Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil and The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg do another Oscar chit-chat. The Best Picture contenders of the moment, they say, are still The Artist, The Descendants, Moneyball, The Help and Midnight in Paris…obviously not counting the big unseens. Noteworthy: Feinberg remembers and pronounces the name of Michel Hazanavicius, director of The Artist.

O’Neil: “The Artist is not going to win a single critics’ Best Picture award. It’s very lightweight. The story is a little bon-bon.”

Feinberg: “There’s a lot of affection for The Descendants, but I don’t see it as a Best Picture winner. I don’t see Clooney pulling it out again [for a Best Actor Oscar].” Also: “If you don’t like kids or horses, forget War Horse.”

Could Moneyball happen? Feinberg: “I think it could. I don;t see it as a baseball movie. Like the book, it’s less about baseball than about ideas and doing things in a smaller, smarter way. This is the way Hollywood has to operate too.” Less of an emphasis on big stars and big bucks, he means, and more of an emphasis on just “getting on base,” so to speak.

“And the fact that Brad Pitt is in it, doesn’t hurt.”