Countdown Until Oscar Nominations Begins
JIM MORET, CO-HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Jim Moret in Hollywood.</s>LAURIN SYDNEY, CO-HOST: And I'm Laurin Sydney in New York. And, Jim, it's that time again. Set that alarm. Only a couple more days until Oscar nominations are announced.</s>MORET: Can't wait. "American Beauty" picked up some Oscar momentum today with the announcement of the Writers Guild Award nominees. Screenwriter Alan Ball is among the contenders. In the original screenplay category, he will go up against Paul Thomas Anderson, writer/director of "Magnolia." Also recognized for original scripts were "Being John Malkovich," "Three Kings" and "The Sixth Sense."</s>SYDNEY: In the adapted screenplay category, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" will try to outdo the talented John Irving, who adapted his "Cider House Rules." Among the other nominees: "The Insider," "October Sky" and "Election."</s>MORET: We'll find out who's in the club and who got the snub on Tuesday morning. Join us for the nomination-day special: "WHO WANTS TO BE OSCAR WINNER," with live coverage of the announcement from Academy headquarters in Beverly Hills. It of course all begins at 8:00 a.m. Eastern, 5:30, Pacific. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild did not forget "Election" and "October Sky," but there's no guarantee with Oscar, however. He sometimes neglects films that come out earlier in the year. Paul Vercammen reports on the underdogs hoping to be remembered.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Shakespeare in Love" hit theaters late in 1998, built an audience in early 1999, and won the Academy Award for best picture over "Saving Private Ryan," a summer release.</s>ROBERT OSBORNE, FILM HISTORIAN: It certainly helped "Shakespeare in Love" last year, because early in the year, "Saving Private Ryan" opened and everybody thought it had a lock on the Oscar. And then late in the year, they started seeing this "Shakespeare in Love," and saying, oh, I really like that movie, and that's when they were marking their ballots. So it can be very, very helpful.</s>VERCAMMEN: The prevailing Hollywood theory: Cast your Oscar bait, such as "American Beauty" and "The Insider," into the last four months of the year. "The Talented Mr. Ripley, "The Green Mile," "Cider House Rules," and "The Hurricane" all debuted in December. They were fresh in Academy Award voters' minds when the nomination ballots recently came out. Will this spell an Oscar snub for "October Sky," out in February, "Election," May... (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ELECTION") UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: When I win the presidency, that means you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together.</s>VERCAMMEN: ... and "Limbo" June, all featuring critically acclaimed performances?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a small film like an "Election," open early in the year, people see it, they forget it with all the others, because it doesn't have that big staying power and that big impact.</s>VERCAMMEN: The last three best picture winners are December releases, "Titanic" and two Miramax films, "Shakespeare" and "The English Patient." Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein gets credit for successful campaigning.</s>DANNY BOYLE, DIRECTOR: He actually sees the Oscar as a way of marketing the films. So he'll work hard to get his films Oscar nominations, Oscar buzz, whatever it is, because he wants people to see the film.</s>VERCAMMEN: Studios try to ensure their Oscar hopefuls are seen by Academy voters by shifting shipping video tapes, both early releases and end-of-year offerings.</s>KEVIN SMITH, DIRECTOR: There's no possible way you can get to all these movies that are in even limited release since the advent of the screener, where now you can watch everything in the comfort of your own home, and that's kind of not the way movies were designed to be watched, so the whole process seems kind of corrupted.</s>VERCAMMEN: Last decade, as the screener campaign heated up, early releases, "Silence of the Lambs," "Braveheart" and "Forrest Gump" won best picture. And some critics want summer release "The Sixth Sense," and Haley Joel Osment to follow this year. The race is wide open.</s>TOM SHERAK, DOMESTIC CHAIRMAN, TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX: This year, there's a lot of films, but there's really nothing that you can say, "That's it." And I think that's kind of going to be kind of fun as the Academy votes, and then what happens when the nominations come out.</s>VERCAMMEN: Maybe Academy voters will remember films seen before December. Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.</s>SYDNEY: "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" will soon be staring at moviegoers. Lions Gate Pictures plans to distribute the documentary about the former PTL queen, which was a hot ticket at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Sherri Sylvester on a story that might seem stranger than fiction.</s>TAMMY FAYE BAKKER-MESSNER: Jokes have kept me alive.</s>SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): OK, that's tempting, but additional punchlines are not required. There is plenty of humor in a new documentary on Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner, starting with the title, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you've never done pictures without those eyelashes?</s>BAKKER: No, and I never will. But that's my trademark. I don't think you guys would have been interested in big hips or fat ankles.</s>SYLVESTER: Tammy Faye believes that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so much so that she collects the eyeglasses of dead friends and relatives.</s>BAKKER: I like to put them on sometime and think, you know, mom would look through these.</s>SYLVESTER: The filmmakers go beneath the Maybeline for a revealing look at the one-time preacher's wife.</s>FENTON BAILERY, CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/"THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE": Twelve years ago, with the PTL scandal, we watched the spectacle of Tammy Faye's amazing fall from grace, but what people didn't know is the real person underneath that and how it was that that came to be.</s>BAKKER: The finished product made me cry so hard. Thank God you live life in increments, or you couldn't stand it. But when you see it all together, you really can't stand it.</s>SYLVESTER: A quick refresher course here. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker left their PTL ministry in 1987 amid a sex and money scandal. He spent five years in prison on fraud charges. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1987)</s>JIM BAKKER: We love God, and if God wants up, he'll put us up; if he wants us down, he'll put us down.</s>SYLVESTER: The documentary suggest that the Bakkers were prejudged in the court of public opinion and suffered a miscarriage of justice. The couple divorced, both remarried, and Jim was reluctant to take part in the film.</s>BAKKER: I said, Jim, I was married to you for 30 years, and I said, if the shoe were on the other foot and you were wanting me to do this, I would be glad to do it for you, and come to find out, he was having a problem with his wife over it.</s>SYLVESTER: Jim Bakker did do the interview and is now back at the pulpit. Tammy Faye is off to make a country music album with drag queen Ru Paul.</s>BAKKER: He's in drag, and he says, I am too.</s>SYLVESTER: He narrates the documentary, and she is heard singing background vocals. So what are moviegoers to make of all this?</s>BAKKER: I hope they come out not being so judgmental so quickly. I hope that they come out thinking for themselves. America is a land of very intelligent people.</s>SYLVESTER: Her son's reaction to the film was hardly cerebral.</s>BAKKER: Jamie all of the sudden says to me, "Mommy, you're going to have to excuse me, but I'm really sick. I've got to go throw up."</s>SYLVESTER: To fans, Tammy Faye's face is still one to watch. Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>ANNOUNCER: The divine "Miss M.," Bette Midler, starts touring and starts touting two new films. And a tour that's just starting: the reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.