But let's look at the nominations. First, a look at my predictions that I made on the 7th before the nominees, and hey, I did pretty good. I was absolutely correct, 5 for 5, on the Best Picture category, as well as 5 for 5 on predicting Best Actress, and 5 for 5 on Supporting Actress. Probably my best predicting yet. I was 4 for 5 on Best Actor, I thought Richard Gere might get it, instead Michael Caine slipped in. I was also 4 for 5 on predicting Supporting Actor, I really thought Dennis Quaid would get the nod, instead John C. Reilly sneaked in. And I was 4 for 5 on Best Director, as most everybody had not seen Pedro Almodovar coming.
But let's look first at what we expected. Chicago got the most nominations, 13, 1 short of the record held by Titanic and All About Eve. We all knew it would be leading the pack, and it sure did. It's clearly the frontrunner. It received four acting nominations, even including Queen Latifah, which may have been the biggest surprise from the Chicago nods. Chicago is now the 7th film in Oscar history to get 13 nominations. It's the first film since Terms of Endearment in 1983 to receive four acting nominations.
Plenty of history was made with these nominations. Most notable was that Meryl Streep passed the legendary Katharine Hepburn, receiving her 13th acting nomination, the most of any performer in history. Jack Nicholson's nod for About Schmidt gives him his 12th, tying him with Katharine Hepburn, and he leads the men for the most acting nominations. The most nominated person alive is composer John Williams, and he added nomination number 42 for his jazzy score to Catch Me If You Can.
The biggest surprises and snubs? Of course, after his surprise win at the Golden Globes and a SAG nomination, most of us expected that Richard Gere was in the running, and it was surprising to see him left out of the Best Actor race. It was nice to see John C. Reilly nominated for Chicago, he should get at least one honor this year. I mean, look at all the films he was in ... Gangs of New York, The Hours, Chicago, The Good Girl ... he's an incredible actor, always has been, and it's good to see ole Mr. Cellophane himself nominated.
