The Envelope Announces the First Oscar Picks of the Season

The Envelope, the LA Times' award show blog, has released its first predictions for Oscar season.

Here's the report:

"The Envelope's Buzzmeter is currently being overhauled and redesigned, so let's start featuring Oscars predictions here at Gold Derby.

The result: proof of how wide open the top races are. There is no consensus over a single nomination except a best actor nom for Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (photo above). The biggest majorities in the best picture race: six of our seven Oscar seers pick The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, five opt for Frost/Nixon and Revolutionary Road. Only two chaps pooled six pundits in the best actor slugfest: Sean Penn (Milk) and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon).

Only two gals get six votes for best actress: Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road) and Angelina Jolie (Changeling). Five contenders muster only a single vote: Kate Beckinsale (Nothing but the Truth), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky), Keira Knightley (The Duchess) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River). In the best actor derby, there's only single-vote support, surprisingly, for Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Benicio del Toro (Che), Josh Brolin (W.) and Robert Downey Jr. (The Soloist)."

Check out the full report at The Envelope's Gold Derby blog.

Must See: Heroes-Villains

The two-hour season premiere of the NBC hit series, Heroes, brought much to the table.

Season one was about "save the cheerleader and save the world," but when Sylar literally picked Claire's brain, he found that she can't die even if he tried to kill her.

Hiro's father has entrusted him with a formula that could end the world as we know it and he let's a female speedy Gonzalez nab it a moment after he discovers it. And in a quick venture to the future, when the world is imploding, Hiro witnesses his death at the hands of his sidekick, Ando.

Future Peter Patrelli travels to the past to shoot his brother to prevent future calamity, but his mother, Angela -- herself a future-seeing hero-ette -- tells him his attempt at heroics resulted in a butterfly effect -- and a future that will leave all of the heroes dead.

The noble Mohinder Suresh, who spent two seasons studying the heroes and searching for a cure, has grown envious of the mutants he's trailed for two years and has developed a serum (like Promison in 4400) that gives abilities. In a move that's not so altruistic, he injects himself, transforms into something of a shirtless Spider-man before waking up and pealing away flakes of skin in a moment that reminded us of The Fly.

The ice queen with the double personality, Niki Sanders, has reemerged as a literal ice queen whom, we're told, is NOT Niki Sanders (where was Micah, by the way, in this season opener?).

Near death at the hands of his brother has turned Nathan Patrelli into something of a Jesus freak with unclear and certainly impure motives for accepting a deputy governorship.

Sylar is back! And cooler than ever. But when he's immobilized after an explosion -- caused when he tries to saw off the head of the electromagnetic psycho Elle -- is inducted into the service of The Company by Angela Patrelli, who tells him that she's his mother!

And let us not forget the five uber-psycho villains who escaped from Level 5 (among them is Peter Patrelli, implanted into the body of a villain by his future self). In their first few moments of freedom from imprisonment, they torch mortals and steal cars. Truly a what the f*%k moment when the camera pans to the scorched body.

These are just the highlights. TVGuide has a more thorough recap. The point, though, ain't lost on me. If season two was a bore for some folks, the writers returned from their season-killing strike and pumped some serious life into this show.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

Fall Must-See Movies

Put the following movies on your fall movie schedule. You'll more-than-likely see some of these again come Oscar nod announcements.

The Miracle at St. Anna: Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. Directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay written by James McBride, the author of the acclaimed novel of the same name, the film explores a deeply inspiring, powerful story drawn from true history, that transcends national boundaries, race, and class to touch the goodness within us all. Release: Sept. 26

The Lucky Ones: After suffering an injury during a routine patrol, hardened sergeant TK Poole (Michael Pena) is granted a one-month leave to visit his fiancé. But when an unexpected blackout cancels all flights out of New York, TK agrees to share a ride to Pittsburgh with two similarly stranded servicemen: Cheever (Academy Award winner Tim Robbins), an older family man who longs to return to his wife in St. Louis, and Colee (Rachel McAdams), a naive private who's pinned her hopes on connecting with a dead fellow soldier's family. What begins as a short trip unexpectedly evolves into a longer journey. Forced to grapple with old relationships, broken hopes and a country divided over the war, TK, Cheever and Colee discover that home is not quite what they remembered, and that the unlikely companionship they've found might be what matters the most. Release: Sept. 26

The Soloist: An emotionally soaring drama about the redemptive power of music, a journalist, Steve Lopez (Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both men. Release: Nov. 21

Milk: Academy Award winner Gus Van Sant directs Academy Award winner Sean Penn in this bio-pic about gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Release: Dec. 5

Doubt: When the principal (Meryl Streep) of a Bronx Catholic High School accuses a popular priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of pedophilia, a young nun caught in between the feuding pair become hopelessly swept up in the ensuing controversy. Release: December

Upcoming: Sept. 12 Releases

The weekend of Sept. 12 is gonna be a good one for the movies. Check these out:

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
The sixth feature film by Perry chronicles the inner workings of two families—one upper-crust and the other working class—that become inextricably linked by scandal.

Burn After Reading
From Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen. An ousted CIA official’s (Academy Award nominee John Malkovich) memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two unwise gym employees intent on exploiting their find.

Righteous Kill
Academy Award® winners Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) star as a pair of veteran New York City police detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer in the adrenaline fueled psychological thriller Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet (Red Corner, Fried Green Tomatoes) and written by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man).

This last one ain't really on my list of must-see movies, but I know a couple of folks who are planning to make some time for it.

The Women
Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, and Annette Bening star in this comedy where a group of close friends meet to talk about their relationships.

Poli-break: McCain Accepts GOP Nomination

Leadership of the Republican party moved from President George W. Bush to Sen. John McCain of Arizona Thursday when McCain delivered a subdued speech accepting the Republican nomination for the presidency. McCain pledged to end partisan politics, shrink government, and return the GOP to its roots and away from the last eight year's of conservative leadership, even though his record indicated he supported 90 percent of what the Bush administration proposed during those years.

In a speech in which he claimed to have more similarities than differences with Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, McCain painted himself as a flawed public servant whose character was shaped during the Vietnam War, when he was held as a POW. He offered little specifics about his plans to reshape the economy or win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, he pledged to change how government works, echoing Obama's own campaign for change.

“Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second crowd: Change is coming,” he said.

On MSNBC, Tom Brokaw asked McCain supporter Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania and secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, about his assessment: "But the fact is, governor, that you have had eight years of a Bush administration and a lot of Republicans in Congress for the last eight years, so why wouldn't the American people say, look they had their shot we're going to change?"

"Because John Bush - because John McCain is very much his own man," Ridge said.

Poli-break: NYT Asks - Was Palin Vetted By McCain?

The New York Times raises some interesting questions about Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate in the recent story "Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process" by Elisabeth Bumiller.

"A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice.

Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom."

Read the ENTIRE REPORT ONLINE NOW.