One Tru Thing (and Maybe Two)

Best Actress

Keira Knightley of "Pride and Prejudice," you fresh-faced swizzle stick wrapped in Ossie Clark couture, the line starts at the back. "My mother put a tenner on me" with the London bookies, said the fun Brit, "which was very nice." But the odds are against her, 33 to 1. Consolation prize? "I just saw George Clooney outside, and that was pretty cool."

So we are all winners here.

Judi Dench? Settle down. She won in 1999 for "Shakespeare in Love." Charlize Theron? She won for "Monster" two years ago and audiences did not warmly embrace the tale of sexual harassment in the frozen wastes of "North Country," so sorry, no, the unusually tall former South African model who always mentions her mother will not double down.

The foregone conclusion in the Best Actress category is Reese Witherspoon, for her turn as June Carter Cash standing by the man in black in "Walk the Line." Witherspoon not only sings, she dances, she autoharps and she won a Golden Globe, plus a Screen Actors Guild award -- and SAG members make up about a quarter of the 5,800 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

When she came home with her SAG, Witherspoon said, one of her children asked her if she got it "because you're the best mom in the world." The entertainment press corps awwwwed with warm milky mommy feelings. (We were more skeptical when she was asked what kind of dress she was going to wear: Witherspoon offered, all frowny-foreheaded, "I don't have a lot of time to think about it" because she has kids and is a working mother and all.) Added bonus for Witherspoon: "Walk the Line" is the only top nominated film that has made some serious coin -- $118 million in domestic box office.

Which brings us to Felicity Huffman. People in this town like Felicity Huffman. She's the relatively normal-looking one on "Desperate Housewives," she's married to nice-guy character actor William H. Macy, and she has a sense of humor about herself, which Charlize and Reese must choose not to display.

"I'm an Academy Award nominated actress!" she squealed. Huffman said she was so happy to get the nod, she arrived at the luncheon two hours early "to help set the tables." She said she was thrilled to be attending the awards ceremony -- "and not as a caterer." Etc. Etc. She could snatch a statuette -- except no one has seen "Transamerica," in which Huffman plays a man wanting to become a woman. It's made a wee $3 million. Next!

Supporting Actor

Tough one, huh? "I don't expect to win," said Clooney, nominated for his role as a CIA operative in "Syriana." He's also up for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for "Good Night," which is also up for Best Picture. So the law of averages might kick in? "But it just doesn't feel like I'm going to win."

Of course as he was saying this, Clooney was tan and handsome and rich and single and he flashed his killer smile and shoved a hand deep into the pockets of his beautifully tailored pinstripe suit (open collar, no tie), like he just rolled in from the shores of Lake Como.

Clooney said he too was just happy to be here, blah blah blah, but he confessed he was pleased that success had come to him later in life, as opposed in his twenties when it would have spoiled him, or, as he put it, "if it had happened earlier, I'd probably be shooting crack into my forehead."

William Hurt, up for his role as a brutal mobster in "A History of Violence," said he really put the "afterburners on" for the part, which consumes only nine minutes of screen time. "I don't think you can compete in artistic achievement -- like a Super Bowl game." He was wearing jeans and a sweater. "I don't sport trophies in my home," he says, because he doesn't want to twist the minds of his children. (Also, his 1985 Best Actor Oscar for "Kiss of the Spider Woman" was stolen last June.) Regardless, Hurt said it has taken him a long time to understand and appreciate Oscar's whole "hierarchal" winning-losing thing.

That's good, because Paul Giamatti of "Cinderella Man" -- who didn't get even a nod for his popular 2004 "Sideways" role -- is expected to win.