What manner of B.S. is this?!?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070117/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentusfilmglobesoscars_070117084319

'Dreamgirls' hits winning note - but still an Oscars outsider

by Rob Woollard Wed Jan 17, 3:43 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The uplifting musical "Dreamgirls" might have struck all the right notes at the Golden Globes but it remains an outsider in the race for
Oscars glory, experts say.
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"Dreamgirls" snaffled three awards at Monday's Globes in Beverly Hills, winning best musical as well as best supporting actor and actress for co-stars
Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson.

But even though the Globes have come to be seen as a key indicator of likely Oscar winners, "Dreamgirls," which charts the rise of a 1960s soul group, is still behind in the race for the most coveted categories, pundits say.

Most analysts believe the Oscars best picture battle is a shoot-out between
Martin Scorsese's crime flick "The Departed" and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's searing cross-cultural drama "Babel".

And although "Babel" took the best dramatic picture prize at the Globes, a sentimental shift towards the long-overlooked Scorsese could see "The Departed" move to the front of the queue.

"I talk to a lot of Oscar voters every day and the buzz I get from the Academy is that it's 'The Departed' for best picture," Tom O'Neil, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com, told AFP.

While the Globes victories for "Babel" and "Dreamgirls" had given both films' Oscars hopes a lift, the Academy could pull for Scorsese, who has been passed over for an Oscar five times, he said.

"The overdue director factor is huge at the Oscars," O'Neil told AFP.

"When 'A Beautiful Mind' was under attack for sugar-coating the life-story of its hero, it still won because it was '
Ron Howard's year' and his movie won with him."

Lew Harris, editorial director for the movies.com website, agreed that "Dreamgirls" remained an outsider -- but said it was the likeliest movie to secure an upset at the Oscars.

"If there's anything that could sneak through (between 'Babel' and 'The Departed'), it's 'Dreamgirls'. If there's a surprise winner it will be that."

Harris noted that "Babel", Inarritu's harrowing drama that looks at cultural isolation, had shown unexpected staying power to land the Golden Globes.

"I think the interesting thing is that just as everybody guessed might happen, 'Babel' came out of nowhere," Harris said.

"Everybody said it was going to be 'Flags of our Fathers' or 'The Departed,' but in those last weeks, people were talking like 'Babel' could make it."

Meanwhile, the chances of "Dreamgirls" star Murphy adding an Oscar to his Golden Globe for best supporting actor may have been torpedoed by a lacklustre acceptance speech, according to O'Neil.

"The Globes are an Oscars audition," said O'Neil. "If you get up and 'wow' the audience like
Hilary Swank did a few years ago, it sends you Oscar bound.

"But if you bore them to tears, voters don't want to see a repeat of that on Oscar night."

While Hudson -- a former reality television show contestant -- wooed the audience with her breathless acceptance speech, Murphy had singularly failed to sparkle, O'Neil said.

"His acceptance speech may have seriously jeopardised his front-runner status at the Oscars. This is a flamboyant performer and we expected a flamboyant moment. It was dull, dull, dull."

Nominations for this year's Oscars will be announced on January 23 in Los Angeles by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This year's
Academy Awards take place in Hollywood on February 25.