Tonight's Academy Awards ceremony marks the end of a week of predictions about which films will take home a coveted Oscar. When HuffPost's Entertainment Editor Chris Jancelewicz recently tapped 12 Years a Slave as the most likely best picture winner, I kept thinking back to HuffPost blogger Stuart Henderson's review of the movie during TIFF. "Between long, punishing shots of brutal whippings, lynchings, hangings, and rape," he wrote, "and the pervasive repugnance of the situation more generally, [director Steve] McQueen has mounted the most affecting film about American slavery that has ever been made. But, does that in and of itself recommend it?" Henderson thought not, and pointed to movie's excesses, though he ultimately concluded it was still the most important thing he'd seen this year.
Myself, I'm rooting for Philomena, because it just doesn't get much better than Steve Coogan, Judi Dench and Stephen Frears all in one place. Yet if I had to put money it, I'd bet that the celeb who will be most chatted about on Monday morning won't be one of those three, nor Leo DiCaprio or Sandy Bullock, for that matter. My $50 is on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford being the talk of Tinseltown after attending the Oscars and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the next evening. Hollywood has never been known for nuance.
