• The New York Times, Thursday, January 27, 2011 3 PM

With the announcement of Oscar nominations Tuesday, the season is heating up, prompting all kinds of reactions from the press -- from the New York Post's getting Las Vegas bookies to weigh in on winner odds (no big surprises here, with favorites Portman, Firth and "The Social Nework") to the usual " ______ was robbed" backlash. ("Inception" director Christopher Nolan? Um, no, we don't think so -- incoherent direction of incoherent movie.)

Then there was TV writer Alan Sepinwall's post on how so many acting nominees had TV backgrounds -- which used to be an embarrassment, but no more.  "Today, actors flow easily between the two, and nobody feels the need to joke about Shia LaBeouf having been on 'Even Stevens" the way [Tom] Hanks used to catch grief about 'Bosom Buddies,'" Sepinwall writes.

New York magazine's Vulture section had an amusing chart face-off between Tuesday's two big news events: the Oscar nominations vs. the State of the Union address. Here's how the TV audience for the two compared: For the Oscar noms, it was: "Fans of movies, people wondering where their usual eight-thirty morning-show cooking segment went." For the State of the Union: "Fans of democracy, people wondering where NCIS: Los Angeles went."

Traditionally, post-announcement the New York Times runs stories about where nominees were when they heard the good news.  In that vein, we learned a surprising fact about the guy who played Mark Zuckerberg onscreen:"Did Jesse Eisenberg, a best actor hopeful for 'The Social Network, watch his nomination unfold? 'I don't actually have a television,' Mr. Eisenberg said. Regarding the Academy's announcement, 'What is there to watch?' And there it is: the generational divide that strikes fear into the hearts of Academy members and - maybe more so - the producers of the Oscars telecast."

advertisement

advertisement