[Programming Note: The 82nd Annual Academy Awards telecast is this Sun., March 7 at 8 p.m. and Movies & TV Editor Joe Bardi will be live-blogging the event. Come share your thoughts and help Joe celebrate the movies by mercilessly picking on people much more famous and good-looking than he is.]
Yesterday I covered the races for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, picking Inglourious Basterds' Cristoph Waltz and Precious' Mo'Nique as the likely winners. (Check out the full list of Oscar hopefuls here.) Today, we turn our attention to the five very lovely ladies vying for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Which performer will earn a special date with Oscar? Check out my breakdown of the race after the break, and then vote for your favorite in our online poll.
And the nominees are:
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.