the buzz log

"Slumdog Millionaire" your favorite? Would you bet on it?

Some may be, as searches unroll for "printable oscar ballot," "oscar odds" and "oscar predictions" for the February 22 Academy Awards. Only an invitation-only club of about 6,000 people get to vote, but that's no excuse not to lay down some cash (or bet chores).

Certainly the Buzz overflows with all sorts of calculations. Given director Danny Boyle's winning streak at other award ceremonies, Bloombsberg reports that the film's favorable odds range from 90 to 99 percent. Other seeming shoe-ins are Mickey Rourke (best actor), Kate Winslet (best actress), and Heath Ledger (best supporting actor). In macabre fashion, betting against the last choice would pay off $40 or $50 for every dollar placed.

The challenge is more esoteric in categories like costume or sound editing, but betting site Betfair generously gives its takes.

Okay, so what do the people think? Here are the results from trolling through nominee searches on Yahoo! this past week.

• Best Picture: Crowd-pleaser "Slumdog Millionaire"" has more than double the searches of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
• Best Animated Picture: "Kung Fu Panda" doubled in look-ups recently to move past "Wall-E," but don't discount the sentimental and environmental favorite.
• Best Director: Could former child star Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon") pull an upset over Danny Boyle? He does edge past in queries, perhaps because TV Week cruelly blames Opie in advance for expected poor telecast ratings.
• Best Actor: Admittedly, people aren't just looking for talent when scoping out Brad Pitt ("Benjamin Button"), but then again more than a quarter of Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") queries are for his plastic surgery photos. Longtime Search leader Pitt barely squeaks by, so the benefit of the doubt goes to the comeback king.
• Best Actress: Always popular Angelina Jolie ("Changeling") gets more searches than her competitors combined. However, Kate Winslet ("The Reader") pulls specific lookups for her role. Yes, circumstance usually looks dim when Meryl Streep's in the arthouse ("Doubt"), but encouraging signs point to Winslet.
• Best Supporting Actor: Even if Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") lost, history would probably misremember him as the winner. Anyhow, he's got the huge Search advantage over Robert Downey, Jr. ("Tropic Thunder").
• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") burns Web-hot every time she gets in the news. Distant second is Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler"), with Amy Adams ("Doubt") not too far behind.

By the way, as for Best Picture, at least one Vegas bookie (ok, "executive director of race and sports operations" at Wynn Las Vegas) thinks the spoiler could be "Milk." Just don't cry over it.

Filed under: Movies, Award Shows, Oscars

Emmy has not aged well.

Actually, let's take that back. For a lady who celebrated the big 6-0 on Sunday night, the winged statuette still shone with luster. But the people who threw her the party—for shame. Hollywood Reporter wrapped up the sour and dour critical reaction, and Fresno Bee observed that circus elephants fed on a month-long diet of "rancid chili and rotten boiled eggs ... could not create a bigger stinker."

What elephants deserved to get involved in the fiasco, who knows, but interest for "emmy" keyword searches slacked off 18% compared to last year. Maybe Sally Field should've been made the host to stir things up again.

Could any redemption be found? The comedy "30 Rock" not only got a slew of awards for best show and best actors, but also earned Tina Fey the most Web love out of all the nominees. She even bested hostess Heidi Klum—and Fey didn't need Tom Bergeron and William Shatner to tear her gown off to do so. Meanwhile, castmate Jane Krakowski didn't get a nomination, but her red carpet look of a loaner diamond waterfall earrings and black gown helped boost her online lookups nearly 2,000%.

Among the winners, Jeremy Piven boasted the fastest rising search bump (+780%), more from delivering a biting critique on the ceremony than scoring his third best supporting actor nod ... that and maybe kissing the pregnant bump of presenter Amy Poehler.

Mary Tyler Moore (reuniting with former crewmate Betty White) presented the best comedy award and received her due online respect (+1,132%) as a TV icon. Other salutes went to Steve Martin (+255%), Lily Tomlin (+70%), and the Smothers Brothers (+infinity).

The true buzz of the night though went to ... well, okay, it went to Fey and Klum, but following them was comedian Don Rickles. His appearance garnered look-ups for his bio, age (81), and his Emmy award-winning doc "Don Rickles Project." He also provided the cathartic laughter of the broadcast when presenter Kathy Griffin reminded him about the teleprompter after the octogenarian dared to go off script. Rickles replied dryly, "Oh, because it's a hot show. Let's read these funny lines they wrote for us."

Note to Emmy: Bring back the true funnymen and leave reality behind.

Filed under: TV, Award Shows, Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards 2008