Jon Stewart is the best the Oscars show could get? Don't make me laugh!!! And the odds are, he WON'T!!!

This coming Sunday, the 80th Academy Awards will be shown on ABC beginning at 5:30 here in Los Angeles and at 8:30 in New York.

The show will be hosted by Jon Stewart who was a disastrous host when he had the gig two years ago. There's a certain crowd of folks who think this guy is funny, but that is (mostly) the "Too hip for the room" crowd. The folks in the heartland or main stream folks or rank and file, if you will, don't think this guy is funny at all and I'm one of those people.

And yes, if he surprises me and makes me laugh two nights from now, I'll be sure to write about in my new blog next week.

Most people are movie fans and that's why 40+ million figure to be watching and rooting for their favorites.

And that's what I'm going to write about. My favorites! The people and films I hope will win. In other words, I'm not predicting winners. I'm going to be expressing preferences.

I've seen all five of the Best Film nominees. The most overrated of the five is "There Will Be Blood". I fell asleep during this bloated film. Some experts think it deserves to win the Oscar and I would imagine that some of these experts are fans of Jon Stewart.

I thought that "Atonement" was a good film, but I'm not rooting for it to win.

I will be happy if "Juno", "Michael Clayton" OR "No Country for Old Men" wins. If you put a gun to my head, it would be "Michael Clayton". Or "Juno"...Or "No Country for Old Men"...
Or...

I give up.

Best Actor?

I will be happy if George Clooney wins. I thought he was super in "Michael Clayton", but the best overall acting was probably done by Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood".

Best Actress?

I will be happy if Ellen Page wins and I'm sick of hearing people say "It's not her time, yet."

Really? According to whom?!?

I thought that Ellen Page's acting was the hands down best acting in what were five tremendous performances. The experts are having a hard time making up their minds on this choice. There was a consensus on Julie Christie, but that seems to have switched to Marion Cotillard with some people saying (in essence), "But what about Laura Linney?"

And ya know....when we get to arguing about this kind of thing, we have to step back and admit we're not talking about bad choices in our arguments. We're talking about the best of the best and in my view, the one I liked the most and thought she was also the best was/is Ellen Page.

Best Supporting Actor?

I'm with the majority on this one. Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men". Again...Five terrific performances! I mean, you can give an Oscar to Philip Seymour Hoffman for just about everything he does! And might the Academy decide to give (what in essence would be) a "Lifetime Achievement Award" to Hal Holbrook in the form of an Oscar for his performance in "Into the Wild"?

Best Supporting Actress?

Same "Lifetime Achievement Award" possibility for Ruby Dee for her performance in "American Gangster", a film I thought was better than "Atonement" or "There Will Be Blood".

I will be happy if Tilda Swinton wins for her performance in "Michael Clayton", but some experts seem to be leaning toward Cate Blanchett for her performance in "I'm Not There".

Best Director?

I'll be happy if Jason Reitman (for "Juno"), Tony Gilroy (for "Michael Clayton") or Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (for "No Country for Old Men") get this award. I'm thinking it'll probably be the Coen brothers.

I want to mention two other categories.

Best Original Screenplay?

I'll be happy if Diablo Cody gets it for "Juno" or if Tony Gilroy gets it for "Michael Clayton", but because Diablo Cody is an ex-stripper who's made the "mother of all career detours", I'd just love to hear what she has to say in an acceptance speech.

Best Cinematography?

This should be a NO CONTEST vote!!!

Robert Elswit for his marvelous work in "There Will Be Blood". To me, no one else's cinematography was even close!

That's it as far my take on the upcoming Academy Awards goes. I know we're all hoping it will be a great show and we end up being pleased with (at least) most of the winners.

Oh...One more thing. I know we're also hoping that Jon Stewart surprises us and is funny in ways that are appreciated by most of us as opposed to just a few of us.

JOHN McCAIN AND HIS PROBLEM WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES?!?

Yeah, I think there's a little fire in the middle of all that smoke and I'll write more about this in my next blog which be sometime next week.

LINDSAY LOHAN AND THE PHOTOS IN "NEW YORK MAGAZINE"!!!

Have you seen the photos of Lindsay Lohan shot by famed Marilyn Monroe photographer, Bert Stern that are in the new issue of "New York Magazine"?

Hot, hot, hot!!!

And one can't help but wonder if Stern will do a book of photos from this photo shoot.

THE NEXT BLOG?

It'll be written sometime next week and you know that at least one of the subjects will be about something that makes me say, "Whaaaat?!?"