Oscar Watch: Golden Globes wrap

Now that the Globes are "officially" over on the West Coast ... and now that all of my clocks have stopped flashing ... let's discuss some of the Globes wins.

First let's talk about the lack of surprise in the film categories, both in the nominations and the wins. People have predicted these performances and movies would be the big awards winners since last October. The exceptions, in my opinion, are Dreamgirls and Babel, as they could have easily gone to Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed. Speaking of Dreamgirls, how fabulous that this is the film that walks away with the most awards! Well deserved by both Murphy and Hudson; I kinda wanted to hear the producer sing "And I am Telling You I am Not Going" when they tried to pipe him off during his acceptance speech. Sucks to be those nay-sayers who surfaced last week, disparaging the movie's recent box office "slip." ('Oo-oo-oo! Dreamgirls can't hold 800 million screens at capacity for longer than 3 weeks! It's losing Oscars ground!' Puh-lease.)

Meanwhile, the foregin category is kind of iffy for me this year. A win by Letters from Iwo Jima may have cemented an Oscar nom in the feature film category, but my fingers were crossed for Pan's Labyrinth (El Labarinto del Fauno). I'd have been happy for Almodovar's Volver, too; both ranked higher on my top 20 list than Letters. And: yippee for Sacha Baron Cohen, who also might have cemented an Oscar nom. Best acceptance speech ever, but I'll best the Academy is shaking in its boots, worried that he might make it up the steps of the Kodak Theatre's stage on Feb. 25th.

P. S.: Could Warren Beatty or Meryl Streep blow any harder? I thought they'd bring on the hook.

I have a lot to think about before I make any predictions as to who will receive Oscar nominations. Those noms happen early next Tuesday, so I will have my list for your dissection sometime this weekend. Check out this Friday's print edition of the Seattle Gay News for my list of suggested nominees - 'cause I'm sure the Academy members have forgotten a few gems, and need to be reminded by moi.

Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose in Dreamgirls, photo courtesy DreamWorks Distribution LLC; Doug Jones and Ivana Baquero in Pan's Labyrith, photo courtesy Picturehouse.