• The third season of "Mad Men" premiered Sunday night on AMC to boffo numbers. The show set a ratings record, drawing 2.8 million viewers. That was a 33% increase from the Season 2 opener for the Emmy-winning drama series. While other basic cable shows – like "The Closer" and "Burn Notice" – rate twice as high, "Mad Men" has the most upscale audience, with half the ages 25-to-54 viewers earning at least $100K. Forbes

• Oscar-winning helmer Robert Redford ("Ordinary People") has inked a deal to direct "The Conspirator." James Solomon ("The Bronx Is Burning") scripted the biopic about Mary Surratt, hung for her part in the escape of President Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. James McAvoy is being sought to play the Union lawyer assigned to defend her. While Steven Spielberg has long been attached to a film about the 16th president, that project remains in limbo. The Hollywood Reporter

• The official site for "Avatar" crashed Monday under the weight of requests for tickets to Friday's Imax free-view of the film. However, as Jeff Wells reports, screenings outside the major markets did not fill up as quickly as the studio might have hoped, given the hype. Hollywood Elsewhere

• The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is feting the men behind Monty Python on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the sketch comedy troupe. The Oct. 15 BAFTA event in Gotham will include a screening of the IFC documentary "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)" as well as a Q&A with John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Variety

• The Venice film fest has renamed its competition for new reviewers after noted critic Tullio Kezich, who died Monday at age 80. Kezich had been a fixture at the festival since 1946 and was renowned in his native Italy for his writings on film as well as his biography of Federico Fellini. Variety

The nominations for the BAFTA TV Awards — the British equivalent of the Emmy Awards — are almost exclusively home-grown this year. Only "Wallander" — the Kenneth Branagh detective series that will play on "Masterpiece Mystery" in the coming months — has the requisite American production partner to make it Emmy eligible. Branagh earned his fourth TV nod from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for producing this adaptation of the bestselling series by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell. The show competes in the drama series category against a trio of past champs: "Spooks" (2003), "Shameless" (2005) and "Doctor Who" (2006).

Branagh was snubbed in the best actor race, which pits three actors from single drama biopics — Stephen Dillane ("The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall"), Jason Isaacs ("The Curse of Steptoe") and previous nominee Ken Stott ("Hancock and Joan") — against Ben Whishaw for the miniseries "Criminal Justice."

Contending for best actress, also a catch-all category that includes performances in one-offs, minis and series, are three first-time nominees — June Brown ("EastEnders"), Maxine Peake ("Hancock and Joan") and Andrea Risborough ("Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley") — and one previous winner, Anna Maxwell Martin ("Poppy Shakespeare").

The international category is all American with three drama series — "Dexter," "Mad Men" and "The Wire" — up against "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

The award show broadcast, hosted by Graham Norton at the Royal Festival Hall, is scheduled to air on BBC1 on April 26. The BAFTA website has the full list of nominees.

BAFTA splits up its awards between on-air and behind-the-scenes talent and will announce nominees for the Craft BAFTAS next week with that ceremony to be held May 17.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to "Hancock and Joan" as "Hancock and June" and this error has been corrected.

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That's what the Oscars nominee told Gold Derby tonight when I called her in Madrid to ask her what she'd do next Sunday when this derby race is done, the victor is known and, win or lose, she can finally catch her breath.

Penelope Cruz has four extra tickets to the ceremony, so she'll be at the Academy Awards with her brother, sister, mom (dad got to go to Golden Globes and BAFTA) "and one of my best friends from Spain from when I was a little girl," she said. "I want my family to have a good night. To win, it would be an amazing thing! But I want to enjoy the night and the people around me."

But tonight she coped with the pre-Oscars jitters by drinking herbal tea as we gabbed on the phone. She leaves Madrid in the morning to head to L.A. and begin her exciting week.

Listen to our podcast chat here —

. . . to find out what she thinks of this crazy awards drama that she's lived this year, which started out with big wins from the New York and Los Angeles film critics and continued most recently with another victory at BAFTA. Should she prepare an acceptance speech for the Oscars? The vast majority of award pundits at The Envelope think she'll need one, but is it presumptuous to do so? Or foolish for an actress not to have a script prepared in case it's needed for the biggest moment of her life?

Penelope Cruz shared such thoughts with us plus the details of her schedule for the week ahead in L.A. She's got lots of fittings scheduled to pick out the right dress for her march up the Oscars' red carpet plus such work-related gigs as a photo shoot for her upcoming movie, "Nine," directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago"), based on the Tony Award-winning musical.

