All right, folks. We're down to the last few minutes before the telecast begins. The big kids are making their arrivals and it's looking like a party.

I'm not in the predictions busines (I'm not the Yahoo! expert whose picks you can challenge here), but I do have hopes for tonight.

* I hope the show comes in as promised --under 3½ hours.  I already sat through "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" -- even the title was too long; I should've known the movie would follow suit.  Anyhow, with the writers just back from their strike, here's hoping that they simply haven't had time to write too much material and we can keep this show quick and breezy.

* I hope Jon Stewart is awesome.  He usually is, but this is a rough gig for him.  Stewart's currency is irony and calling people on their inauthenticity and hypocrisy.  Hollywood is full of phonies and hypocrites.  They are willing to laugh at themselves, but only to a certain point. Stewart is a pro and can feel a room, but he's playing to two different crowds -- the Kodak Theatre and the billions of regular folks watching.  He obviously did a good enough job on his last try to get this shot, but all previous kidding aside, without the proper prep time, he's got to hope for something spectacular to happen that he can latch on to for a deep well of ad-libs.

* I hope "Juno" wins for screenplay.  If you listen to the words Diablo Cody wrote, they are funny and original.

* I hope "Juno" wins nothing else.  Even Ellen Page herself doesn't think she deserves the award, and with Marion Cotillard on the ballot, that's fine with me too.  What I'm hoping for most is that Jason Reitman does not win the Best Director award.  He is most to blame for the glib and inauthentic tone of the film, and the lack of a distinctive visual style makes this nomination even more puzzling.  When you see the other nominees in this category -- how P.T. Anderson can tell so much story with so few shots, how the Coens don't need but a whisper of music in the first 25 minutes of a chilling drama, how Julian Schnabel makes blurry beautiful -- you see the maturing that Reitman has yet to experience.  He will have his opportunities, but this is not it.

* I hope the documentaries aren't an afterthought.  Yes, most are about the war.  Yes, many put down the current administration.  The thing is, it's kind of difficult to be current without talking about the war.  And it's kind of difficult to make an interesting movie if you're not critical of the status quo.  Otherwise you don't have documentaries, you have propaganda. 

* I hope, please please please, that "Persepolis" wins Best Animated Feature and that Marjane Strapi's speech inspires millions of people to see what just may well be the best picture of 2007.

* I kind of hope that Norbit wins for Best Makeup.  It wasn't the best makeup of 2007, but won't it be great to see the next Eddie Murphy movie advertised as "star of the Academy Award-winning 'Norbit'"?

Keep hope alive!