Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly
My mind couldn’t come together for one topic this week, so in the tradition of jazz music, I’m going to do a couple of riffs on the two topics floating around in my brain. Let’s start with the Oscar nominations.
I’m feeling pretty good about the Academy Award nominations and my predictions. I pretty much nailed all the major categories; my only miss in the acting ranks was supporting actor Christopher Plummer (The Last Station); he took the spot I thought might go to Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated). And while other prognosticators thought

Maggie Gyllenhaal
Julianne Moore would take the final supporting actress spot for A Single Man, I went against that conventional wisdom and decided the Crazy Heart surge would push Maggie Gyllenhaal into that final spot. I was right.
The ten nominees for best picture suggest that perhaps the decision to expand from the traditional five might actually work and bring more viewers back to the Oscar telecast. This was my weakest category, although I’m sure my top five (The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, Precious) would have been the only five in a normal year. I loved Sandra Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side and it is a solid film but not truly Oscar worthy as a best picture nominee. District 9 was okay but overrated, and while I thought Carey Mulligan was brilliant in An Education, the film was good but not excellent. I have no problem with Up being nominated; it was one of my favorite films of the year. I have to confess I didn’t see A Serious Man.
My one crushing disappoint was that former Margate resident Scott Neustadter failed to get an original screenplay nod for 500 Days of Summer, despite the fact that he earned a WGA (Writers Guild of America) nomination. I loved the film and his screenplay, co-written by Michael H. Weber.
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Peyton Manning
Is it just me, or is the Super Bowl failing to create much buzz this year, especially in our area? I don’t hear many people talking about it, even though it should be an entertaining showdown between two of the most prolific scoring QBs in the game, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.
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