I've set up our annual Ousports Oscar Pick 'Em contest on Yahoo. You'll need to have a Yahoo ID and password to play. It's free to sign up with Yahoo.

Other information you'll need:

Group ID#-2059

Group Name-Outpicks

Group Password-outsports

See if you can predict all the winners!!!

Outsports Annual Oscar Pick 'Em Contest

If you have any trouble signing up please post here or email me and I'll try to help you out. Good luck!

All I got was a message that I wasn't subscribed to that group. WHen I tried to sign in as ID 2059, with password outsports, it told me that I had the wrong password.

If you get the error message, just click on the banner ad. Then you'll be able to sign in.

My picks are in, but I still think I'll do better with the Razzies. wink

Fun...

I just signed up.

I clicked on the banner, and I assume that I have to click on the "sign up" button. When I enter 2059 with the password outsports I get an invalid password.

I am NOT a stupid person, but what in heck am I doing wrong?

Ok I'm in..... Any prizes for the winner?

Lksimcoe

I clicked on the banner and had no problems. You may want to try and copy and paste id #, just to be safe.

...now back to the prizes.

You must have a Yahoo! account as well.

I had no problem joining the group. Clicked on the banner ad, and followed the instructions. So assuming you have a Yahoo ID, Lksimcoe, you shouldn't have any problem either.

Seven players so far. The deadline for all picks are Sunday February 27 by 8:30pm Eastern time.

I'm having a bit of a problem signing in too.

I am going to get last place in this, but whatever

Finally got it to work. I have no idea what I did. Give me a mainframe ANYDAY

I joined. Prepare to be shamed, rest of the field!

Best of luck to the field...you'll need it now that I have entered!

Best of luck to the field...you'll need it now that I have entered!

We still haven't heard about prizes?

First prize is a week in Philadelphia. Seocnd prize is two weeks in Philadelphia.

Maybe Jim and Cyd would offer an Outsports Tshirt or something. I can email them and ask. Other than something like that I don't know.

A couple of years ago when I ran the Outsports NFL Pick 'Em game I offered a prize of a $100 donation to the 9/11 fund on behalf of the winner. Maybe something like that?

Anyway we're up to 16 players so far.

Okay I am in...make it 17 players......

Make it 18, I am in!

WTF!?!? I can't get in!

Did anyone else see where the nominees in some of the categories will all be on stage while their category is presented? They will all have to stand up on stage while the winner is announced like the 5 fianlists in the Miss America pageant. Also some of the winners will just stand up in the audience and be acknowledged without getting on stage to give an acceptance speech! A few new twists to the Oscar telecast!

Now there's 23. I figure since I don't know much about this years films, I have a chance to win.

I mostly just took wild guesses, and in a couple of categories I chose the one I actually saw and liked. I have no expectations of winning this whatsoever. I just wanted to be part of the club. wink

Ok, I'm in. As usual, my picks in the more obscure categories like sound editing, etc. were total guesses.

Surest bet: Jamie Foxx as Best Acor in "Ray"

Speaking of obscure categories, interesting piece on Nightline tonight about the Academy's long-standing resistance to establishing an Award for Best Stunt Coordinator.

I'm totally surprised that such a category doesn't exist already, but according to NY Times reporter Bernard Weinraub, the actors and studios feel that giving credit to the stuntpeople would somehow diminish the big name stars.

What hogwash -- but hey, that's Hollywood!

Screen Actors Guild calls for new Oscar category

[ February 24, 2005, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: redsoxbreath ]

Anyone else catch the reports that they will change the way awards are presented in a major way this year. Supposedly some award winners will just stand at their seat to receive their award. Also some times all the nominees will be on stage and the winner will come forward like Miss America.
It sounds really cheap and full of BS to me! Can you imagine you have worked in the industry all your life in one of the minor categories like Sound Editing. Then you win a f**king Oscar and you don't even get to thank anyone just stand and wave. I can't believe any nominee is gonna appreciate standing on stage so the audience can stare at them when they lose! They need to cut time? Boot Beyonce singing three of the five songs nominated. Cut out the crap. The best part can be the emotion and the speech someone gives. I hate when they cut people off with the music.

Probably my lasat chance to bump this up to remind those of you who joined the group to make your picks by the deadline tomorrow night. Also it's not too late to sign up. You'll need a Yahoo! ID and password plus the information in my initial post.

