BY GENE TRIPLETT

Fact is giving fiction a run for its money in this year’s Oscar race, with four of the 10 Best Picture nominees based on true stories and real people.
Biopics of a pair of boxing brothers and a canyoneering survivor were good box office bets on critics’ tip sheets in 2010, but true tales of an Internet innovator and a stammering king are the odds-on favorites in this year’s run for Academy gold.
Here’s how this Oklahoma critic is calling the winners during Sunday night’s moments of truth at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.

Best picture

Gene says: A few weeks ago, one didn’t need a computer to figure the odds favored “The Social Network,” the superbly crafted movie screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher made out of Ben Mezrich’s bestselling book, “The Accidental Billionaires,” about the creation of the most powerful electronic narcotic to sweep the world since the advent of the Internet itself. Just like everyone else, most Academy voters are probably Facebook junkies by now, and the story of the gifted geek who invented it is too timely–and the film too well-acted, well-written and utterly intriguing–to be ignored.
You would think.
But it now looks like voters could be swayed by Tom Hooper‘s “The King’s Speech,” the true story of a monarch who struggled against an impossible obstacle to communicate with his subjects on an inspiring, human level. Historically, heart-rending period pieces with British accents have been Oscar magnets.
Still, I’m going to stick with my sucker’s bet …
Should win: “The King’s Speech”
Will win: “The Social Network”

Best actor

Gene says: Colin Firth will have some more public speaking to do Sunday night when he accepts this award for his keen ability to portray the male versions of vulnerable, frightened and courageous all at once, while affecting a startlingly realistic speech impediment that is heartbreaking to witness in “The King’s Speech.” Few of his contemporaries could handle as dodgy a role as this with such perfection. His deserving “A Single Man” performance lost out to Jeff Bridges’ “Crazy Heart” last year, and while I loved the way Bridges outgunned John Wayne with some real acting in the Coen brothers’ “True Grit” remake, my allegiance this year is to Firth’s stuttering King George VI.

Best actress

Gene says: In “The Kids Are All Right,” Annette Bening effortlessly claimed hearts with her smart, funny and deeply sensitive portrayal of a lesbian mom who fears the alienation of her family’s affections when her children seek out their sperm donor father and attempt to bring him into the fold. Her performance was controlled, convincing and enormously engaging, deftly avoiding the emotional showboating this kind of role can tempt in lesser talents. But “Black Swan” star Natalie Portman has youth and popularity going for her and she never misstepped in the dramatically rich role of a prima ballerina pushed to mental breakdown. Still, Bening’s been nominated three times before, so maybe her times has come.

Should win: Annette Bening
Will win: Natalie Portman

Best supporting actor

Gene says: Geoffrey Rush’s sly, low-key take on the oddball Australian speech therapist who comes to the aid of a stammering monarch in “The King’s Speech” was easily one of the most interesting characterizations of the past year, as was John Hawkes’ unsettlingly dark backwoods criminal in “Winter’s Bone.” But Christian Bale was part of the stunning one-two punch of “The Fighter” as the ex-con, failed-boxer-turned-crackhead who trains his half-brother for the welterweight title. His convincingly wired, wild-eyed performance had an unforgettable clout that will no doubt win him the decision.

Should win: Geoffrey Rush
Will win: Christian Bale

Best supporting actress

Gene says: Former Tulsa resident Melissa Leo was the other half of “The Fighter’s” double whammy as the domineering matriarch of a blue collar Lowell, Mass., family and the abrasive manager of her two boxing sons. She nailed the part perfectly, right down the Massachusetts accent. The only other contender who comes close is 14-year-old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as the spitfire farm girl out for justice in the Coen brothers’ version of “True Grit,” although she should have been nominated as a leading actress in that role.

Should and will win: Melissa Leo

Best director

Gene says: It stands to reason that the person who helmed the Best Picture should win the Best Director prize, but reason seems to have little to do with the thought processes of the average Academy voter. In a perfect world, David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “Seven,” “Zodiak,” “Benjamin Button”) should take the statuette for the stylish visuals, taut pacing and superlative performances found in “The Social Network.” Hooper (“The Damned United”) could pull an upset, however, for his majestic craftsmanship in “The King’s Speech,” or Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler”) could dance away with the trophy for his adventurous flair in “Black Swan.”

