Not long now.

Since we're coming right up on the Live Oscar Blog I thought I should do something I promised. Without much time I'll run through the list of Best Actor nominees and give you my surprise pick for the night.

Forest Whitaker - Forest plays Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland and hits the nail on the head. The problem is the nail is sitting on the head of a scared dissident and Amin is using an actual hammer and not a metaphorical one. Whitaker does great in the role but we have to take a lot of points off for the fact that they are in Uganda and NOT Scotland.

Peter O'Toole - A surprisingly steady performance from the aging star who plays a lecherous astronaut launched toward the Earth's sister planet. Will he succumb to the heat? Will forgetting his space suit combined with the lack of oxygen do him in? Has he heard of "astronaut diapers", and if so, does he soil them? No one really cares. Maybe he'll get a lifetime achievement award.

Will Smith - Nominated for the slice of life drama The Pursuit of Happyness, Will does a wonderful job acting but is an atrocious speller. Why not just call the movie Da Persoot of Happyness? D minus for the spelling but I did like his acting.

Leonardo DiCaprio - Leo does a fantastic turn in Blood Diamond as a boyishly cute diamond smuggler who gets very messy in the process of doing something. The something is not important as we are supposed to obsess about the fact that the boyishly handsome Leonardo DiCaprio is actually getting very messy. The problem with this plan is that it didn't work for Charlize Theron last year and it won't this year either.

Ryan Gosling - No really. I guess he did a good job as a teacher breaking racial stereotypes and doing good "things" and all in Half Nelson. Still, its Ryan Gosling.

Well, since the red carpet festivities are fast approaching I'll go ahead and give you my surprise pick. It may not be a surprise if you've read in to what I wrote above but the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture goes to:


Sir Ian McKellen

See, I knew you would guess it.