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Getting up before 6:00 AM to watch the Oscar nominations is a stunt that can easily cripple the sleep-deprived mind. Moments after we'd flipped on the announcement coverage, we drifted into that hazy place between sleep and wakefulness, and we could've sworn we saw forked tongues ablaze with hellflame flick from the mouths of Mira Sorvino and Academy president Sid Ganis as they announced each name from the Best Picture Hopeful List of the Damned: Must Love Dogs...Crash...Guess Who...Crash...and Stealth. Even in the fog of semi-consciousness, we found it odd that Crash could be nominated twice in the same category, but quickly wrote off the mild cognitive dissonance to the fact that if the Academy could be so wrong about the movie, they could easily have awarded it the unprecedented double-nod. After what seemed like hours, we snapped awake. The real Crash nightmare, we soon discovered, will be about five weeks long.

[Photo: Getty Images]