This is a first: a director, Bryan Singer, has disappeared from his movie. The studio has halted production on the London set of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the story of singer Freddie Mercury and the group Queen. Singer went off to Thanksgiving and never returned, apparently.

The studio says: : “Twentieth Century Fox Film has temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer.”

Singer’s publicist then said: “This is a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family.  Bryan hopes to get back to work on the film soon after the holidays.”

I’ll bet Fox and star Rami Malek hope he gets back to work soon, too.

This is highly unusual. But Singer has disappeared from sets before. More urgently, in this time of sexual harassment accusations, Singer is often mentioned. Once a great friend of Kevin Spacey, whom he directed in “The Usual Suspects,” Singer was named three years ago in a scandalous lawsuit claiming he was part of a sex ring. The case was dismissed eventually. But Singer’s name still turns up in various stories. It’s unclear whether his being AWOL has something to do with a new case or possibly a story.

Is this the real life? Or is it just fantasy? Absolutely nothing about this story makes sense, and the “health” excuse doesn’t ring true. But we’ll see.

We were in full Oscar swing this week with screenings, receptions, meet and greets, reunions. Pre-nomination time is like a big wedding with ten different families. You must learn everyone’s names and relationships, remember who’s in what movie or multiple movies– which can be very disturbing even if you’re just drinking water.

The multiple movie guy this year is Michael Stuhlbarg. He was the star of the Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” a few years ago. He’s become the one of the most valued character actors in Hollywood. He’s like a throwback to real acting– amazing.

Stuhlbarg this year is featured in “Call Me By Your Name,” “The Shape of Water,” and “The Post.” All three will be nominated for Best Picture, so I’m hoping Michael will give me one of his Oscar seats! He can’t be nominated from all three, but it’s generally acknowledged he’s a shoo in for “Call Me,” in which he plays the most understanding parent in the world. The speech he gives at the end of the movie is something to behold.

Stuhlbarg was one of the guests Thursday night at a Fox Searchlight  reception for what seemed like everything but was supposed to be about Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.” To slick things along, del Toro brought bottles of the tequila Patron makes for him and sells for $400 in an extraordinary box. They had plain and orange flavored; I had the former, which killed my toothache (long story) and cleared my head enough to greet Frances McDormand, who’ll be up for an Oscar herself from “Three Billboards from Ebbing, Missouri.”

I thought it was the tequila, but Frances McDormand was smiling at me. Usually she does not like compliments. I said, “You’re really great in that movie.” She responded, smiling, “I’m going to accept that compliment! Thank you!” Maybe she had had the tequila, too. del Toro may be on to something. The man from Patron later showed us the whole box– a “shrine” as it were, to del Toro and Tequila. Alas, we couldn’t fit it under our coats entre nous. But another shot glass-worth and I understood the whole concept of “The Shape of Water,” an extraordinary film in which Sally Hawkins mates with a sea creature. (We met him, too, an actor named Doug Jones. He is not running against Roy Moore.)

Earlier in the day, Jessica Chastain time traveled from Tokyo to Le Grenouille on East 52nd St. to talk about Aaron Sorkin’s film, “Molly’s Game.” She may have used a device left over from her time in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.” Literally, she was in Japan and the next day she was at lunch with us. She told us that Sorkin originally handed her a 205 page script (most scripts are at max 120 pages). “I read it and he said, no no I’ve shortened it and sent me a new script. It was two hundred and three pages. I said, Aaron, it’s not a lot different.”

The final script was around 170 pages, but Chastain– who is sensational as real life poker mistress Molly Bloom– says, a Sorkin script has so much narration while other things are going on, that that may account for the length. She says all those words, too.

Meantime, Christopher Nolan himself, wife producer wife Emma Thomas, let a bunch of people watch “Dunkirk” on IMax this week, then met the crowd for lunch at Lincoln restaurant and a Q&A. I think the crowd was dazed by the “Dunkirk” genius–this is what you get Best Picture for. Ask David Lean. Mark Rylance, who should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, couldn’t come because he was rehearsing a play. But Nolan and Thomas were quite enough.

Everyone had questions including director Barry Levinson, Candice Bergen, and so on. The honorable George S. Stevens Jr., whose famous father made historic World War II documentaries, moderated the panel discussion. There was a lot of talk about camera size, weight and film grain. “Dunkirk” is a masterpiece. One thing I learned was that Nolan is obsessed with Terrence Malick’s “Thin Red Line,” and has watched it over and over.

“I think he’s more poetic than me,” Nolan said, but no one agreed with him. “Dunkirk” is like a tone poem filmed by Malick starring Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim as a time traveler. And that is no mean feat!

The New York Film Critics are voting right now so we’re getting their results in real time. Keep refreshing…PS I’m laughing. Before Twitter, someone would come out of the room, tell the publicist, with whom I was on the line all day.

Best First Feature– “Get Out,” Jordan Peele

Best Non Fiction Film– “Faces Places,” Agnes Varda

Best Foreign Language Film– “Beats Per Minute”

Best Film– Lady Bird

Best Actor-Timothee Chalamet

Best Actress–Saorise Ronan

Best Supporting Actress– Tiffany Haddish– “Girls Trip”

Best Supporting Actor–Willem Dafoe- ” Florida Project”

Best Director–Sean Baker

Best Screenplay–Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Animated Film– “Coco”

Cinematography– Rachel Morrison, “Mudbound”