The biggest pick that I am struggling with is Best Supporting Actor. Morgan Freeman has been ignored for so long; it is hard not to pick him. However, there is always an upset--and it is usually one of the supporting categories. Thomas Haden Church could be the upset special here.

..then pick him.

30 players so far! Still time to enter. And those who already have, be sure to complete your ballot. Enjoy the Oscars!

It's also still not too late to make a few last minute changes. With all respect to Thomas Haden Church, though, I don't think picking against Morgan Freeman will be one of them.

I'm in! Who are you wearing tonight?

Oh this old thing?!?!?! It's just a little something I picked up from the Brett Somers collection in the Speigel Catalog. eek! Don't tell anyone though, but I "borrowed" some pearls to go with this from Barbara Bush....

I wish a streaker, or a Native American, or a chandelier would fall, or something--this is the most boring telecast, I knew there was a reason I didn't want to watch. I'm tired of seeing stars in pretty dresses too tight, all this hourglass shaped dresses. WHAT? Beyonce singing Phantom?--well, that was a vehicle for some jeweler.

I was thinking the same thing. None of the speeches has been remotely touching except for Morgan Freeman and the special directing nominee.

Beyonce was blaise on the French song- but she did really well on Learn to Be Lonely...

Does anybody remember Nell Carter singing one of the Aladdin songs- was it "Friend Like Me"? (am I remembering correctly?)

Then Robin Williams sang "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie? LOL

I still laugh about Renee Zellweger not singing the song with Catherine Zeta-Jones that she originally performed in the movie (I think "Movin On")- instead it was CZJ and Queen Latifah...

Spanish language song... Antonio Banderas looks sexy as hell... sounds very Broadway and less Spanish... they shoulda given Ricky Martin a chance for a comeback... *sigh* (Recuerdo la noche del concierto de Ricky Martin. Era la primera noche yo me dí cuenta de que era perfectamente multa para ser alegre. Qué una memoria agradable.)

Beyonce and Josh Groban (flashback to the Josh- do not eat the Snoop Dogg brownies at the Grammys LOL)- they did that song nicely....but the cutie singing after he won the award! wow- nice voice!

[ February 27, 2005, 08:05 PM: Message edited by: kick ]

Yay Million Dollar Baby!

Yes Cyd, kudos to Million Dollar Baby.

I have never seen an Oscar ceremony in which one film, "The Aviator", seemed to be on its way to sweeping through the awards. While it was a given that Morgan Freeman would win early for "Million Dollar Baby", awards for that film didn't really take off until Hilary Swank won. Then, it was like a complete turn in the other direction. What is it with Oscar's love of boxing ("Rocky", "Raging Bull", "Million Dollar Baby")?

[ February 28, 2005, 04:56 AM: Message edited by: Cattledog ]

I think it was two things: 1) MDB was just a better movie than AVIATOR - much more memorable; 2) The Academy's hatred for Martin Scorsese. They've never liked the guy. Unless he does a movie about the holocaust, he'll never win now.

And the winner of the week in Philadelphia is....me! I got 19 of 24 categories right for a total of 2060 points.

Second place and the winner of two weeks in Philly is StPt Gator with 17 of 24 right for 1860 points.

Thanks for playing. Hope you had fun!

I also won the pool we had at the bar last night! Which clearly means I know way more about these stupid movie awards than I should!

[ February 28, 2005, 06:47 AM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

I was so happy that Million Dollar Baby did so well. I lost my chances at the dream Philly vacay on those smaller categories ... rats!

Hillary Swank's dress was terrible, though. And the severe hair 'do. She looked 100 years old.

I thought Chris Rock was great as a host, but I wonder if he'll be back or not ... the best moments were when he went to the Magic Johnson Theater and asked regular folks what movies they've seen and also when he announced Halle Berry as the star of the much-anticipated sequel, Catwoman 2. HA HA HA.

Yeah I thought Rock was really good. Way better than Whoopi! And Billy Crystal's act was getting old. Steve Martin has been the best of the recent hosts IMO.

Rock's opening monologue was a riot. And his introduction of Tim Robbins was classic. "You've been thrilled by his acting and bored to death by his politics...Tim Robbins" or something like that.

And the show ended before midnight--I think that was the biggest accomplishment.

While some people may not have liked having nominees on stage or having presenters go to the back of the theatre to hand out the award in the aisle, I think this was a time-saver.

