Memo to S. Epatha Merkerson: Now that you're back shooting TV episodes of "Law & Order," don't forget about the consequences of your recent stint on Broadway in "Come Back, Little Sheba." Theater critics loved your performance so much that you're a shoo-in to be nominated at the upcoming Tonys. (USA Today said Merkerson delivered "a performance of aching sweetness and devastating sadness." Read more hosannah reviews — HERE.)

Yeah, yeah, you lost the last time you were nommed back in 1990 for "The Piano Lesson," but let's not forget that Shirley Booth won the Tony and the Oscar for portraying the pathetic, downtrodden Lola, who suffers the grief of her husband's alcoholism while yearning for their runaway dog, Sheba (symbolizing the happy life they once had), to come home.

Also, let's recall how you beat the odds at the Emmys in 2005 and pulled off a jawdropper in the race for best actress in a TV film ("Lackawanna Blues") over Blythe Danner ("Back When We Were Grownups"), Debra Winger ("Dawn Anna"), Halle Berry ("Their Eyes Were Watching God") and Cynthia Nixon ("Warm Springs").

Yes, you prepared a truly heartfelt acceptance speech at the Emmys, but it ended up too close to your heart — and out of reach in time of need. Let's now revisit one of the most memorable acceptance speeches in recent Emmy history.

(Video: ATAS / Photo: Biltmore Theater)

When Oscar is not comforting the long-suffering wife, he can often be found in the arms of a young beauty.

Last year's best actress winner, Helen Mirren ("The Queen") was the first leading woman older than 40 to take home an Oscar in a decade. Up until then, the list of recent winners looked like the lineup at a beauty pageant: Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. Personally, I think Mirren was able to overcome that trend by embracing it. At age 62, she's still quite sexy (remember her nude scene in "Calendar Girls"?) and she was brazenly frisky while out on the Oscar campaign trail last year, even appearing on the cover of Los Angeles magazine tugging at her bra.

Granted, the younger screen lovelies would often win acclaim and awards by deglamourizing themselves to show Hollywood that they were more than just pretty faces. But during Oscar campaign season, off came the false noses, boxing gloves and trailer-trash outfits, to be replaced by designer gowns and comely coifs.

This year, classic Gallic beauty Marion Cotillard turns from ugly duckling to swan and back playing tragic chanteuse Edith Piaf. With her head shaved and her eyebrows plucked, the French actress, 32, is transformed into the "little sparrow" at the end of her troubled life.

While 1960s siren Julie Christie, star of "Away From Her," still sizzles in real-life, like Mirren, for this 66-year-old to win would be to buck the trend. Though this age bias is less blatant in the category for supporting actresses, older gals still triumph there only now and then: Judi Dench once, Dianne Wiest twice in recent years, for example.

Pace University proved the obvious a few years ago when it conducted an Oscar study spanning the 25 years before 2000 and discovered that best actor winners were, on average, five years older than their female equivalents. And seven years separated male and female nominees.

In the last 15 years only two actresses older than 50 have won an Oscar in the lead or supporting races: Dames Mirren and Dench. Meantime, consider all of these chaps north of the half-century mark who've triumphed during the same years: lead actors Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Anthony Hopkins as well as supporting players Alan Arkin, Morgan Freeman, Chris Cooper, Jim Broadbent, Michael Caine, James Coburn, Martin Landau, Gene Hackman, and Jack Palance.

To see the answer, CLICK HERE!

Come to think of it, considering Oscar history, Helena Bonham Carter might be better off pulling that sneaky ole trick successfully employed by other crafy divas: drop to supporting where lead roles — just because of sheer size — have a better chance to win. Carter is old academy news. She was nominated for best actress in 1997 for "Wings of the Dove," losing to Helen Hunt ("As Good As It Gets"), who is one of many dames who claimed that category upon her first nomination.

Oscar voters, remember, love ingénues. These are just some of the gals who won best actress their first time up: Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, Marlee Matlin, Sally Field, Louise Fletcher, Glenda Jackson, Julie Christie, Sophia Loren, Joanne Woodward, Anna Magnani, Shirley Booth, Judy Holliday, Bette Davis (after a failed write-in campaign for "Of Human Bondage" — that doesn't count as a nomination), Luise Rainer and Katharine Hepburn.

A "bloodbath" at the box office this past weekend may have slain the Oscars hopes of some top contenders like "Things We Lost in the Fire" star Halle Berry, says Lou Lumenick of the New York Post. Since costar Benicio del Toro gave the more dynamic performance, he may still emerge from the ashes, but, "I'm not extremely optimistic," Lou says in our podcast chat. "Any time a studio sends out a DVD screener on opening day to awards voters, you get the impression they don't have a whole lot of confidence in it."

Listen to our full chat CLICK HERE to Download the MP3 File. Note: You may need to hold down your computer's control key while clicking.

"Gone, Baby, Gone" was also hurt at the b.o. this past weekend, Lou says: "They may have opened it a little too wide. It doesn't have much star power compared to other stuff out there."