Should and will win: David Fincher

A few extra bets:

Best original screenplay

Christopher Nolan, “Inception”

Best adapted screenplay

Aaron Sorkin, “The Social Network”

Best animated feature

“Toy Story 3”

Best documentary feature

“Exit through the Gift Shop”

BY DENNIS KING

Each year, we begin our obligatory pre-Oscar guessing game with the same disclaimer:

In our 20-plus years of babbling about movies in print, we confess to a pretty paltry track record at predicting Oscar winners.

The average popcorn Joe predicting in the average Oscar office pool probably has as much success at picking winners as me. In fact, we have one acquaintance that once won his office pool with 100 percent correct guesses, even though he hadn’t seen a single film that was nominated. The expertise of complete ignorance!

Guessing Oscar winners is not a function of movie knowledge, keen insight, analytical prowess or anything like that. And idiosyncratic tastes in movies often lead to quirky predictions when it comes Oscar time (I’d much rather cast my lot with the low-budget underdog than the fabulous front-runner). That, and the fact that reading the tea leaves on how 5,700 or so official Oscar voters will vote (they are indeed an insular bunch) is sheer folly.

My favorite axiom on Oscar expertise is drawn from that brilliant screenwriter and two-time Oscar-winner William Goldman (“All the President’s Men,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), who famously wrote, “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything.” And he should know.

So, that said, here’s what I know (guess!) about the 83rd Academy Awards to be presented Sunday evening in an overstuffed ceremony airing on ABC from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.

Best actress in a supporting role: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter.” The Academy’s actors’ branch is the largest and most politically fragmented voting body, and it’s often in supporting categories that upsets and surprises occur. But Leo wowed everyone with her tough presence as the controlling ring mother in this tough movie. So barring an upset by Helena Bonham Carter due to a “King’s Speech” landslide or a sneak-in by the precocious “True Grit” youngster Hailee Steinfield the statuette should go to the deserving veteran Leo.

Best actor in a supporting role: Christian Bale, “The Fighter.” The usually prickly Bale has been extra polite and cooperative during awards season and this campaign ploy might just work in his favor. Again, if Geoffrey Rush doesn’t sweep in on the inspirational wings of “The King’s Speech,” the lean and mean Bale should ride his boxing brother role to Oscar gold.

Best actress in a leading role: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan.” Ever since she was a child actor, Portman has been a Hollywood prodigy. And this mad, brilliantly brittle and obsessively precise performance felt like her step into grande dame status. Having swept most of the important pre-Oscar awards, she should be well on her way to a pas de duex with Oscar.

Best actor in a leading role: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech.” It seems like another win that’s been preordained by the run-up guild awards and pre-Oscar campaigning. Besides, Firth is one of those actors who could have, should have, won this thing before. So, one hopes, he will have an eloquent winner’s speech ready to deliver on Oscar night.

Best director: David Fincher, “The Social Network.” We’re going out on a limb here, as all indicators – previous guild awards – point to a win for Tom Hooper and his polished, old-fashioned work on “The King’s Speech.” But we’re guessing that voters might be torn between the two front-runners and split the best director and best picture awards (it’s happened several times). Despite Hooper’s win from the Directors Guild, we think the Academy’s entire voting body might opt for Fincher’s more urgent and timely approach and give him the little golden guy.

Best picture: “The King’s Speech” For the second year, after all the hoopla about expanding the best picture category to 10 nominees, in the final run it seems to have narrowed down to a two-picture race between “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network.” Masterpiece Theater decorum versus techno-geek irreverence. Old-world culture versus of-the-moment pop culture. Royals versus nerds. Establishment versus anti-establishment. Anglophilia versus Yankee ingenuity. It makes for an easy-to-sell, yin-yang face-off.

While we personally pull for “The Social Network,” which possesses such a bold and startling sense of currency, we fear that the Weinstein Oscar campaign machinery has done its work and steamrolled its way to win. If so, it’s another victory for safe uplift over the edgy and irreverent. But, then, long live “The King’s Speech.”

