Oscar nominees are out. A few thoughts:

• Good for Will Smith and Denzel Washington! For the first time ever, two black men are nominated in the “Best Actor” category.
• Renee Zellweger? Please. (I’m so over my pro-her phase.) All she did was put on a few pounds. Her accent was actually terrible, we discovered (when we didn’t watch the screen). Whoever thought that both Renee Zellweger and Ethan Hawke would be nominated for Oscars??
• I haven’t seen the movie, but doesn’t Jennifer Connelly have, like, the leading female role in A Beautiful Mind? Did they call it a supporting role just so she wouldn’t have to go up against Sissy Spacek?
• Personally, I think the artistic categories are the really difficult ones to call this year. I mean, the costumes in Moulin Rouge and Lord of the Rings were used for completely different purposes, and both brilliantly. How do you pick one over the other??
• It’s nice to see Amelie picked up a few. It’s a shoo-in for Best Foreign Film, I think, seeing as how I’ve never heard of any of the others.
• Wow. They caved to the critics and threw David Lynch a bone. My sister hated that movie.

I expect my friend Kel’s annual “Oscar Pick ‘Em Contest” e-mail to be arriving soon. Anybody got any hot tips?