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We thought we'd kickstart the festivities a smidge early this year with our first Oscar round-up of the season:
· A press release informs us that the date for next year's ceremony is being pushed back to the last Sunday in February. We thank the Oscar gods for gifting us with one less week of excruciating waiting to see what kind of oversized embellishment will be distracting us on Charlize Theron's shoulder.
· Popwatch scoffs at the Hot Blog's assessment that the accelerated polling and voting schedule will somehow "box the Golden Globes into obscurity," pointing out the preferability of the Globes' bottomless highball policy over Oscar's stingy cash-bar for A-list movers and schickers like Harrison Ford.
· The Envelope wonders if Tom Cruise, always close-but-no-cigar guy when he was nominated for those Important Pictures from his younger days, will ever have a decent shot at winning another Oscar again. They decide, for various reasons, that he does not.