Awesome, yes, but….gah.

@ Belinkie – Never saw the Mist but know the AWESOME twist at the end. Want to see it just for that and since you recommend it, Netflix here I come!

@bob – Hate to spoil it for you, but ESPN will soon be rebranding itself TTN (Tim Tebow Network) – All Tebow, all the time. Look for podcasts by Bill Simmons about how money Tebow is considering his resemblence to Favereau pre-weight loss, Rick Reilly hosting Tebow in Jacksonville for his “Hometown” series, Stuart Scott and Swami taking turns hyping up “Top Ten Tebow Plays of the Week,” and Bob Ley slowing cocking back the revolver’s hammer when he realizes that he has to do yet another “Outside the Lines” about Tebow’s humanitarian work to make more people aware of what he, Tim Tebow, believes. Brett Favre is modest by comparison. It should be a solid Tebow year for Tebow Nation (the new name of the ESPN2 show “Sports Nation”) and SportsTebowCenter.

As for the Super Bowl, I gots to pull for the Saints, since they are the better story and because the Colts gave up on the chance to go undefeated, and I don’t want to see that “rewarded” for the lack of a better term.

And we’ll keep hearing about Tim Tebow. He’ll get a shot as an H-Back and a Wildcat QB. Eric Crouch got coverage when he was trying to make it in the NFL, and he wasn’t half the public figure Tebow is.

@ Perich – Agree with all of your assitation other than I think Avatar will win the Oscar. I don’t think it should, but I think it will.

@ Ed – The Conference Championship did happen technically happen last week but it was two games ago (The Pro-Bowl – NFL’s All-Star Game – was Sunday, January 31st techincally this week and the Conference Championship was Sunday, January 24th techincally last week. The Super Bowl being in two days is technically next week.) How’s that for overthinking it. The first two ‘Super Bowls’ were called simply the ‘AFC/NFC Championship’ but someone, I think an owner, called it the ‘Super Bowl’ after watching his kids play with a Super Ball after the college ‘Bowl’ season. The Super Bowl is the actual name of the event now, so much so that unless someone is an official sponser of the NFL, they refer to the game as ‘The big game’ as the NFL owns the right to ‘The Super Bowl’. (Sidebar – The only Simpsons episodes that refers to the Super Bowl is the episodes that came out the same year Fox have the Super Bowl. I remember ‘Lisa the Greek’ and ‘Sunday, Cruddy Sunday’ but I think there was one other episode, but I refuse to look it up. Other than Fox Super Bowl Years, they don’t use the name Superbowl). I’m not just a Star Wars Geek!

@ Tim Tebow – I’m just glad that after day two of the draft, we will never hear of him again.

Not a big football or superbowl fan, but I feel compelled to watch this year because it actually should be a good game this time.

Personally, I was thrilled that Cameron was not nominated for either of the screenplay Oscars. As for Best Director, I’m leaning toward Bigelow. Granted, I haven’t seen most of the movies nominated, but she did win the Director’s Guild of America award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. All but six times,the winner of that went on to win the Best Director Oscar. Also, there is the fact that she would be the first woman to win Best Director. Personally, and this is complete speculation, I think that the fact that she is nominated for a war movie, which is stereotypically a male genre, would probably add to the uniqueness to her winning. I hope that doesn’t come off as being sexist on my part…

Regarding the Super Bowl:

I don’t follow much football, but I am nominally a Colts fan (mostly because it annoys everyone around me in Maryland) and it looks like I’m going to miss them playing in the Super Bowl again, like I did four years ago. Stupid orchestra rehearsal…

Best Actor, Leading
Who Should Win: Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker)
Who Will Win: Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Certainty: 40%. I’ve seen none of these films except Hurt Locker. But I’ve heard the most good things about Firth’s performance. Clooney and Freeman are considerations, but I suspect the Academy feels it’s honored them enough.

Best Actor, Supporting
Who Should Win: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Who Will Win: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Certainty: 85%. All the buzz points here.

Best Actress, Leading
Who Should Win: Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Who Will Win: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Certainty: 75%. This is Bullock’s year, as we’ve discussed on the podcast.

Best Actress, Supporting
Who Should Win: Mo’nique (Precious)
Who Will Win: Mo’nique (Precious)
Certainty: 90%.

Best Animated Feature
Who Should Win: Up
Who Will Win: Up
Certainty: 70%. I think people who liked Up a lot will vote it for this, rather than for Best Picture. But there remains a decent chance that being nominated in two categories will spoil its chances.

Best Director
Who Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Who Will Win: Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Certainty: 65%. I suspect many people feel Tarantino is “due” an Oscar, and Basterds is a good enough film to merit it.

Best Motion Picture
Who Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Who Will Win: Inglourious Basterds
Certainty: 33%. Ten nominees? Ten nominees? Who can tell? While nominations are done by preferential ranking (the Condorcet method, if you’re curious), voting for the Best is done by the same “first-past-the-post” method we all know from presidential elections. It’s not only possible, but plausible, that the Best Picture will have fewer than 1,000 votes out of the 6000-strong Academy. People will be left scratching their heads.