jlh | SAGs and CSI

Well, it did snow last night, in that I was out in the snow, but it didn't stick so I'm not sure it counts. We're supposed to get more snow showers tonight, but it looks like we'll be lucky to get a real snow before February, and I must say I'm vexed.

I saw and loved Dreamgirls, and for many reasons I hope that it gets lots of awards, but I think I'm beginning to see what's going on with the awards. Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson's roles were just so good and they were so good in them that they somewhat overshadowed the whole Beyonce-Jamie Foxx drama. And they'll both be singing at the Academy Awards ceremony. So it may be that sort of "spread the wealth" thing that the Academy does, where it says, well, the best parts of that movie were really the supporting actor/actress and the songs, so we'll give them that.

Which is all to say how excited I was that Little Miss Sunshine, which may well be my personal favorite movie of 2006, got the ensemble SAG last night. Also, what a night for Steve Carrell, winning that and best comedy TV ensemble on the same night.

By the way, folks have been asking if/when there have been more than one song from one movie nominated for the Best Original Song award, and it's happened 10 previous times, all since 1980:

2003: Cold Mountain, neither song won
1994: 3 from Lion King, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" won
1993: Philadelphia, "Streets of Philadelphia" won
1992: Bodyguard and Aladdin each had two, "A Whole New World" won
1991: 3 from Beauty and the Beast, the theme won
1989: Little Mermaid, "Under the Sea" won
1985: White Nights, "Say You Say Me" won
1984: Footloose, neither won
1983: Yentl and Flashdance each had two, "Flashdance" won
1980: Fame, the theme won

You can look up all nominees and results in the Academy's easy-to-use database at oscars.org.

Meanwhile I caught up on CSI the other day and damnit, every time I think I've given up on the show it sucks me back in, though that very unevenness is what is most frustrating about it. Liev Schrieber has come from the east to fill in for Gil while he's on a teaching sabbatical and has established himself as vaguely creepy, junior to Cath but possibly senior to Nick/Warrick/Sara, and not much of a team player. In last week's episode, he suggested a strategy that forced Cath to lie to the rest of the team. Nick was the first to suspect something wrong, and lead his teammates to nearly uncover the entire deception by the time the plan ultimately failed and Cath copped to it. At the end of the episode Warrick seems pretty forgiving, as does Greg, but Sara refuses to even say how she feels in front of the other team members she's so angry, and Nick is clearly still upset at the end of the episode.

What's interesting here for me is that while when Gil is around Nick is often a foil, when he isn't Nick often leads, as in Gum Drops. True, Warrick keeps being named by Gil as the lead guy behind Cath, with the "back bone of the team" speech and his being left in charge when both Cath and Gil were away, but has there been any other episode where he's really led the team? (Note that he was away much of last year because he was making a movie; at least we have a reason why.) Also, Nick stuck up for Cath a few weeks ago when that lawyer was talking her down. So I'm very interested to see where Nick's sense of betrayal leads.

The episode also reminded us of the package on Gil's desk and I'm really worried that he'll be killed as soon as he gets back, given that the mini crime scenes are usually delivered to the victims. I wonder if the February or May sweeps episodes will be all about solving the mystery of Gil's murder? Gosh, I hope not.