"For me this has already been bigger than anything I could ever dream of," she told us.
"I started working in Spain when I was 16. To be in this situation twice, with the other nomination for 'Volver,' I am the first person to be surprised and overwhelmed . . . . Whatever happens, it's been a great adventure from the making of 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' to the great surprises that came with it and after."

Oh, yeah, and by the way, Penelope Cruz proves she has great cyber-taste. "I am a big fan of your website," she says. "I do look at the The Envelope, but I try not to read about myself . . . "

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By winning best picture at the BAFTA Awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" just became the second film, after "American Beauty," to sweep the top prizes from all of these awards: Golden Globes, National Board of Review, Critics Choice and the four guilds — producers, directors, writers and actors (ensemble award at SAG).

Last year "No Country for Old Men" won all of those prizes except BAFTA and the Golden Globe — "Atonement" claimed both of those best-picture prizes. In 2005, "Brokeback Mountain" nearly pulled off such a sweep, but National Board of Review went for "Good Night, and Good Luck," and "Crash" won best ensemble acting at SAG.

This impressive derby trot by "Slumdog Millionaire" does not come close to matching the greatest sweep ever in the history of showbiz awards — "Schindler's List" (1993). Back then, the SAG ensemble award and Critics Choice Awards didn't exist, but it swept up all best-picture prizes from every other major Hollywood awards group. It even pulled off a rare sweep of the critics trifecta: New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and National Society of Film Critics. All three disagreed this year. The Angelenos picked "Wall-E," New Yorkers got "Milk" and the national society danced off with "Waltz With Bashir." Curiously, all three critics' awards went their own way in 1999 when "American Beauty" paved the way for "Slumdog Millionaire's" romp at other top awards this year.

Ever since BAFTA moved up its awards calendar in 2000 so that its ceremony would precede the Oscar show — and therefore, presumably, influence it — the two awards agreed only twice on best picture: "Gladiator" (2000) and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003).

However, they've overlapped much more frequently in the acting races: 18 of the past 32 performance awards. Most impressive is that they agreed completely over the past two years. What about now?

Three of the four stars hailed as the Oscar front-runners by most award gurus came through at BAFTA: Kate Winslet ("The Reader"), Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") and Penélope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona").

However, Sean Penn ("Milk") lost to Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"). Both have won top awards during the derby so far: Penn bagged SAG, Rourke claimed the Golden Globe. Both have momentum and mega-buzz. By boosting "The Wrestler" star, this BAFTA victory turns the Oscar best-actor slugfest into a real heavyweight bout.

Beware: Over the past eight years, BAFTA has correctly predicted Oscar's best-actor champs only four times — but they were the past four champs. Four out of five nominees agree in both categories this year. Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") bumped Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor") at BAFTA.

Our forums have been buzzing with reaction to the BAFTA winners even before the kudos air tonight on BBC America. Below are just some of the comments already posted. Join in the discussion by adding your thoughts to the always lively discussion.

Aura: I'm sorry but I did not like the way "Slumdog" looked so the cinematography thing baffles me. Anywho, this is turning out to be one of those nights (afternoons) lol.

clementine: Kate! YAY. Wonderful speech!!!

taloson: Mickey Rourke! Wow this is gonna be a photo finish!

Awardshq: And "Slumdog" wins again... BORING!

MovieGuy89: I think Rourke did an impressive job in "The Wrestler." Best actor can go either way at the Oscars but I am sticking with Cruz for the Oscar. Besides it's her time. She deserved it back in 07 so, GO Cruz!!!

pacinofan: I am especially happy for Cruz and the somewhat surprising win for "Man On Wire" as best British film.

FGTfan: While I know eveyrone loves a horse race, I really think like last year, we saw the 4 acting Oscar winners tonight.

HollywoodStar: "Slumdog" rules again. Good job! Happy for Ledger and Winslet as well. Also happy about the surprise win by Rourke. I had a gut feeling he might get it and he did.

Confused about how BAFTA Awards voting differs from the Oscars, SAG and other kudos? BAFTA chairman David Parfitt took time Friday to call Gold Derby to take us through the paces. Listen to our full podcast chat. HERE you can download the MP3 file. (You may need to hold down your computer's control key while clicking.)

First off, what's the overlap between BAFTA and Oscars voters? "We don't know, of course. It's hard to find out," Parfitt says, but he offers some helpful information. Some Oscars consultants say that there are about 500 AMPAS members in the U.K. Surely, they're almost all BAFTA members too. Add to that many of the BAFTA members living in the U.S. "We've got 1,200 members between L.A. and New York," Parfitt says.

