The gifted, ginger-haired French mouse otherwise known as Isabelle Huppert has agreed to receive the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Montecito Award on Wednesday, 2.8. The Elle star, a recent winner of three Best Actress trophies from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Gotham Awards, was invited to participate by festival honcho Roger Durling, whose savvy endorsements of certain award-season contenders for the last dozen or so years has led to his status as a kind of swami-like oddsmaker, an Oscar whisperer, Santa Barbara’s “Nick the Greek.” Before this morning Huppert was a fairly certain Best Actress contender, but now with Durling’s tribute she’s locked down. Does anyone remember Huppert in Bertrand Blier‘s Going Places? That was when I first sat up and took notice, 42 fucking years ago.