One Tru Thing (and Maybe Two)

Supporting Actress

Let's review the groupthink: Four of the five actresses in this category are nominated for excellent but not mind-altering craft, and often for roles that play at the corners of bigger, more consuming leads. Think of Michelle Williams as Heath Ledger's lonely ranch wife in "Brokeback Mountain" or Catherine Keener's Harper Lee to Hoffman's "Capote." Whoa. But not whoa .

"Boy, this is crazy, huh?" said Amy Adams, the sultry redhead wearing a red J. Mendel dress, nominated for "Junebug." "The film was a smaller film, so I didn't have any expectations beyond just making the film." Just, you know, honored to be here.

Of course many, many people harbor a secret crush on veteran Keener (she started her film career as the cocktail waitress in "About Last Night" in 1986). Frances McDormand played sick and dying in "North Country," which is always Oscar bait, but the herd likes Rachel Weisz of "The Constant Gardener." She won a SAG and a Globe and she is favored to take home the Oscar. There could be a surprise.

Best Picture/Best Director

This year, think of Best Film and Best Director as a double-helix molecule, entwined. Oscar handicappers suspect that Academy voters might split their ballots, meaning if they pick "Crash" for Best Film, they'll chose Ang Lee as Best Director for "Brokeback." And vice versa.

"BB" leads the field with eight noms, including Best Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay. Lee won the Directors Guild of America award, and he and his film won Golden Globes. It is the movie to beat. But wait.

If "Brokeback" is such a great film, the thinking goes, why haven't its leads, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, won anything?

Lately, Lions Gate Films, the studio behind "Crash," has gotten ink for revealing that it mailed 130,000 DVDs of the movie to the entire SAG membership, a group dominated by Angelenos. And what is "Crash" but a home movie about living in L.A. -- except, of course, that some residents have found its characters to be racial stereotypes as imagined by a liberal Hollywood elite.

Interesting. According to the Web site Rotten Tomatoes, which tallies film reviews from around the country, the best-reviewed movies in the category are not "Brokeback" and "Crash" but "Capote" and "Good Night." Notice we haven't even mentioned Steven Spielberg and "Munich."

Oh, the envelopes, please.