Given its breakout box-office success, "Juno" is now a heavyweight contender for an Oscar best-pic nomination and star Ellen Page may be emerging as the best-actress frontrunner.

The $3.2 million that "Juno" just earned on Friday in less than 1,000 theaters is the second-biggest haul ever for such an indie flick, falling shy of the $8.2 million record set by "The Blair Witch Project" on 1,101 screens in 1999. "Juno" continued to rack up more than $3 million per day since then, bringing its tally to $25.7 million. Its momentum suggests that it'll soon surpass other notable indies in this derby, including "No Country for Old Men" ($41 million). It's already surpassed "Atonement" ($11 million), but that's in restricted release — on only 310 screens for now.

Fox Searchlight is so juiced by "Juno's" early success that it's upping its rollout to a total of 2,000 screens next weekend. The film being billed as "this year's 'Little Miss Sunshine'" will surely end up outshining last year's best-pic nominee, which earned about $60 million in the U.S.

What makes "Juno" glow are two things: Ellen Page's radiant performance and Diablo Cody's sizzling script. Cody already has the Oscar for original screenplay locked up. Now "Juno's" mega-success presses Page ahead in the actress' derby, too. Up till now she wasn't getting sufficient respect because she portrays an uppity, pregnant 16-year-old who deserves a good slap. But actress Page is really a 20-year-old Serious Thespian deserving serious attention from Oscar voters now that her movie has been endorsed so enthusiastically by film critics (Roger Ebert trumpets "Juno" as the best picture of 2007) and moviegoers. She's also campaigning agressively, by the way. You can catch her on David Letterman 's show on Thursday night, Jan. 3.

Page has recent Oscar history on her side. Look at the best-actress champs over the past 10 years: 6 were first-time nominees. Voters love ingénues, especially if they're sexy — and that's Page, in a quirky kinda way. One of Page's chief rivals is 66-year-old Julie Christie ("Away from Her"), who's still sexy, sure, but not in that winking, come-hither way of Helen Mirren, who won last year at age 61 after unbuttoning her bra on the cover of Los Angeles magazine. Shrewdly, Mirren played up her randiness in a bawdy way last year and managed to appeal to the usual Babe Factor in this race. Recent winners have almost all been hotties coveted by the ole geezers who dominate the motion-picture academy: Charlize Theron, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts. Other than Mirren, only one woman past the age of 50 has won an Oscar for acting over the past 15 years (Judi Dench, "Shakespeare in Love").

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Joey Bishop died in October at age 89 of multiple organ failure after an impressive career that included no nominations for Emmys, Grammys, Oscars or Golden Globes. Perhaps he should've tried faking a smile once and a while — prove to us that he could act.

Just months after Ronald Reagan dumped Jane Wyman after 8 years of marriage, she got a date with Oscar, winning best actress of 1948 for portraying a deaf-mute rape victim in "Johnny Belinda." She died in September at age 90 of complications from diabetes and arthritis.

Yvonne De Carlo revealed the true ugly side of Hollywood. When the poor thing died at age 84 in January, she had never been nommed for any award as ghoulishly gorgeous Lily on "The Munsters" TV show (1964-66).

Charles Nelson Reilly won a Tony Award as Broadway's best supporting actor in a musical in 1962 ("How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying") and was nominated twice more (best supporting actor, "Hello, Dolly!" 1964; best director of a play, "The Gin Game," 1997). Lost three Emmy noms, including best supporting actor in a comedy series in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (got beat by Michael Constantine of "Room 222"). Too bad he never won any awards for his hilarious turns on "The Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares." He died in May at age 75 of complications from pneumonia.

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Last night I dozed off in front of a blazing fire up at my cabin in the Pennsylvania mountains while reading Graham Greene's novella "Under the Garden," a haunting tale of a man dying of cancer who revisits his childhood home to rediscover the magic kingdom hidden in the back yard. This morning I awoke to discover a magic kingdom surrounding the cabin where I've lived temporarily, on and off, for 22 years. A blizzard had visited us in the night.

Since I purchased the house in 1985, my Poconos retreat has been an enchanted place where I could escape from the mania of Manhattan and Hollywood. I don't get out here much these days — maybe only three or four times per year. Too, too busy. But I always try to make a point of being here on New Year's Eve and I pulled that off again this year. Hurrah! Tomorrow morning (New Year's Day) I must be back in Manhattan early to appear on MSNBC for several segments between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET, but I'll probably leave here in the middle of the night so I can maximize my stay. Uh oh! Do you think I could get snowed in? I certainly hope so! CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PIX!

Deer come up to the porch sometimes, appear unafraid of humans, but then suddenly turn and bolt.

