One Tru Thing (and Maybe Two)

Buzz Has Hoffman as Best Actor, 'Crash' & 'Capote' Challenging 'Brokeback'

Amy Adams ("Junebug"): Just glad to be nominated? (Mario Anzuoni - Reuters)

LOS ANGELES

One of our favorite Oscar prognostications appeared recently as a post on the political blog Daily Kos, which began, "Keeping in mind that it's early, keeping in mind that I haven't seen ANY of the pictures nominated . . . "

Well, we can play that game.

To hear this year's Oscar contenders tell it, they're honored just to be nominated. They always say that. But this year? It happens to be true.

A few weeks ago, at a pre-Oscar party at the hillside home of a Lions Gate Films executive for the cast and crew of "Crash" -- up for six Academy Awards including Best Picture -- director Paul Haggis stood in the crowded living room and recalled the film's travails. He spoke of how his little $7 million ensemble movie about racial angst in L.A. not only struggled to find bankable actors and studio support, but how the shooting was stopped in the middle of production because he ran out of money. Oh, and then Haggis had a heart attack.

So Haggis is not only honored to be nominated, he's honored to be alive. (Possible flash-forward to the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5 to be broadcast on ABC, when he stands at the podium and thanks Cedars-Sinai for the nice assist on the quadruple angioplasty.)

Haggis and "Crash" are not alone in the lucky department. Those lovesick cowpunchers on "Brokeback Mountain" famously struggled for years to find their way to big-screen country. "Good Night, and Good Luck," even with George Clooney, was judged not commercially viable in either color or black-and-white. Ditto the hard rows hoed by the other indieish, outsidery message films with nominees in top categories.

So here's the Oscar buzz about who might win the 13-inch golden men, with commentary by the contestants themselves at the annual Academy Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton, where tradition demands that before they are served their Kyoto beef rolls and smoked salmon canapes, the actors take a quick turn at the podium in the adjacent Interview Room, where the press corps soldiered on gamely with chilled tap water.

Best Actor

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Terrence Howard, in the competition for his role as a Memphis lowlife in "Hustle & Flow," said he was looking forward to hearing the audience at the Academy Awards, in their Armani tuxedos and Badgley Mischka gowns, sing along to the film's hit rap, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp."

It is, Terrence, it really is.

Then Howard went misty and did something real and wonderful: He admitted he wanted to win. "The Oscar is the dream, the Oscar is the fantasy you're afraid to believe in, but in the secrecy of your own little dark room, you dream," he said quietly. He imagined the awards ceremony as "the scariest day of my life, because everyone has a shot, and what if they call my name? What would happen then? This is the big one. This is definitely the big one."

That hurts. Because everybody in town says it is going to be Philip Seymour Hoffman for "Capote." He won the SAG; he got the Globe. He is the top of the list.