I think the results show a split-decision among voters.

"The Aviator" won the most awards (5), but they were mostly minor (supporting actress, art direction, cinematography, costumes, editing).

"Million Dollar Baby" won the biggies (picture, director, actress, supporting actor), but only 4 in total.

"Ray" took in best actor (and sound mixing).

"Sideways" garnered best adapted screenplay.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" won best original screenplay.

The most telling thing was the Chris Rock segment where he interviewed people at the Magic Johnson Theater and asked them about last year's movies. Of course, nobody had seen any of the nominated films, yet everybody seemed to have seen "White Chicks."

------------

Assisted suicide got a boost last night, as "The Sea Inside" (best foreign language film) and "___ ___ ___" (spoiler) both won.

[ February 28, 2005, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Sorry George and Gaga. I gave Mr. Rock a chance and listened to his whole opening monologue. I've seen better comedy at my family reunions and Rock was quite painful to watch. Almost expected an Uma/Oprah moment at the end there. eek! Then I turned the whole damn train wreck off.

I see the "movie" that should have been on Lifetime starring Markie Post won.... Who knew?? *shrugs* But then again, the Academy gave Best Picture to The English Patient so I should have figured that one out. Pardon me while I quote Elaine Benes, " Stop telling your boring stories about the desert and die already!" eek!

Oh well next year hopefully they'll get Steve Martin back, or even get real risque a go for Robin Williams and a 10 second tape delay.

If Robin Williams ever hosts I will miss my first Oscar cast since I was a kid. He and Jim Carrey need to stay away from hosting duties for the sake of all humanity.

But now for the important things: who looked good (and who didn't).

Star Jones: why did her dress not fit properly up top?
Scarlett Johansson: terrible dress and hair, but her skin was flawless
Halle Berry: beautiful as always
Beyonce: lovely, but she must have brought an entire team of dressers, hairstylists and makeup artists for her 4+ looks for the evening
Johnny Depp: yikes
Cate Blanchett: fab-u-lous!
Renee Zelwegger: school marm-ish makeup and hair
Hilary Swank: lovely
Drew Barrymore: hairstyle and dress to old-looking
Laura Linney: nice jewelery, but hair and dress have got to go
Julia Roberts: lovely, as always
Jake Gyllenhaal: buzzcut strangely suits him
Orlando Bloom: handsome
Clive Owen: handsomer
Natalie Portman: dress looked like a costume
Morgan Freeman: very nice
Antonio & Melanio: train wreck

On that we can agree!!!

All the talk about potential low ratings because there were no blockbuster movies in the big categories proved false as the Oscars had their best ratings in 5 years as per the overnight ratings.

When I first heard that they were going to have all the nominees from some categories on stage and hand out awards in the audience for others, I thought it was a bad idea. But in reality I liked it. The show ran 14 minutes late as it was (thanks Hilary Swank!) so imagine how much longer it would have been if all thsoe people had to make their way to the stage.

They must do away with performing all the best song nominees in their entirety. Ugh! Beyonce singing with the group of boys that would make Michael Jackson drool like Homer Simpson sitting in front of a Krusty Burger was painfully dull.

I didn't understand why the "experts" felt having a wide-open Oscar contest would mean lower ratings. To me, it made it more interesting and successful to not have an overwhelming favorite, and it looks like the ratings have borne that out.

Chris Rock was not particularly funny, but he was not particularly awful, either. He just WAS <shrug>. The person who needs a sense of humor is the self-important Sean Penn, who felt that Rock's joke about Jude Law could not go unanswered. His "he is one of our finest actors" comment was unnecessary. Memo to Sean: lighten up, it's the Oscars, not Baghdad.

All in all, I was pretty happy with all the major winners, although "Super Size Me" not winning Best Documentary really surprised me. I was sure the Academy would reward the financial success if not the artistic content of the movie.

With the exception of Jamie Foxx's overly emotional speech (haven't we heard about his grandmother at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the Blockbuster Awards, etc?), I thought all the major nominees were incredibly classy and articulate. Kudos to Morgan Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank - and to Clint Eastwood, too.

As for the clothes, Cate and Hilary were big winners there, too. Elegant and understated, and Swank's training paid off - she was total Hollywood glamour in her va-va-voom Guy Laroche number (apparenly she decided on 24 hours notice to NOT wear the number Calvin Klein had made for her).