COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES:

“Hooray for Holly…” Come on, everybody, we can do this…“Hooray for Hollywood, that screwy bally-hooey Hollywood, where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic…”

Stop, wait, wait. That was not good. We try that every year, and every year it sounds awful. In fact I think it’s getting worse.

But not to worry. Whenever you hear that song, you know what time it is, don’t you? Yes, bubula, it’s time for the Annual “Peter B-Holy-Moley-How-Does-He- Know-That? Oscar Picks.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Amy Adams in “Doubt”; Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”; Viola Davis in “Doubt”; Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”; Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler.”

Sorry to get whiny right off the bat, but this one is tough. All these girls are heavy hitters and all deserve their nominations, times 10.

Penélope Cruz knocks it out of the park as Javier Bardem’s occasionally insane, always funny ex in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

The best line I heard about this film was, “Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johanssen…were there no pretty people available for this thing?”

Amy Adams is sensational as a naïve and painfully conflicted nun in “Doubt,” a film that scared me senseless, but we’ll get back to that.

Viola Davis is on-screen for about three minutes in “Doubt,” but her performance as an aggrieved mother is searing.

Marisa Tomei is a knockout in “The Wrestler” and continues to be one of the most underrated actresses in the game, handicapped by having won her first Oscar too young and for the wrong movie, “My Cousin Vinny.”

I would give the Little Guy to Amy Adams for her jaw-dropping monologue when she finally confronts Meryl Streep. But the winner is, Penelope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Josh Brolin in “Milk”; Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”; Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt”; Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”; Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road.”

In a normal year, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who has reinvented acting, would win. But Ledger’s updated, terrifying “Joker” in “The Dark Knight” was beyond brilliant. The combination of the performance and the sympathy vote makes Ledger large and in charge. The winner is: Heath Ledger in “Dark Knight.”

The nominees for Best Actor are: Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”; Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”; Sean Penn in “Milk”; Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”; Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler.” Wow. This one is hard too. Penn, Langella, and Rourke, which sounds like a law firm, all turned in tour de force, once-in-a lifetime, if that often, performances.

I pick Brad Pitt, who was incredible in “Benjamin Button,” but Pitt will never beat the pretty boy rap. And, let’s be honest, the only reason he was picked was to make sure Angelina showed up for the pre-Awards show, which, conversely, explains why Angelina was nominated for Best Actress.

But this one is a WAF (World Acting Federation) smack-down between Penn and Rourke. Penn is the favorite and deservedly so: He was stunningly good as Harvey Milk.

Rourke is the dark horse, with his electrifying portrayal of a washed-up, total loser wrestler who is the perfect match for Marisa Tomei’s fabulous but pathetic stripper.

But the Academy has a long tradition of honoring actors portraying tragic, historical figures, so the winner is: Sean Penn in “Milk.”

The nominees for Best Actress are: Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married”; Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” (see above: “Getting Brad Pitt to Oscars”); Melissa Leo in “Frozen River”; Meryl Streep in “Doubt”; Kate Winslet in “The Reader.” This is the slammiest of the slam dunks.

This one is all Kate, all the time. As a former SS camp guard who seduces a young British lad, Winslet doesn’t burn up the screen — she vaporizes it.

Meryl Streep was awesome in “Doubt.” Then again, tell me something I don’t know. She also scared me way more than Hannibal Lector because she was my eighth-grade nun, Sr. Mary Benigna, come back to life. I’m telling you she turned her head and looked directly at me at least three times. At one point, while Amy Adams was talking, she turned to me and mouthed, “I can still see you.”

And the winner is, except you’d have to be from Neptune not to know this — Kate Winslet in “The Reader.”

The nominees for Best Director are: David Finsher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”; Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”; Gus Van Sant, “Milk”; Stephen Daltry, “The Reader”; Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Like “Best Actress,” this one’s a dunker, it’s over, no mystery whatsoever. Special inside-Hollywood hot tip: Boyle won the gold at this year’s Directors Guild awards and those are the same folks who vote on Best Director for the Oscars. It is mathematically impossible to win Best Director at the DGA awards and not do the same at the Oscars.

And the winner is: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire,” which brings us to another slam-dunk, lead-pipe cinch, don’t-even-bother-sealing- the-envelope category.

The nominees for Best Picture are: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader,” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Is “Slumdog” the best picture? It is not. Best acting? Please. Did you not notice Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and Philip Seymour Hoffman? But remember this. Every so often, when the planets line up just so and the tides are right and the moon is so full you can reach up and touch it, a film becomes much more than a film.

Think “Jaws,” “The Godfather,” “Titanic.” Those weren’t movies — they were social phenomena. “Slumdog Millionaire” is a wonderful feel-good movie about an underdog who cannot possibly win, but does, against impossible odds, and even gets the girl in the last reel. People around the world have decided that this movie makes them feel really really good at a time when things are really really bad.

When that happens, the race for Best Picture is over, even when a Less-than-Best Picture wins. And the winner is: “Slumdog Millionaire.”

There you have it. I have no more to tell you. Don’t ever change, let’s do lunch, have your people call my people. You’re the best. Seriously. And remember, never work with kids or animals. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected].