The reason Fox will be pushing Devil Wears Prada star Meryl Streep in the Best Actress category, I suspect, is that they don’t want her up against likely Best Supporting Actress contender Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (Paramount/DreamWorks, 12.15). Because she would stand a pretty good chance of losing if they did. I don’t know anything but I sense awesomeness from Hudson’s performance, based on what little I’ve seen.
Streep will probably lose in the Best Actress race anyway…no offense. She’s up against The Queen‘s Helen Mirren, who has a much richer part than Streep’s Miranda Priestley (another sort of aloof queen) and seems all but unstoppable at this stage, and Penelope Cruz’s struggling-mother performance in Volver — her absolute career best — is, I feel, deeper, stronger and more full of life than Mirren and Streep’s performances put together.