Morbid as it seems to admit, one of the things we most anticipate about each year’s Oscar telecast is the video montage paying homage to Academy members who’ve died in the past year.

Blake Edwards

But perhaps it’s not such a morbid thing at all. Perhaps it springs from the same impulse that leads us to read newspaper obituaries so avidly – a celebration of remarkable lives well and fully lived.

Yeah, that’s it. A celebration, Hollywood style, complete with stirring music, still photos and film clips, along with the dearly departed’s name and show-biz distinction. Big stars and anonymous, behind-the-scenes functionaries alike are sent off with tasteful and artful fanfare (and smatterings of applause). A final curtain call.

Anyway, the list of Academy members who’ve gone on to the Big Craft Services Table in the Sky since last year currently numbers 95 (there’s a complete roster on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website).

Dennis Hopper

Among the most recognizable are: Tom Bosley, Maury Chaykin, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Culp, Tony Curtis, John Forsythe, Anne Francis, James Gammon, Harold Gould, Peter Graves, Kathryn Grayson, Dennis Hopper, James MacAuthur, Simon MacCorkindale, Janet MacLachlan, Kevin McCarthy, Patricia Neal, Pete Postlethwaite, Lynn Redgrave and Gloria Stuart – actors all.

Lynn Redgrave

A few non-actors who might stir an inkling of recognition include: director, screenwriter (and Tulsa native) Blake Edwards (“Victor/Victoria” and “The Pink Panther” movies), costumer designer Theoni V. Aldredge (“The Great Gatsby”), producers David Brown (“Jaws”) and Dino De Laurentis (“La Strada”), director Arthur Penn (“The Miracle Worker,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Alice’s Restaurant”), director Peter Yates (“Breaking Away, “The Dresser”) and tragically murdered member of the public relations branch, Ronni Chasen.

Tune in to the telecast of the 83rd Academy Awards on Feb. 27 to bid farewell to these and other less famous Oscar insiders. R.I.P.

- Dennis King

BY GENE TRIPLETT
The battle of the exes is the main event on an Oscar night that promises to be long and arduous thanks to the wisdom of Academy governors, who figured doubling the number of Best Picture nominees will boost the show’s sagging ratings.

Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker."

It’s really down to two of the 10, with  two former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow facing off for top pic and director prizes—unless Quentin Tarantino and his “Inglourious Basterds” spring a surprise attack.

Other top categories seem easy to call. Or are they? Here’s how I see things playing out.

Best picture

Jason Reitman’s heartbreaking and timely comedy-drama about a high-flying bachelor who fires people for a living and can’t make connections of the human kind is my favorite of all the contenders, but “Up in the Air” lost some altitude at the Golden Globes when James Cameron’s blue giant “Avatar” weighed in with its stunning technical virtuosity and novelty appeal. But it’s tied with “The Hurt Locker” in nominations (9 each), and after blowing away the competition at the BAFTA Awards in London, this taut indie war drama from producer-director Kathryn Bigelow could defuse her ex-husband’s 3-D box office rocket. Barring an “Inglourious” upset, that is.

Should win: “Up in the Air.”

Will win: “The Hurt Locker.”

Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart"

Best actor

Some voters might think George Clooney was simply playing himself as the high-flying playboy of “Up in the Air,” but he actually gave the most perfectly nuanced and affecting performance of his career, imminently worthy of Academy gold. But Clooney and co-nominees Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”) and Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”) will have to step aside for The Dude. Jeff Bridges has said Bad Blake, the booze-soaked, washed-up country singer he portrayed in “Crazy Heart” was a part he was born to play, and he’s right. He nailed it. After four no-wins in as many decades, it’s time to recognize His Dudeness.

Should and will win: Jeff Bridges.

Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron in "The Blind Side"

Best actress

Getting nominated for a “Razzie” (“All About Steve”) and an Oscar (“The Blind Side”) in the same year has gotta be a first, but Sandra Bullock pulled it off and laughingly said she’s proud of both honors. You have to love her for that. Everyone seems to love the strong, sassy football mom portrayal that won her an Academy nod, too. Brilliant newcomers Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) and Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) still have

some dues to pay, and while Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”) almost invariably gives Oscar-caliber performances, it’s Meryl Streep who’s most deserving for her funny, sensitive, spot-on reading of Julia Child in “Julie & Julia.” But with Golden Globe and Broadcast Critics awards already gracing her mantle, odds seem to favor Bullock.

Should win: Meryl Streep.

Will win: Sandra Bullock.

Chrstoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds")

Best supporting actor

Matt Damon (“Invictus”), Woody Harrelson (“The Messenger”), Christopher Plummer (“The Last Station”) and Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”), superb as they all may be (especially Tucci, profoundly loathsome as a child molesting serial killer) might as well phone in sick. Christoph Waltz is perfectly chilling and wickedly funny in four different

languages as the Jew-hunting Nazi colonel in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.” His was the most effectively contemptible villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Should and will win: Christoph Waltz.

Mo'Nique in "Precious"

Best supporting actress

As in the supporting actor category, Penelope Cruz (“Nine”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Crazy Heart”), Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick might as well send their regrets and stay home, although the last two gave lovely turns as the women who teach Clooney’s carefree character some life lessons in “Up in the Air.” Mo’Nique has it running away for her soul-scorching performance as the abusive, bile-spewing mother in Lee Daniels’ “Precious.” She was heat lightning personified.

Should and will win: Mo’Nique.

Kathryn Bigelow directing "The Hurt Locker"

Best director

Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”), Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Lee Daniels (“Precious”) helmed great movies all, but all eyes are on the contest between the amicably divorced James Cameron (“Avatar”) and Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”). Many voters are impressed with gargantuan box office returns, which bodes well for Cameron, but if revolutionary technical advances and rich imagination are still qualifiers, he deserves to be crowned “king of the world” again. However, Bigelow’s taut and powerful take on war as a drug (the script of which was recommended to her by Cameron) was a nerve-shattering knockout. Never mind the low attendance it drew. There are also a lot of people who’d like to see Bigelow become the first woman director to take home the statuette.

Should and will win: Kathryn Bigelow.

Original screenplay

Quentin Tarantino for “Inglourious Basterds.”

Adapted screenplay

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner for “Upin the Air.”

Animated feature

“Up.”

Documentary feature

“The Cove.”

Jeremy Renner in a scene from "The Hurt Locker."

BY DENNIS KING

Having earned a living for a couple of decades by babbling on about movies, it is perhaps impolitic to admit that I’m not very good at guessing Oscar winners. The average popcorn Joe predicting in the average Oscar office pool probably has as good a track record at picking winners as me.

It’s not a function of movie knowledge or keen insight or anything like that. It’s just that quirky tastes in movies often lead to quirky predictions when it comes Oscar time (I’d much rather vote the low-budget underdog than the fabulous front-runner). That, and the fact that reading the tea leaves on how 6,000 or so official Oscar voters will vote (they are indeed a fractious bunch) is sheer folly.

My favorite axiom on Oscar expertise is drawn from that grand screenwriter and two-time Oscar-winner William Goldman, who famously wrote, “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything.”

Early on in my tenure as a professional “film cricket” (Homer Simpson’s term), I concocted an admittedly goofy experiment in which I tacked lists of Oscar nominees on a dart board and let fly a dart at each of the Big Six categories (supporting actor, supporting actress, actor, actress, director and best movie). Then I compared my own furrow-browed prognostications with the whims of the dart.

And the dart’s random picks were more successful than mine. D’oh!

So anyway, after that long-winded prelude, here are my best guesses at statuette winners of the 82^nd Academy Awards to be presented Sunday evening in an overstuffed ceremony airing on ABC from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.

Best actress in a supporting role: Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart.” (The Academy’s actors’ branch is the largest and most politically fragmented voting body, and it’s often in supporting categories that upsets and surprises occur. But Gyllenhaal, so good in this gritty, naturalistic serio-comedy, is a popular candidate who’s compiled an impressive body of work. So it just feels like her time.)

