The Academy Awards — often as predictable and exciting as watching paint dry — are wide open this year.
My Oscar oracle, sports handicapper Danny Sheridan, has been uncannily correct picking the top six categories over the last five years. He’s been 26-4.
But this year, he’s prepared to eat some humble pie.
“Because of the close signals I’m getting from voters, this is my toughest year in decades,” Sheridan said, “I could finish anywhere from 3-3 to a lucky 5-1.”
Best Picture will be won by “Conclave,” the thriller starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal electing a new Pope, Sheridan predicted. “It’s a great story, an adult movie, that spells an upset over the heavily favored ‘Anora.’”
Best Director will go to Sean Baker, whose “Anora” tells the story of a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, Sheridan said.
Best Actor will be Adrien Brody, for his performance in “The Brutalist” as an architect who escapes the Holocaust. “The feeling is Timothée Chalamet was great as Bob Dylan (in “A Complete Unknown”) but he’s young and will win this award soon,” said Sheridan.
Best Actress will go to Demi Moore for her portrayal in “The Substance” of an aging actress who injects a drug to reclaim her youth.
Best Supporting Actor will be Kieran Culkin, who travels to Poland in “A Real Pain” with his cousin in honor of their grandmother. “The part was written for him and only him and he said ‘yes,’” Sheridan said. “He’s like the horse Secretariat vs. the field. He’s funny and you never know what he’ll say.”
Best Supporting Actress will go to Zoe Saldana for her singing portrayal in “Emilia Pérez” of a lawyer who helps a drug cartel boss transition into a woman. “She pulled it off and is thought of as a fine actress who can sing and dance,” Sheridan said.
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Bob Dylan could make a few million dollars from “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothee Chalamet.
Dylan, already worth $500 million, helped make the movie that features 40 of his songs, and met with director James Mangold five times in a coffee shop to tweak the screenplay.
“Dylan had script approval,” said one source.
The film follows the journey of Dylan — real name Robert Zimmerman — from Minnesota to New York to visit a dying Woody Guthrie in the hospital. There he meets Pete Seeger, who befriended and mentored him and introduced him to Joan Baez.
The movie ends with his controversial electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
Jay Cocks, a former movie critic from Time magazine, wrote the first script based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric.”
“That was the script Searchlight bought,” my source said.
When Mangold was hired — having directed “Walk the Line” about Dylan’s great friend Johnny Cash — he was able to add personal aspects of Dylan’s life.
The film has grossed $110 million, and Chalamet is a possibility to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards, but don’t expect Dylan to appear at the ceremony.
When the musician won the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, he said he had “pre-existing commitments” and was unable to accept the prize in person.
But the 83-year-old must be happy. The film has sparked sales of Dylan’s music.
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Ann Dexter-Jones had an easy choice about where to celebrate her birthday.
Eleven Madison Park is the restaurant of chef Daniel Humm, whose is engaged to her daughter, actress Annabelle Dexter-Jones.
Ann told the crowd, “In order for my new son-in-law to marry my daughter he offered to give me this party. How convenient is that?”
Ann’s husband, Foreigner rocker Mick Jones, greeted such guests as “We Are Family” songwriter Nile Rodgers and writer Fran Lebowitz, whose TV documentary series “Pretend It’s a City” was directed by Martin Scorsese.
Also celebrating were Ann’s daughter DJ Samantha Ronson; the president’s ex sister-in-law Blaine Trump and her boyfriend Steve Simon; “Real Housewife” alum Dorinda Medley; artist Marsia Holzer; PR guru R. Couri Hay and designers Francisco Costa, Wes Gordon and Vanessa Noel.
Ann revealed, “I am writing a book. I was going to wait until some people died but not everyone was cooperating, so my children told me to just tell the truth.”
Ann’s son Mark Ronson — whose wife Grace Gummer, the daughter of Meryl Streep, just gave birth to a girl — provided the music.
The cake appeared and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” as if the room weren’t full of rock royalty with perfect pitch.
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Philanthropist Jean Shafiroff hosted an American Red Cross benefit at her uptown aerie for designer Julia Haart, “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell, NY Islanders owner Jon Ledecky, divorce lawyers Martha Cohen Stine and Harriet Newman Cohen, and Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in New York.
