"Iran is planning to retaliate against Argo with its own big-budget movie, titled Joint Command, about the 1979-80 events and the secret operation that led to the escape of six U.S. diplomatic personnel." —Iran's government-run press agencies are very upset about that Argo movie winning the American Oscar, especially because that one American lady presented the award. It's like Tehran doesn't even know the Obamas are Muslims!

Now that the Golden Globes have been awarded, the best part of Oscar season kicks into high gear: It's smear campaign time! (Also, allegation of smear campaigns time.) Coming out of the gate, the first apparent smear attempt comes at the expense of Colin Firth, as nefarious smearmongers circulate word that the character Firth plays in The King's Speech (King) was not a fan of the Jews. Veteran smear-watchers will recall that this is the same tactic used against Russell Crowe's character back when 2002's A Beautiful Mind was vying for Oscars. Crowe did not receive the Best Actor award, but he had just won the year [...]

As predicted in the previous installment of Mr. Wrong, here are my Oscar® picks. I am showing clips of my picks on the New York Times thing they have for Oscar® Picks, and I am not Plagiarizing the New York Times, OK? If you do the thing on the New York Times you could win an iPad, so go do that, and that explains why I have pictures of my picks from the New York Times here, it's "Fair Use," and I'm a Journalist, HAR.

I feel pretty good about my picks and I'm putting five bucks into my regular Oscar® pool, where everybody picks all the Oscar®s, [...]

Each year on your pre-party Oscar ballot, you likely take a wild stab at some of the more minor categories. But this is where experienced home Academy Awards predictors clean up. If you want to win that pool, you gotta bone up. And I can help you.

If you haven't watched all the short films… you're not alone! And it would not be a waste of your time to go watch them all. But I've seen all the nominees for Animated Short and for Live Action, and I've got a pretty good idea about what's going to score. Obviously, TONS of spoilers ahead.