Considering how restrictive the Oscars are about membership, let's guess that no more than half of that BAFTA gang also belongs to the Oscar academy. My guess is that means that there's probably an overlap of 1,000 voters between the two voting groups, which both have between 5,000 and 6,000 total voting members.

Parfitt explains all of the fine details: how to qualify to become a BAFTA member, how much dues cost (350 pounds for folks in the U.K., 250 pounds for members beyond) and how much the top ticket costs is to attend the BAFTA Awards ceremony (750 pounds).

But what's most interesting is his explanation of how the voting process works and how it differs from U.S. showbiz awards.

"We have three rounds of voting," he says. Basically, everybody votes for the first round, which results in "long lists" with 15 contenders in each category that will be whittled down next to five nominees. Five of those contenders are chosen by each category's corresponding peer group — Parfitt calls them "chapters" — and those chapter choices are highlighted on the lists so all voters can see what the experts like. "We don't have a chapter vote in performance categories," he notes.

"In round two, the whole membership votes in the main categories to determine the nominations," Parfitt explains. "In round three, the whole membership votes in the performance categories, best film and best foreign film.

The Oscars' five best picture nominees line up exactly with the contenders for the top prize at Sunday's BAFTAs. "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" lead the pack at the BAFTA Awards with 11 nominations each while "Frost/Nixon" and "Milk" have six and three bids,  respectively. Surprise nominee "The Reader" — which many believe bumped "The Dark Knight" from the top race on both sides of the Atlantic — got five nods in total. (And, as is the case with the Oscars, "The Dark Knight" has eight nominations here.)

Since the BAFTAs were moved up in 2000 to take place while academy members are still voting for the Oscars, these laurels have foreseen only two best picture  winners — "Gladiator" (2000) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). However, the BAFTAs do far better at predicting the acting Oscar winners. Both last year and in 2006, all four BAFTA champs went on to win at the Oscars.

With dueling lead actress nominations, Kate Winslet can't be the double winner at BAFTA that she was at the Golden Globes for "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader." Winslet won only the first of her five BAFTA nods — a supporting award in 1995 for "Sense and Sensibility." Also in the running for BAFTA best actress are two other Oscar contenders — first-time BAFTA nominee Angelina Jolie for "Changeling" (which has seven nods in all) and 1982 BAFTA best actress Meryl Streep ("The French Lieutenant's Woman"), who earned her 12th nom for "Doubt" (which has three nods in total). The BAFTA field is rounded out by Kristin Scott Thomas, who earned her third nod for "I've Loved You So Long." Missing from the BAFTA roster are Anne Hathaway, who made the long list even though "Rachel Getting Married" had yet to run in the U.K., and Melissa Leo, showcased in "Frozen River," which also has yet to open.

Four of the five BAFTA best actor contenders are also in the running at the Oscars — the three first-time BAFTA nominees Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"), Brad Pitt  ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), and Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"), as well as Sean Penn, who scored his third nod for "Milk." BAFTA pick Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") was bounced at the Oscars by Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor"), who did make the BAFTA long list.

Three of the supporting actor Oscar nominees compete at the BAFTAs — 1992 BAFTA best actor Robert Downey Jr. ("Chaplin") for "Tropic Thunder," 2005 BAFTA best actor Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote") for "Doubt," and one-time BAFTA nominee Heath Ledger ("Brokeback Mountain") for "The Dark Knight." The BAFTA complement is completed with Brad Pitt for "Burn After Reading" and first-time BAFTA nominee Brendan Gleeson for "In Bruges." While Oscar hopeful Josh Brolin ("Milk") was on the BAFTA long list, Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road") was not.

And three of the BAFTA supporting actress nominees will also go on to contend at the Oscars — 2006 best actress nominee Penelope Cruz contending for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and BAFTA newcomers Amy Adams("Doubt") and Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler"). Oscar hopeful Viola Davis ("Doubt") was on the BAFTA long list, but Taraji P. Henson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") was not. Curiously, last year's supporting actress winner Tilda Swinton made two appearances on the long list and got a nod for "Burn After Reading" rather than "Benjamin Button." The fifth BAFTA nominee is another first-timer — Freida Pinto ("Slumdog Millionaire").

