing Role)... Who Will Replace Breena At P-Rice's Expanding Den? Unknown As Of Now

Ego, Ego, Ego, Money, Ego, Money, Ego, Ego ... Crash!!!

T.K. Arnold Offers Some Perspective On Direct-To-DVD Before Offering "News" On Stuart Little 2: This One May Make Money Like Teh FIrst One Did

E! Attempts To Cross Breed Its Oscar Carpet Content

brandchannel's 2005 Product Placement Awards

The "Source Material Derby" - Worthless As News... Interesting Fodder

Fox Rolls Out An Integrated Early Home Delivery Experiment For FX TV Programming Via The News Corp Owned DirecTV

Whedon Qs & As With Empire

NY Post Horrorscopes Out The Oscars

Oliver's Artful Dodger, Jack Wild, Dies At 53

A Fight Over The Parts That Make The Camera Crew Whole

The Hard Right Leaning "Israel Project" Continues To Beat The Drum Against Paradise Now

Making The Case For Keira Knightley

Meanwhile, Crash Producer Bob Yari Files Suit Against The PGA And The Academy On Denial Of His Producer Credit

Update (4:33p) - The Academy Has Confirmed Its Ruling That Crash's Original Song Nominee, "In The Deep," Is Not In Any Way At Issue And Is Qualified For Its Nomination And Win, If It So Happens On Sunday
Earlier - The Oscar Nominated Song From Crash Is In Another, Undistributed Film Called The Civilization Of Maxwell Bright.... Sources Tell MCN That The Academy Is Now Investigating And Considering Disqualification, Though It Is Unclear Whether Any Academy Rule Has Been Broken

The Woz Cain't Quit Focus Features

The Family Media Guide Says Crash And Munich Are The Most Problematic Oscar Nominees... Though Brokeback Mountain Does Take The Sex Cake

The San Diego Union Tribune Looks At San Diego Native Michelle Williams

The Attacks On Paradise Now Ramp Up, Too Late To Have Any Effect, And In A Way That Grossly Exaggerates The Rage Against The Oscar Nominee

Quiz of the Day
How Well Do You Know Your Oscar Fashion?

Peter Stomare Crushes The Ebonic Language For Volkswagon In The Funniest New Ad Not Involving A Creepy Mask Since The Super Bowl

By The Way... The Oscar Polls Are Closed...

An Ambitious Film Festival Thais One On

Stout Heart, Julian Fellowes

The Origin Of The Oscar Species
Who Taught Bennett Miller & Danny Futterman?

Stu Chats With Bob Berney About The Endanged Domestic Market For Foreign Films
And - How Can Indie Filmmakers Make A Buck?

Sony's Blu-Ray Hi-Def DVD Announces A Release Date... May 23... But Perhaps Even More Significantly, Most Titles Are Aimed At The Geek Crowd And Not At Adults

Oh My, How Things Change...
After Screen Gems' Great Success With Promotions Inviting Civilians To Make 1-Sheets, Universal Bellies Up To The Bar With A TV Spot Invitational for Slither... Use This Copyrighted Materials As You Will!

The CBC Offers A Chance To See One Of The Oscar Shorts For Free... Cashback
Or For An Absurdly Pricey $9.95, You Can Buy Cashback And The Other Four Oscar Nominated Shorts On iTunes

A Terribly Ugly Disney Story That Doesn't Seem To Really Be Much About Disney At All, But Requires Acknowledgement

The Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro Does A Terrific, Fast, And Utterly New Media Job Bouncing Around This Morning's IFC/VOD Story, Reminding Us That Mark Cuban Wants To Change The World... As Long As He And His Get Paid
Earlier - IFC & Comcast Do The Industry A Favor... IFC Puts Its Product On the Line, Which Will Not Prove That Day & Date Can Work For Majors, But Will Define Some More Clear Parameters Of Possibility

The Bagger Makes Lanky Adulthood Look Cool

A VFXWorld Chat With The Visual EFX Nominees (free reg req)

Occasionally Funny, Often Smug & Ignorant 10 Awards They Missed From Time (See: Most Supportive Spouse Award For Some Really Ugly Dismissals Of Some Spouses Who Are As - If Not More Talented Than Their Nominated Counterparts)