Lets talk Academy Award nominations; And do you think there will be an Academy Awards Show? I believe there will be, and you know what they say....if you can believe it, you can achieve it (an end to the strike that is) or at least a temporary fix so the show can go on.

Academy Award surprises, nothing huge but here are my immediate thoughts:

I really thought "Into the Wild" and Sean Penn would have gotten more accolades for picture and director. I thought someone or something from "Hairspray" would have gotten a nod.

On the actors: All solid performances in the acting categories and I was excited to see Viggo Mortensen honored with a nomination for "Eastern Promises" He really had the accent and everything down, incredibly believable, he's a chameleon and I thought this would be overlooked.

I just saw Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" wow, she seriously looks exactly like Bob Dylan, she is him just like she was Katherine Hepburn in "The Aviator". However 2 nominations never fares well for the person nominated. (She is nominated for Supporting Actress in I'm not there" and Best Actress for "Elizabeth")

So here's a question. Is this the first year a team wins Best Director? All signs point to Joel and Ethan Coen winning Best Directors for "No Country for Old Men"

Can you remember a year when a directing team has won? I can't. If you know of a Oscar winning directing team, please let me know. I can think of songwriting teams, etc but I got nothing on the co-directing thing.

Too many songs from "Enchanted" are nominated for best song. "That's How You Know" should have been it.

And there's always that one Best Picture that directs itself and this year it was "Atonement" This means it got a Best Picture nomination but not a Best Director nomination. Every other Best Picture nominee has a director nomination with it.   But Julian Schnabel who directed "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" took Joe Wright (director of Atonement) slot.