• Today an academy member told me that he got a DVD screener of "The Visitor" that was shipped to the full general membership. Last week they all got "I've Loved You So Long." "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" arrived around Oct. 24, "Frozen River" in late September. Oh, yeah, and the "Burn After Reading" DVD that voters got a few weeks ago! I forgot to mention that one. But that's all that's arrived so far.

• The Indie Spirits are mounting a new attack on the Gotham Awards. They plan to announce their nominations on Dec. 2 — that's the same day that the Gothams will present awards to winners. And that's the same ploy the Spirits pulled last year while trying to upstage the rival trophy show. Remember, the two kudos bestowed to indie films on different coasts (Spirits in L.A., Gothams in Manhattan) used to be doled out by the East and West Coast branches of the same organization, the Independent Feature Project, but the Californians broke off from New York and three other IFP groups in 2006 and renamed their branch FIND (short for Film Independent). The fact that the New Yorkers dared to launch their own awards separate from the Spirits was one of the key issues that busted up the original organization.

• Have a good curious chuckle while Anne Thompson strenuously denies that she's publishing a review of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" while in fact doing so at Variety.com, even if it is from a non-journalist. Over the last few days I've heard top Oscar consultants denounce Thompson vehemently for pulling similar ploys throughout this derby season. To read Thompson's tattle (a rave), CLICK HERE. Now, in order to provide balance in the gossip department, you can read a less enthusiastic "review" ("I wasn’t as moved by this film as I wanted to be") at Pop Culture Nerd's blog, CLICK HERE.

Photo: Anchor Bay