Oscars: Globes, National Board of Review Strike Out

The Academy Award nominees are here.

There was no nomination for Golden Globe nominee Robert Downey Jr. Or Tobey Maguire. Or Julia Roberts. Hello!

There were 10 best picture nominees from the Academy. They included not one of the Golden Globe nominees for best comedy/musical.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. didn’t do’a very good job of influencing anything. So much for them.

Over at the National Board of Review they snubbed “Precious” except for a “Breakthrough Performance” bone thrown to Gabourey Sidibe. “Precious,” however, now has six Oscar nominations. Gabby is nominated for best actress.

The NBR also gave best director to Clint Eastwood for “Invictus,” which it also listed as one of the 10 best pictures of the year. Whoops! No Oscars on either count. NBR also named “(500) Days of Summer,” “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Star Trek” to their top 10. Again, wipe out at the Oscars.

Most of the Academy Award nominations this morning were expected. There are only a couple of surprises. Julianne Moore was on target for a nomination for best supporting actress in “A Single Man.” It looks like that spot went to Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart.” Julianne can relax. She’s so good in “The Kids Are All Right” that she’ll be back next year in Best Actress.

The other surprises: Both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station.” Plummer probably aced out Alec Baldwin. Mirren seems to have iced Marion Cotillard. We’ll see them all again, certainly.

“Nine” didn’t get a best picture nomination, which seems a shame. But it also shows that musicals just don’t work across the board. “Chicago” was a fluke. Neither “Sweeney Todd” nor “Dreamgirls” could pull it off, either. This is what happens: Older Academy members respond to film versions of shows they’ve seen on Broadway by comparing them unfavorably to the stage versions. It’s just an uphill battle.