The write way to Oscar

 

There's good news and bad news in the Oscar script categories. The good news is, we pegged a good number of the adapted screenplay nominees (four out of five). The bad? We stunk up the place on the original screenplay side, but we still like a few of our (loser) choices like Tom McCarthy for "The Visitor" and Robert Siegel for "The Wrestler."

But we've found some gems among the Oscar nods this morning, as the rain begins to fall in Hollywood and pot of joe No. 2 begins to brew.

First, the more obvious choices -- for best adapted screenplay:

Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"

Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"

David Hare, "The Reader"

Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"

Guess which one we left off our list? That's right. No "Reader" for us. It was "Revolutionary Road" all the way. How could we have known just how ignored this project would be?

Now, for the original scripts, where we're thrilled to see "Happy-Go-Lucky" finally get recognized, can't argue at all with "In Bruges," one of our Fave Five movies of '08, and still believe that Dustin Lance Black is the guy to beat here.

Contenders for best original screenplay:

Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"

Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"

Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"

Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"

Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter, "WALL-E"