By Iain Blair

Oscar talk and buzz is definitely building now. Following last Sunday’s widely watched Golden Globes, Oscar watchers and Hollywood insiders are turning their attention to the Academy Awards, to be presented on February 22. Many are wondering if this could be the year that the Academy’s traditionally highbrow taste coincides with box office success and popular sentiment in the shape of wins for The Dark Knight and its late star, Heath Ledger, who won big at the Globes.  I was talking to Tom O’Neil – the very knowledgeable columnist for award-watching website TheEnvelope.com – who thinks it’s possible, reporting Best Picture odds of 4 to 1 for The Dark Knight, 2 to 3 for Slumdog Millionaire and 5 to 2 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He sees both Frost/Nixon and Milk as 20 to 1 long shots. For Best Actor, O’Neil places Sean Penn (Milk) at 2 to 1, Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) at 5 to 2, Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) at 3 to 1, Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) at 7 to 2 and Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) at 40 to 1. “There’s some suspense here as Penn has won all the lead-up awards, but voters might go, ‘Clint says Gran Torino’s’ his last acting job, he’s never won for acting,’ so there could be a soft spot for him there,” says O’Neil. In the Best Supporting Actor category, O’Neil places Ledger at “very strong” 3 to 5 odds, noting “He has no serious competition. We haven’t seen any of his main rivals – Josh Brolin (Milk), Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Robert Downey Jr., (Tropic Thunder) – get traction in the early awards yet.” He added, “Heath looked like a slam dunk shoo-in all along, not just because it was the biggest box office hit of the year but because it was one of the biggest showbiz stories of recent years, and it had so many layers.” Will Heath get the Oscar nom on Jan 22? Stay tuned…

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