Four of the five Oscar-nominated directors also made the cut with BAFTA —  two-time BAFTA nominee Stephen Daldry ("The Reader") and one-time contender Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon") and newcomers Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire") and David Fincher ("Benjamin Button"). The fifth BAFTA slot went to one-time nominee Clint Eastwood ("Changeling") rather than Gus Van Sant ("Milk").

Four of the five Oscar-nominated adapted screenplays are contenders: "Benjamin Button" by one-time BAFTA nominee Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump"), "Frost/Nixon" by 2006 BAFTA winner Peter Morgan ("The Last King of Scotland"), "Slumdog Millionaire" by one-time BAFTA nominee Simon Beaufoy ("The Full Monty"), and "The Reader" by one-time nominee David Hare ("The Hours"). The fifth Oscar nominee — John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt") — was on the BAFTA long list, but newcomer Justin Haythe got the last BAFTA slot for "Revolutionary Road."

Two of the Oscar original screenplay contenders compete here: newcomers Martin McDonagh ("In Bruges") and Dustin Lance Black ("Milk"). Snubbed by the Oscars were Joel & Ethan Coen  ("Burn After Reading"), Philippe Claudel ("I've Loved You So Long"), and J. Michael Straczynski ("Changeling") in favor of two BAFTA long-listed scripters — Mike Leigh ("Happy-Go-Lucky") and the "Wall-E" trio Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Peter Docter — and BAFTA-ineligible Courtney Hunt ("Frozen River").

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"Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke aren't the slam-dunk front-runners to win the BAFTA," warns our forums moderator Darrin "DoubleD" Dortch. "Frank Langella and Dev Patel are definitely in this race, too."

However, HollywoodStar is among our forum posters who sticks out his neck to say that Penn will, indeed, win best actor at this Sunday's BAFTA Awards. He's probably right. Penn's the Oscar front-runner and BAFTA Awards have predicted all four of the Oscars' acting races correctly for the past two years.

But NovicMode pipes in: "Rourke and Winslet just won best actor and best actress, respectively, at the London Critics Awards. 'The Wrestler' won best picture. Could this be foreshadowing of the BAFTAs?" Follow more of the hubbub, suspense, chatter and dishing in the Gold Derby forums.

The BAFTA Awards will be bestowed Sunday, Feb. 8, at the Royal Opera House in London. They can be viewed on U.S. television on BBC America at 8 p.m. EST/ 5 p.m. PST. Here's a full list of nominees.

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"The Reader" has so much strength with voters at the Oscars that not only did it bump "The Dark Knight" from the top races for best picture and director, but Kate Winslet also was moved up from supporting to lead. Despite giving the core performance in the picture, Kate Winslet had been campaigning for a supporting nod so as not to cancel out her hopes for a lead nomination for "Revolutionary Road." The latter film, which was virtually snubbed, reunited Winslet with her "Titanic" costar Leonardo DiCaprio and was directed by her Oscar-winning husband, Sam Mendes ("American Beauty").

"Revolutionary Road" costars DiCaprio and Winslet were nominated for best lead drama actor and actress at the Golden Globes, where Winslet won twice: in lead for "Road" and supporting for "The Reader." However, DiCaprio was also snubbed today at the Oscars, just like he was the last time he costarred with Winslet — in "Titanic," which earned her a nomination for best actress (she lost to Helen Hunt, "As Good As It Gets"). "Titanic" ended up sailing off with more Oscars than any other movie in history (except "Ben-Hur," which also received 11), leaving its lead male star behind. DiCaprio, in turn, snubbed the Oscars and didn't attend the ceremony.

Over the last decade, the best picture and director lineups have been out of sync by at least one nomination in every year but 2005. So it was widely thought that if "The Dark Knight" didn't get in for best picture at least DGA nominee Christopher Nolan would be recognized for his helming. Instead, "The Reader's" Stephen Daldry made the cut with the directors, which lined up exactly with best picture. This means that Daldry has been nominated for every feature film he's ever directed. His previous two flicks were "Billy Elliot" (2000) and "The Hours" (2002).

The Oscar nominations for "The Reader" are a huge vindication for studio chief Harvey Weinstein, who forced the film's release in 2008 even though it meant clashing with co-producer Scott Rudin. Rudin was backing his other pony in the Oscar race — "Revolutionary Road." And with Kate Winslet understandably loyal to her husband, Rudin wanted Weinstein to wait till 2009 to release "The Reader." When Weinstein wouldn't, Rudin pulled his own name from the credits of "The Reader." Last year, Rudin produced best-picture winner "No Country for Old Men" and nominee "There Will Be Blood."

