Good Morning Oscar, November 12: Two’s Company

All eyes turn to the two frontrunners: the Facebook movie, and the stuttering king movie

In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, all eyes turn to the two frontrunners: the Facebook movie, and the stuttering king movie.

Is the Best Picture race really down to “The King’s Speech” vs. “The Social Network?” Scott Feinberg thinks so, and he also thinks he knows what’s going to win: “The Social Network.” As usual, Feinberg delves into Oscar history to make his argument: the Academy, he says, has moved away from period dramas to “zeitgeist-capturing works” – and more importantly, David Fincher is “a big name director who is overdue for recognition from the Academy,” and Tom Hooper isn’t. He may be right, though I have a feeling that in the eyes of the Academy, Fincher is still miles away from the last overdue director that Feinberg cites, Martin Scorsese. (ScottFeinberg.com)

Rabbit HoleGreg Ellwood looks at the same race, and wonders if anybody else can mount a challenge to the two frontrunners. He’s not sure, though he thinks “Inception,” “Black Swan,” “True Grit” and “The Fighter” just might make a move. In his ranking, he has “Rabbit Hole” (left) surprisingly high because it’s “starting to win many over.” (Awards Campaign)

Jeff Wells heard from “a young guy” who said he refused to see “127 Hours” because of its most gruesome scene, so Wells wants to know: is anybody else staying away out of squeamishness? He doesn’t really get an answer, but I can tell him that the answer is yes – I know one Academy member who skipped last weekend’s AMPAS screening, something he almost never does with big movies, because he didn’t want to watch that particular scene. (He’s waiting for the screener, he says.) I tried to shame the guy into seeing it, to no avail. (Hollywood Elsewhere)

Alan Menken, who won so many Oscars for writing music to Disney’s late ‘80s, early ‘90s animated films that the Academy changed the rules to give other people a chance, got another honor on Wednesday: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David Ng has a report on the ceremony, a quick resume and a photo of Menken with Mandy Moore and a couple of Disney characters. (Culture Monster)

Speaking of Menken, the eight-time Oscar winner did a batch of interviews while he was in town to get his star. I did one of the interviews, Kris Tapley did another, and we both heard a piece of news that Tapley posted a couple of hours later: Menken, who twice had three of the five nominees in the Oscar Best Original Song category, has opted this year to only submit a single song from “Tangled” even though several qualify. Seems he’s afraid of splitting the vote – which didn’t happen when he had three nods for “Beauty and the Best” (the title track won), but which he thinks might have hurt his chances when three songs from “Enchanted” were in the running. Realistically, though, the song from “Once” was always going to win that year. Tapley also presents a video of Gwyneth Paltrow singing the “Country Strong” title track on the CMA Awards, which I suppose is a perfectly acceptable performance, if you can accept a country singer whose twang is entirely a piece of acting. But hey, it’s hardly the first time the CMAs have showcased an attractive phony. (In Contention)

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