Of the ponies still in the derby, he thinks "Atonement" is out front.

"It hits all of the right notes for the academy," he says. "It's similar to 'The English Patient,' although I think it's a better film. It even has a cameo by Anthony Minghella at the end. It's got strong performances, strong crafts across the board. It has literary cache. I could see that going all the way, although it's always dangerous to be the frontrunner in an Oscar race, as you know. Look at 'Brokeback Mountain,' which is the same studio. What it also has in common is a star — Keira Knightley — who tends to shoot her mouth off in interviews and I think we saw what happened with 'Brokeback Mountain' (when its) two male stars, particularly Heath Ledger, said a lot of very stupid things on the interview trail."

Reporting on movie turnout this weekend, Reuters reported: "In what amounted to a movie massacre, high-powered dramas from the Oscar-winning stars debuted disastrously, as audiences continued to opt for escapist fare."

Studios hoped "Rendition" and "Gone Baby Gone" would pull $10 million, but "Rendition" reaped $4.2 million and "Baby" $6 million.

"Bringing up the rear was 'Things We Lost in the Fire,' a domestic tragedy that has earned raves for Del Toro's portrayal of a heroin addict," Reuters added. "The DreamWorks-Paramount release failed to ignite, opening at No. 15 with $1.6 million. Industry pundits had expected a $10 million-plus bow, but DreamWorks said $3 million to $4 million was more realistic.

To read the L.A. Times report, CLICK HERE. To see the chart at BoxOfficeMojo.com, CLICK HERE.

Here's the site's breakdown of info on Oscar pix:

4.) "Michael Clayton" ($7,100,000) -31.6%, $2,746 per theater (2,659), $21,986,000 total
5.) "Gone Baby Gone" ($6 million), $3,502 per theater (1,713)
9.) "Rendition" ($4,175,000), $1,855 per theater (2,250)
11.) "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" ($3,139,000) -49.0%, $1,564 per theater (2,006) $11,213,000
14.) "Into the Wild" ($2,150,000) +131.5%, $3,267 per screen (1,163), $6,502,000 - 5
15.) "Things We Lost in the Fire" ($1.6 million), $1,404 per theater (1,142)
16.) "The Darjeeling Limited" ($1,320,000), + 21.6%, $6,534 per theater (309), $3,903,000
19.) "Lust, Caution" ($586,000) -3.9%, $4,688 per screen (173), $2,107,000
20.) "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" ($560,000) +29.5%, $1,860 per theater (439) $2,208,000

BEST PICTURE
"American Gangster"
"Atonement"
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
"Charlie Wilson's War"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"The Great Debaters"
"Hairspray"
"Into the Wild"
"Juno"
"The Kite Runner"
"Lions for Lambs"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Sweeney Todd"
"There Will Be Blood"
"3:10 to Yuma"

BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, "Gone Baby Gone," "Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Mathieu Amalric, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Christian Bale, "Rescue Dawn" / "3:10 to Yuma"
Josh Brolin, "No Country for Old Men"
Don Cheadle, "Talk to Me"
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Russell Crowe, "3:10 to Yuma"
John Cusack, "Grace Is Gone"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Benicio Del Toro, "Things We Lost in the Fire"
Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"
Richard Gere, "The Hoax"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War"
Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" / "The Savages"
Frank Langella, "Starting Out in the Evening"
Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"
James McAvoy, "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"
Jack Nicholson, "The Bucket List"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Reservation Road"
Brad Pitt, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Sam Riley, "Control"
Mark Ruffalo, "Reservation Road"
Denzel Washington, "American Gangster" / "The Great Debaters"

"Susanne Bier's 'Things We Lost in the Fire' is like a thousand emotional wind chimes made into a quiet symphony," asserts Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com. "It's my idea of a flat-out masterpiece, certainly within the realm of the family-tragedy drama. Bier knows exactly how to make every moment feel true and on-target, and Benicio del Toro's lead performance as a heroin addict struggling to recover and stay that way is the best I've seen this year from anyone of either gender, country or classification. Yeah, that's what I said.

"Over the course of this two-hour film he climbs out of his drug hole, brightens up, chills out and settles in, relapses, almost dies, and then gradually climbs out of it again. I'm starting to see this actor (whom his friends and Esquire magazine profilers call 'Benny') as almost God-like. He's holding bigger mountains in the palm of his hand, right now, than De Niro held in the '70s and '80s. He's one of the top four or five superman actors we have out there. There isn't a frame of his performance that doesn't hit some kind of behavioral bulls-eye." READ MORE

Edward Douglas of Comingsoon.net concurs: "I will go on the record that Benicio del Toro will absolutely be one of the five in the acting category for 'Things We Lost in the Fire.' He gives a brilliant, heart-felt performance as a recovering junkie and I personally think that Halle Berry's performance in the movie far surpasses the one she got an Oscar for. With the DreamWorks gang behind that one, I expect both of them to get into the five but Benicio will probably stand the better chance because he's done less bad movies in between."