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.