Yeah, that's right. Nothing worth filling a column with this week (and you certainly won't catch me preaching the rules and anti-rules of the game that have been covered en masse for the better part of a decade).

Still no chart updates, though the predictions in the sidebar are updated accordingly. I'm buying "Little Miss Sunshine"'s Best Picture potential now, especially in the face of "Babel" dropping to fine but not across-the-board praise. It's always been a tough sell, one that still might fight its way into the drama race at the Golden Globes. But I'm not so certain of its Oscar potential anymore. I wasn't at last night's Westwood party, so I couldn't test those waters...but then, it was assuredly a thumbs up crowd all the way. Who can be negative when you've got free food and booze, stars floating around, etc.?

Meanwhile, the interesting thing this season seems to be that everything has peaked a bit early. "The Queen"'s buzz was massive and now there really just isn't anywhere else to go with it. Forest Whitaker's buzz wave has also subsided, which isn't great news considering "Venus" (which I'm seeing tonight) still has a release, and therefore, Peter O'Toole talking point bruhaha, still to come. And when "The Pursuit of Happyness" finally drops in December - watch out for Big Willy.

I'm eager to see the new listing of Gurus of Gold charts at Movie City News this week as well (which has been a far better gauge of the buzz than anything else out there - an honest observation, not a pissing match instigation). A few of the Gurus, I think, were also at last week's screening of "The Pursuit of Happyness," so it'll be interesting to see who's thinking Best Picture this time around.

In the meantime, a few heavy-hitters still need to be unveiled. Some have seen "Notes on a Scandal," others have not. Some have seen "The Good German," others have not. And no one's seen "The Good Shepherd." Ditto "Dreamgirls," but that'll change next week. So there's really nothing but immediate anticipation and no real commentary on the whole mess to bother with this week.

Keep it here later in the week for Gerard's interview with editors Lucia Zucchetti and Leo Trombetta of "The Queen" and "Little Children" respectively. And, of course, there's always rumblings aplenty at The Blog.