Oscar Index: The Beginning of the End

There's good news and bad news to begin this post-nomination, next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-last installment of Oscar Index. The good news? It's kind of almost over! The bad news? Oy. Please don't make me repeat it.

The laurel-sniffing wonks at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics went 27 for 34 predicting its regular, top six categories, which means that the Academy basically tossed in a "surprise" every fifth nomination or so -- though specialists at the MIASKF technically refuse to classify anything that was on last week's charts as a "surprise." So basically, if it's not all two nominations for The Daldry, then you probably should have seen it coming.

Which you did. As such, we resume the Sisyphean torment of our Oscar-addled eternities, pushing boulders that look and feel suspiciously like crystal balls up hills that look and feel vaguely like the bones of 84 years' worth of snubs. What does it all mean? To the Index!

Oscar Index: The Beginning of the End

The Final 9:
1. The Artist
2. The Descendants
3. The Help
4. Midnight in Paris
5. Hugo
6. Moneyball
7. War Horse
8. The Daldry
9. The Tree of Life

My favorite parts of nomination morning -- apart from the Lucasfilm plant who yelped, "Red Tails! Gotta be Red Tails" as Al Roker informally polled Today Show tourists about their Best Picture predictions -- were the peals of ecstasy that greeted The Daldry's announcement among the year's nine Picture nominees. It sounded like a dog clamping down on a chew toy made of publicists. Other nominations elicited vaguely similar reactions, but that was The Reaction, as if to underscore just how desperately all the parties of all the films involved had chased this singular recognition, and how favorably…

Source: http://www.celebrities.com/celebrities-gossip/oscar-index-the-beginning-of-the-end/

Jennifer Scholle Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré Jessica Simpson