Many Oscarologists believed that Clint Eastwood ("Gran Torino") would be nominated for best actor despite the fact that he had been shut out at both the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. After all, Eastwood has never been nominated for acting by the Globes and wasn't nominated by SAG for "Million Dollar Baby." (SAG didn't have competitive awards when "Unforgiven" was released in 1992.) Nonetheless, he did manage to reap past acting bids at the Oscars for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby."

It's surprising that critics' darling Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky") was snubbed, considering her early derby victories as best actress at both the Gotham and L.A. critics' awards, as well as the Golden Globes. Oscar voters nominated the lead female stars of other Mike Leigh films: Brenda Blethyn ("Secrets and Lies") and Imelda Staunton ("Vera Drake").

Where's the slumdog, you ask? Dev Patel, star of "Slumdog Millionaire" and a BAFTA lead actor nominee, was snubbed in the supporting race even though his film reaped an impressive tally of 10 nominations and is considered the front-runner to win best picture.

Indeed, the love for "Slumdog Millionaire" was so strong that the academy's music branch nominated two of the songs from the film — "Jai Ho" and "O Saya" — and snubbed past Oscar winner Bruce Springsteen, who just won a Golden Globe for the title track to "The Wrestler." Bruce Springsteen won his Oscar in 1993 for the song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the film "Philadelphia." He was nominated two years later for the title song of "Dead Man Walking" but lost to "Colors of the Wind" from "Pocahontas."

NOTABLE OSCARS SNUBS

BEST PICTURE
"The Dark Knight"
"Wall-E"
"Gran Torino"

BEST DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan, "The Dark Knight"

BEST ACTOR
Clint Eastwood ("Gran Torino")
Leonardo DiCaprio ("Revolutionary Road")
Dustin Hoffman ("Last Chance Harvey")

BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky")
Cate Blanchett ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button")
Kristin Scott Thomas ("I've Loved You So Long")

"Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" both have a leading 11 nods at BAFTA. While one of the "Slumdog Millionaire" bids is for best British picture, if it wins that award, history tells us it will be out of the running for the top prize. Since BAFTA reintroduced the award for best British film in 1992, separate from the top prize for best picture, no movie has won both prizes.

So "Slumdog Millionaire" fans should be rooting for one of the competition in the best British picture race — "Hunger," a biopic of IRA activist Bobby Sands that won director Steve McQueen the Golden Camera prize at Cannes; "In Bruges," Martin McDonagh's dark comedy about hit men on holiday; the documentary" Man on Wire" which follows in the footsteps of Phillippe Petit's 1974 walk between the two World Trade Center towers; and the ABBA songfest "Mamma Mia!" which recently edged out "Titanic" to become the top-grossing film of all time in the United Kingdom.

From 1947 to 1967, the BAFTA Awards named two top pictures — best film and best British film. Home-grown fare was eligible to compete in the wide-open category as well and at least one British film a year contended. In 1948, the best film winner was the British made "Hamlet" (which also took the top Oscar). However, it lost the best British film award to "The Fallen Idol." It took till 1952 before a British film — "The Sound Barrier" — won both prizes. Seven more films managed that feat — "Richard III" (1955); "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957; also best picture Oscar); "Room at the Top" (1958); "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962; also best picture Oscar); "Tom Jones" (1963; also best picture Oscar); "Dr. Strangelove" (1965 — same four films in both races); and "A Man for All Seasons" (1967; also 1966 best picture Oscar).

From 1968 to 1991, the BAFTA award for best British film was eliminated, but at least one British production contended for best picture every year but 1979. In those 24 years, seven British films won the best picture prize — "Sunday Bloody Sunday"(1971); "Chariots of Fire" (1981, also best picture Oscar); "Gandhi" (1982, also best picture Oscar); "Educating Rita" (1983); "The Killing Fields" (1984); "A Room With A View" (1986); and "The Commitments" (1991). Perhaps because that last film, a light-hearted romp about a budding band in Dublin, beat both "Dances With Wolves" and "The Silence of the Lambs," BAFTA reintroduced the British film award the following year.

Over the last 16 years, six British films have taken the top prize — "Howards End" (1992); "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994); "Sense and Sensibility" (1995 — tied with "The Usual Suspects"); "The Full Monty" (1997); "The Queen" (2006); and "Atonement" (2007). While the first three were not also nominated as best British film, the last three lost that race to "Nil By Mouth," "The Last King of Scotland," and "This Is England" respectively.