Oscar season's smear-outsourcing trend spreads today to Italy, where bizarre new allegations threaten to complicate — if not quite derail — Team Benjamin Button's fledgling comeback quest.

After so many years of tired Oscar-campaign squabbles unfolding in our backyard, we're quite liking the change of scenery to the exotic slums of Mumbai.

Two days after the Slum Interview Heard Round the World forced a detour upon Fox Searchlight's Oscar express, at least one other Best Picture hopeful is making its own swift move for the win.

We'd say we love Anne Hathaway's naughty side, except the more we think about it, it's increasingly clear that may be her only side.

If you were one of the millions of SAG Awards watchers thinking Angelina Jolie looked a little frumpy-dumpy in her Max Azria gown, that's probably because she had the thing on backwards.

You know you're an Oscar frontrunner when the defensive becomes the default. Ask Fox Searchlight — they'll tell you.

Congratulations to Self magazine, for Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend naming its publisher the company's Publisher of the Year! But when you look at the numbers, you see just how sad this award really is:

Maybe it's the work of a crafty saboteur worried about going 0-for-13 on Oscar night, or maybe it's unfounded. But whoever's leading the anti-Slumdog Millionaire effort may find its Achilles' heel in Mumbai.

· Here's this year's Oscars poster, featuring the Kodak's impressive array of laser cannons, aimed to incinerate any winner whose acceptance speech exceeds the allotted time. (They're looking at you, Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman.) [Access Hollywood]

We can officially cross one of this year's must-watch Oscar subplots off our list, with the Academy announcing a rare exception of four producers for Best Picture nominee The Reader.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button grazed history last week with 13 Academy Award nominations. But could it seize Oscar legend by the throat on Feb. 22 with 13 losses? We think so!

OK, so for real this time: Much as we loved our festival jaunt (and are keeping its sinus-besieging germs close to us even today), Sundance's awards announcements are our official signal to finally move on.

Newly implicit in the awards show gauntlet is the poison-picking question, "Joey Fatone or Lisa Rinna?" SAG nominee James Franco selected Fatone rather than his TV Guide Channel cohost. He chose unwisely.

Only four more weeks til the Oscars! Which, if last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards showing by Slumdog Millionaire is any indication, means only 11 more months until your next viable Oscar race.

Paramount Emperor Brad Grey is undoubtedly delighted with the 13 Oscar nominations earned by his pet project The Curious Case of Benjamin Button—truly an impressive haul for a movie no one actually liked.

It used to be that Sundance acclaim meant the kiss of death for its recipients. The 2008 Oscar nominations may signal the end of that curse.

We now know who'll be nervously muttering, "C'mon man—get on with it," during Hugh Jackman's half-dozen Oscar numbers. But how much do you really know about the nominees? Take this quiz and see:

This morning's Oscar nominations offered a desperately needed opportunity to pare this season's awards also-rans from the ranks of the contenders. Alas, it just means higher-stakes hype and drama for the lucky ones:

Greetings from the lobby of our Sundance accommodations (last day!), where it's pitch black outside and we're in our pajamas. The announcements are about to start.

You've read our other nomination prognostications; now, who will challenge Slumdog Millionaire for the Best Picture Oscar? No one—the real question is whether Wall-E can claim that final spot. So what do we think?