Best actor in a supporting role: Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger.” (The movie, one of several fine meditations of late on the terrible toll of war, is perhaps too grim and little seen to attract voters. But the sometimes erratic Harrelson proves himself a serious acting force in this tightly contained yet volatile performance. It is indeed Oscar-worthy.)

Best actress in a leading role: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side.” (Another popular – and populist – actress who is finally nominated for a role weighty and inspirational enough to attract lots of sympathetic voters. It just feels like she’s due.)

Best actor in a leading role: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart.” (Call it the Lebowski Effect, but Bridges inhabits broken-down, psychically damaged roles like Bad Blake as if he were born on a barstool in a bowling alley. He’s another actor whose body of superb work should win him loads of popular support among fellow actors, even in a shaggy-dog movie such as this.)

Best director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker.” (All indicators – previous awards ceremonies – point to a breakthrough Oscar for Bigelow. First woman ever to win and all that. Aside from the juicy satisfaction of seeing her beat out James “King of the World” Cameron, her ex-husband with his monumental ego, Bigelow simply deserves to win for a superior piece of film storytelling – rich in detail, complex human dimension and thrumming dramatic impact.)

Best picture. “The Hurt Locker.” (With all the hoopla about expanding the best picture category to 10 nominees, in the final run it seemed to narrow down to a two-picture race between “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar.” Low-budget indie grit versus big-budget special-effects razzle-dazzle. Gut-level storytelling versus high-tech eye-candy. Art versus commerce. Perhaps setting up this David-and-Goliath dynamic will succeed in drawing in more viewers to the Oscar telecast, but if Oscars are in truth about celebrating some mythic “best” in the year’s movies, then all 10 nominees are winners. But “The Hurt Locker” should be first among equals.)

Just as baseball’s future stars learn their chops playing in the minor leagues, Oscar, too, has its own unofficial farm system for training major-league filmmakers of the future.

It’s the nation’s fertile league of university film programs, and to these the call has gone out for entries into the 37^th Student Academy Awards competition. Applications are open through April 1 for budding young directors to submit short films of 40 minutes or less for prize consideration. Deadline for foreign entries is March 25.

Since the Student Oscars’ inception in 1972, as a way for the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level, an impressive roster of future filmmaking stars has garnered trophies (though not actual Oscar statuettes) and cash prizes.

Notable student Oscar winners who have gone on to successful film careers (and even big-league Oscars) include:

John Lasseter (California Institute of the Arts), a two-time student winner who went on to become a creative force at Pixar, earn five Oscar nominations for his animation work and take home two statuettes (for the short film “Tin Toy” and for special achievement for “Toy Story”).

Robert Zemeckis (University of Southern California), who went on to earn an original screenplay Oscar nomination for “Back to the Future” and an Academy Award for directing “Forrest Gump.”

Spike Lee (New York University), who would go on to earn two Academy Award nominations (for the original screenplay of “Do the Right Thing” and in documentary feature for “4 Little Girls”).

Pete Docter (California Institute of the Arts), who went on to become another Pixar creative force and win Oscar nominations for the screenplay of “Toy Story,” for “Monsters, Inc.,” for the animated short “Mike’s New Car,” for the screenplay of “Wall-E” and this year two nominations for “Up” (best original screenplay and best animated feature).

Trey Parker (University of Colorado), who parlayed his student animation prize into a partnership with Matt Stone and a signature animation style that’s marked their work on the irreverent TV series “South Park” and its 1999 film spinoff.

The competition, aimed at recognizing and encouraging young filmmakers with no previous professional experience, is limited to those enrolled as full-time students in accredited, degree-granting programs.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Awards (along with cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, respectively) are given in four categories – animation, documentary, narrative and alternative.

Guidelines and application forms for the 37^th Student Academy Awards can be found on-line at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website. Announcement of winners will be made at the Student Academy Award Presentations on June 12 in Beverly Hills, CA.

- Dennis King

Now that the 82^nd Academy Awards nominations have been announced, the silly season of movie punditry is in full swing.

