And The Winners Are...Endless

By Jyoti Thottam

It took a while, but people are catching on to the secret of the Academy Awards: for three hours every star in Hollywood works for free. These days they're working overtime. The B-list Golden Globes now get breathless TV coverage to rival the Oscars, and even the Broadcast Film Critics Association has landed a seven-year cable deal for its Critics' Choice awards. Still to come: the Screen Actors Guild Awards (March 10) and the Independent Spirit Awards (March 23). How do the Oscar folks feel about all this? Asked about the latest entry in the awards parade--those bestowed by the American Film Institute--Bruce Davis, director of the Motion Picture Academy, noted dryly, "There have been three-day stretches in January when no one hosted a movie-awards show, and I think this fills that gap nicely."

--By Jyoti Thottam