It’s 5:15 pm and dark out as I sit at my usual Lincoln Center-area Starbucks. I’m about to head downtown for Indiewire’s Xmas party on Spring Street and therefore don’t feel like calling around about anything, but a friend tells me there’s a small story to be had about whether or not Up In The Air‘s real-life unemployed will make an appearance at the Oscars in early March.

One of the angles is “did Up In The Air‘s real-life ‘terminated employees’ get Taft-Hartleyed into SAG so they can get a little residual kick-back from the movie?” Will they at least be invited to the Oscar telecast? And if Up In The Air wins Best Picture, “will father and son producing team of Ivan and Jason Reitman give a shout-out to those ‘terminated employees’ in the audience – or better yet, even call them up on stage to receive recognition?”

I’ll make some calls about this tomorrow morning. Fair enough?