Everywhere – from blogs such as this, to slick magazine layouts, to TV talk shows, water-cooler conversations, coffeehouse bull sessions and barroom arguments – movie “experts,” film buffs and popcorn junkies alike will fill up the days until the March 7 awards broadcast with nitpicky analyses of all things Oscar.

Already, we’ve seen floated these bits of Oscar arcana:

– Meryl Streep’s nomination for best actress for “Julie & Julia” is her 16^th, an all-time high. Following are Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson with 12 each. Wow!

– Kathryn Bigelow, nominated as best director for “The Hurt Locker,” is only the fourth woman ever nominated for directing. And how can you miss the fact that she’s competing against her ex-husband James Cameron, who’s nominated for “Avatar?” Juicy!

– The field of 10 nominees for best picture is a first in decades for the staid old Academy and opens up a whole field of debate concerning the artistic merit of tasteful, low-budget art films and big-budget studio juggernauts. Hmm. Interesting.

– “Up” is only the second full-length animated feature nominated for best picture. The first was “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991. Zowie!

– And this really obscure bit of trivia: “The White Ribbon” (“Das Weisse Band”) from Germany is the ninth predominantly black-and-white film to be nominated for cinematography since 1967, when a separate category for black-and-white was eliminated. Woo-hoo!

It’s all in good fun and helps generate some interest, excitement and heat through the dankest weeks of winter. But it’s always worth noting at this time of year that all our deepest insights and brainiest prognostications are just so much babble. All that really counts is the voting tally of 6,000 (give or take) elite members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

They’re a pampered gaggle of Hollywood insiders consisting of artists and professionals who work in the film industry. The Academy is made up of 15 branches representing a range of crafts vital to creating and marketing motion pictures.

Those branches and their membership numbers are: Actors (1,205), Art Directors (374), Cinematographers (200), Directors (366), Documentary (151), Executives (437), Film Editors (221), Makeup Artists & Hairstylists (118), Music (234), Producers (452), Public Relations (368), Short Films and Feature Animation (340), Sound (405), Visual Effects (279) and Writers (382).

In addition, there are various life and at-large members not assigned to specific branches, and all Oscar winners each year are automatically afforded Academy membership.

So, try as we might to read the tea leaves and divine some logic or pattern in the process, predicting Oscars is a futile exercise. Given a business that’s rife with political intrigue, boardroom wheeling and dealing, closely held loyalties, fierce grudges and fragile egos – not to mention an arcane voting process – it’s all about as precise and fair as voting for high-school prom queen.

But the Oscar babble goes on, and we’ll join in the blah-blah-blah occasionally from way out here in the cheap seats. So pass the popcorn, please.

– Dennis King

BY DENNIS KING

It may seem morbid to say, but one of the most compelling, if not entertaining, features of each year’s Oscar telecast is the video montage paying tribute to Academy members who’ve died in the past year.

Generally, the montages – consisting of stirring music, still photos and film clips, along with the dearly departed’s name and show-biz distinction – are tasteful and artful. But that’s undercut with a bit of Hollywood tackiness as the more famous dead inevitably illicit an uncomfortable smattering of applause while less-famous figures – producers, make-up artists, screenwriters and the like – ghost past to ho-hum silence. The big stars get their final curtain call; the little people get respectful indifference.

Anyway, the list of Academy members who’ve gone on to the Big Craft Services Table in the Sky since last year currently numbers 78 (there’s a list on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website).

Among the most recognizable are: Gene Barry, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Henry Gibson, Karl Malden, Brittany Murphy, Natasha Richardson, Ron Silver, Arnold Stang and Patrick Swayze – actors all.

A few non-actors who might stir an inkling of recognition include: screenwriters Horton Foote (“Tender Mercies,” “A Trip to Bountiful”) and Larry Gelbart (“Tootsie”),  Roy E. Disney (a member of the Executives Branch and Walt’s uncle), musical composer Maurice Jarre (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago”) and director John Hughes (“16 Candles,” “The Breakfast Club”).

Tune in to the telecast of the 82^nd Academy Awards on March 7 to bid farewell to these and other less famous Oscar insiders. R.I.P.