Every year the Oscars try their damnedest to tap the pulse of American moviegoers and every year they cock it up. Some years ago, Crash won Best Picture and we head-desked until the only thing left on our necks was bloody pulp. Renée Zellweger won one of those gold statuettes for talking in a southern drawl in Cold Mountain and we asked the universe what we had done to have such mediocrity rewarded. Sometimes the Oscars do nice things do, too. Like tossing a win to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive for Best Director or giving a nod to Babel's Rinko Kikuchi. If the Grammys' fault lies in trying too hard to appeal to Joe Plumber, the Oscars' fault may lie in trying too hard to appeal to Joe Plumber's gender-queer niece who's hopping beds around Vassar. So it's a cause for celebration that this morning, when the 2010 Oscar nominees were announced, more than snubs, there were some real gems on the list. Nine of the very best, after the break

Previously on the Golden Globes all this happened! Also: Mo'Nique's leg-stubble happened. With so much happening, it's still a testament to the crumbling institution of journalism that few reporters were intrepid enough to single out the night's most charming couple--novelist Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. This site even made the embarrassing gaffe of listing Gaiman as an anonymous +1.

● Jeff Buckley fans will not only be horrified to learn that there is a biopic in the works, but that Jared Leto, James Franco, and Robert Pattinson are all in the running to play the late singer. [Exclaim] ● Peaches Geldof, 20-year-old divorcee and party girl, says she’s a better role model than Disney mascot Miley Cyrus. [TheSun] ● Megan Fox is all for the legalization of marijuana and doesn’t appreciate that people think she’s a “crazy hippie” for smoking a doobie once in awhile. [KansasCity]

Initially, Stephin Merritt's somber basso profundo is unsettling. And although he's not the kind to mince words, everything he says is so well-considered that extended moments of silence make you wonder whether something you've just said is heretic, or worse, stupid. But then you realize that The Magnetic Fields/The 6ths/The Gothic Archies/Future Bible Heroes frontman is, even in mid-conversation, is verging on his next stroke of brilliance. His latest such display -- an off-Broadway adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline -- began at the West Village's Lucille Lortel Theatre last week. And so, Merritt carved out a little time to discuss the three-dimensional triumphs of the stage and men in gorilla suits.