Celebrities in The Race: “And Your Oscar Predictions Are…” by Elizabeth Searle

THANKS FOR ALL THE COMMENTS ON EUGENIO VOLPE’S AWESOME POST; SCROLL DOWN FOR EUGENIO PLUS ORIGINAL ART BY TOM DEININGER…

CELEBRITIES IN THE RACE by Elizabeth Searle

It’s a race without much disgrace this year.  While Sandra Bullock has struggled through her husband’s messy custody battle, and while best-actor nominee Morgan Freeman stars in a scandal of his own involving his alleged affair with his step-grandaughter, the main human drama gripping Hollywood this Oscar weekend is whether Kathryn Bigelow will beat out her womanizing ex-husband (James Cameron, of the Titanic-sized talent and ego) to become the first female ‘Best Director.’ Cameron himself says she deserves it.

But what of the acting races?  Do you put your money on Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock?  (And will they share another awards-night kiss, whoever wins?) Jeff Bridges or George Clooney?

The New York Times attempts to take a scientific method by using ‘hunch and history‘ in its Oscar picks– but admits that the supporting catagories are always up for grabs.  My bets are on Bullock, Bridges, Bigelow.  Also Avatar and in those tricky supporting races: Anna Kendrick and Christoph Waltz.

What do your own hunches tell you? Who will win– and/or, who ‘should’ win…?

(photos: thewrap.com, justjared.buzznet.com, panasianbiz.com)

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Big Names Making A Big Difference in Haiti

GOLDEN GLOBE ‘LIVE BLOG’ UPDATE: competition between stars is usually not pretty. But this week, the stars are outdoing each other for a good cause. Madonna kicked things off donating a quarter million dollars to aid for Haiti; Sandra Bullock donated one million.

Clooney shows his serious side organizing a TELETHON for JAN 22

And George Clooney may raise 100 million dollars with Clooney’s MTV TELETHON on JAN. 22– stay tuned.

As noted on the Celebrity Pulp blog: “Tiger Woods, although he is a cheat and a liar, is still a very generous person.”

WYCLEF JEAN

This kindred spirit blog reports that Tiger is sending out a cargo plane and mobile health clinic to Port-Au-Prince.  Reportedly, Woods is considering more major aid initiatives.

But even with the best intentions, scandals can dog celebrity efforts.  Some recent reports question the Yele foundation and the efficiency of other celeb-driven charities; the best bets for donations may still be UNICEF and whitehouse.gov.

Still, in a tragedy of this magnitude, even the most ephemeral stars can make a big difference with big donations. Celebrity Pulp further reports:

“The Jolie-Pitt foundation will send $1M to help out, as Ben Stiller and Tea Leoni, UNICEFambassador, plan on going on sight in the next few days….It is also possible to donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting HAITI to the number 90999.”

Good info, good intentions and a rare good use of the $$ and powers of fame.

(Our own little celeb-obsessed blog doesn’t usually venture into this territory, but if even one passing blog reader uses the info. above, we tip our hat to Tiger and Celebrity Pulp and company.  Happy MLK Day Weekend…)

photos- Madonna: rapidshare-catalog.com; Clooney: kitmeout.com; Wyclef: googleimages

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Oscars & Globes: Who Will be Picked & Who Nixed?

Will Meryl as Julia Childs gobble down another Oscar?

With the fun and junk-foody People’s Choice awards kicking off the buffet of Award Shows, Oscar Predictions are rising.  For scandal-handicappers, guessing who will not be picked is also fair game. Morgan Freeman has Oscar buzz– but a possible scandal brewing about Freeman and his step-grandaughter may nix a win.

Maybe only Jen-Lo. herself believes Jen-Lo. has been robbed of an Oscar nod.  (For El Cantante, no less).  Who will be claiming foul play this year?

QUEEN OF ROCK by Linda K. Sienkiewicz; visit Linda's works in our StarLit Gallery

Sandra Bullock (below) won People’s Choices and appears to be swimming toward an Oscar nod too, unhindered by her reality TV star husband’s custody-battle scandal. But can anyone beat scandal-free Meryl Streep for Best Actress?

And what about Brad Pitt’s drinking buddy, the shoo-in Best Actor nominee George Clooney? Clooney and Streep both radiate old-style movie-star charisma. Will that carry these two old pro.s over the top?

Zooey Deschanel won Hit Girl of 2009 on our blog-- can an Oscar be far behind?

For the inevitable Young Upstart nominee: blog fave. Zooey Deschanel gave a star-making performance in (500) Days of Summer– as did Carrey Mulligan in the slightly weightier AN EDUCATION and Mo’Nique in the high-intensity PRECIOUS. Who will/should grab the gold this year?  And those less-weighty but maybe ‘cooler’ Golden Globes, rolling toward us this weekend?  WDYT?

(photos- SandraB: softpicks; Meryl: blog.jaman.com; Zooey D: Googleimages)  Thanks to Mark for Balloon Boy’s Dad…And thanks to Litotes for our Word of the Day, in nominating femme fatale Zoe Saldana of AVATAR: ‘Ava-tart.’

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