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According to the Hollywood Reporter, the legal battle over a planned sale of Mary Pickford's Oscar statuette for "Coquette" will be decided by mediation. READ MORE. Read the L.A. Times' update on the drama CLICK HERE. Variety's report from last month m‐ CLICK HERE!

If you don't know the answer to the question below, I'm sending you to Oscars Detention Room where you can read one of my books. I highly recommend this one as a starter — CLICK HERE. If you don't know the answer to the question, I shan't taunt you anymore — CLICK HERE!

With "Diving Bell and the Butterfly" being a serious player in many Oscar categories, let's look back at how other foreign-language films have fared. Can you name the one that holds the record for most bids? How many nominations did it have? How many wins? ANSWER — CLICK HERE!

It's well known that Jerry Seinfeld has turned down offers to host the Oscar ceremony in the past. But why?

Recently, he blabbed to Britain's Empire magazine, "If I hosted the Oscars and I did it really well, they would just ask me to do it again. And then again. And again. There's no up-side. I don't know, it's just a weird environment. I'm lucky that I can do things that kind of interest me as a challenge, but everybody there is nervous, you know? They want to win their award. They're not there to have fun. I like to go in front of an audience that wants to have fun."

At various times in the past, three of the stars pictured below have said that they keep their Oscar(s) in the bathroom. Which winner did not? ANSWER — CLICK HERE!

In the spirit of the holidays, I promise to give members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association a break and not snoop among them until after New Year's Day. Till then, though, let me offer some general prognostication about the comedy/musical film races like I recently did with the drama film slots.

BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
"Across the Universe"
"Charlie Wilson's War"
"Hairspray"
"Juno"
"Sweeney Todd"

The foreign press really dig that unique Yankee movie experience, the musical. If a successful one is nominated here, even amongst blockbuster comedies, it usually wins ("Dreamgirls," "Moulin Rouge!" "Chicago," "Evita"). Much has been made this year about HFPA members' peculiar love of "Across the Universe," but let's recall that they also adored that low-energy, s-l-o-w-e-d-down screen adaptation of "Phantom of the Opera" a few years back, which flopped at the b.o. and lost at the Globes (to songless "Sideways," no less). So forget "Universe." This year they're also ga-ga over "Hairspray," which was hugely and surprisingly successful and could win, but it's old (came out last summer) and silly, not having "Sweeney's" gravitas and artistic cred. Besides, "Sweeney" is the only rival whose director is also nominated. That doesn't always equal victory. "Babe" won without helmer Chris Noonan being nommed, beating "The American President," whose Rob Reiner made the directors' list. But that overlap between categories usually fingers the winner ahead.

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"
Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Savages"
John C. Reilly, "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

When I attend the Golden Globes, I prefer to hang out back in the general press room where you can dish with winners and swap snarky comments with your journo pals. But I'm awfully glad I made an exception in 2004 (for the 2003 awards year) and agreed to sit out in the audience at a banquet table among the nominees. What a shock! Throughout the night I witnessed the sore losers — of which there are legions — get up and leave during the telecast's commercial breaks. That year I sat next to the "Six Feet Under" table. Soon after they lost best drama series to "24," all of the cast members save one scooted, leaving behind Frances Conroy, who had to wait around for the best-actress category. She won. Later that night I spied the poor dear sitting alone at the HBO party downstairs, her Golden Globe in her lap, a forlorn look on her face and not a fellow cast member nearby to help her to celebrate. Jerks!

But the biggest shockeroo of all occurred when the winner of best comedy/musical actor in a film was announced. "Pirates" nominee Johnny Depp didn't even bother to wait until a TV commercial break. After losing to Bill Murray ("Lost in Translation"), the big baby ran out so fast that I thought the Beverly Hilton was ablaze.

Well, I guess losing can get kind of rough on an ego-pampered star after a while. It was Johnny's fourth Globes defeat. He's lost three more since then ("Finding Neverland," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"). Last year he didn't throw another tantrum exit because he didn't attend.

This year I think it's obvious that he'll be heading in the other direction at last, up to the podium to accept his first Globe in eight nominations, then heading to the press room to join us. No other actor in this race has a prayer, so I was told by several HFPA members when I snooped before the holidays.

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Two days after the Oscars sent out nomination ballots (Dec. 26), the Screen Actors Guild shipped ballots to nearly 100,000 members to determine winners. SAG refuses to reveal how many are typically returned, but they're due this year by noon Pacific time on Friday, Jan. 25 to Integrity Voting Systems. Winners will be unveiled on Jan. 27 at the ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium and simulcast on TNT and TBS thanks to a waiver from the Writers Guild of America.