Shot this video chat with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone at the New York Film Critics Awards bash on Jan. 5. Results of the Golden Globes have changed the dynamic in at least one race since. Contrary to what I say here, I no longer think Sean Penn ("Milk") is a "slam dunk," and Peter's view might have changed too since Mickey Rourke's ("The Wrestler") triumph last Sunday.

But his over-all derby view is still interesting and relevant, so give a look. Of special note is his explanation of why he believes "Slumdog Millionaire" is top dog in the best-picture race.

As I note in the intro to our chat, Peter's an uncanny Oscarologist whose insights and early derby calls have impressed heck outta me and many others through the years. I like telling the "Gladiator" story about him because he really stood bravely alone among pundits eight years ago just before the Golden Globes when every other kudos guru on the planet was saying "Traffic" would win best drama picture and then be the front-runner to snag the top prize at the Oscars.

SEE RELATED OSCARS VIDEOS

New York Times Carpetbagger David Carr and I dish the derby. (Oh, yeah, and he tries to strangle me!)

Pete Hammond and Anthony Breznican ponder the question: Will Golden Globe winners repeat at the Oscars?

Sean Penn tells Gold Derby, 'Lots of people should be ashamed of themsevles over the passage of Prop 8.'

Mickey Rourke tells Gold Derby, 'I could identify with the wrestler's state of living in shame and disgrace.'

Video camerwork by Daniel Montgomery / Photo of "Slumdog Millionaire courtesy of Fox Searchlight

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Don't be surprised by the flapdoodle surrounding Josh Brolin's smear of Russell Crowe and his profanity-laced denunciation of a New York Times theater critic at the New York Film Critics' Circle gala on Monday night. That group has long been a vicious circle wherein wags have done many dicey things in the past.

However, usually it's the critics acting up, not the guests.

At this year's gala — where wine and bubbly flowed freely — supporting actor champ Josh Brolin introduced his "Milk" costar, best actor champ Sean Penn, thus: "Sean Penn, quite an actor. Amazing. Not an . . . like Russell Crowe. Quite an actor. You're an amazing actor. I loved you in 'Milk', I thought what you did with that role was incredible. We've known you as an actor who doesn't smile very much, and the fact that you smiled as much as you did in this film is amazing. Truly incredible. You are an amazing actor. You are going to get the Oscar. Because you smiled so much."

Within hours, the blogosphere was buzzing with shock over Brolin's attack on Crowe. The next day Brolin apologized, blaming "the ambiance of the room." Said Brolin, "I love him. I think he's amazing. He's a friend. I was bummed out when I saw that today."

That wasn't the first time someone got publicly insulted at a New York Film Critics Circle gala with use of the "a" word. At the 1989 fete, when John Simon of New York magazine barked "Shut up, you fool!" to a rambling presenter, Richard Freeman of Newhouse newspapers shouted back at Simon something Jimmy Stewart never said to Bob Hope at the Oscars: " . . . off, you . . . !"

Another stormy incident occurred in 1982 when novelist William Styron attended to present an award. He was so upset about a recent review of the film version of his book "Sophie’s Choice," Variety reported, "Styron leveled a broadside at New Yorker critic Pauline Kael (not by name) as someone 'plainly better suited to another line of work' for her ‘ludicrous ill will' in slamming the pic."

When Sophie’s Choice star Meryl Streep claimed her plaque as Best Actress, Variety said, "Streep reeled off a memorized list of the Gotham critics, intentionally mispronouncing Sophie debunker Andrew Sarris (Village Voice) as Tsouris (yiddish idiom for ‘aggravation’), then vouching that 'it's great to get your own back sometimes.'"

Brolin did a similar thing at Monday's New York Film Critics Circle event, but he went after esteemed New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley over an old review. "I hate that . . . !" he growled. "And I don't think he's a good writer!"

Oh, why can't these events reclaim the gentility of their early days in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s when the gala was held in the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center? Playwright/critic Robert Sherwood attended those soirees and once told the assembled crowd that this was the first time that "any group of critics has ever invited its victims to a cocktail party."

But they gladly came anyway and the earliest parties set the precedent for how much fun — and how glamorous — the event could be. During the late 1930s, the "fog-choked" Rainbow Room, as one press account called it, sparkled with such glitterati as Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis, Kitty Carlisle, William Wyler, Ernst Lubitsch and Fritz Lang. Mary Pickford looked "slim and pretty in black and mink," said the Post, and Ethel Merman “stunning in silver fox." Gloria Swanson was spotted wearing "the cutest hat, making her appear like a Tibetan sorceress."

• While comparing the Golden Globe nominations with the Critics' Choice bids announced a few days ago, Pete Hammond sees a curious parallel between "Milk" getting skunked at the Golden Globes and what happened last year to "Into the Wild."

• Check out the pundit videos Pete and I did riffing with Elizabeth Snead immediately after the noms were announced. They're down on the right side of The Envelope's home page.

• Scott Feinberg does a fine job at Feinberg Files putting perspective on the Golden Globe nominations, but I disagree with him about "In Bruges" pulling off big surprises in the comedy/musical races. I predicted that it would.

• By the way, speaking of predix, here's how various pundits scored trying to out-guess the Globes. Just counting the same categories we all guessed in tandem, I scored 23, Scott nailed 20. Nathaniel Rogers scored 21 at TheFilmExperience. Guy Lodge beat us all at InContention.com (24). Congrats, Guy! For the complete list of nominees, CLICK HERE!

• Over at InContention.com Kris Tapley and Guy Lodge clash while sizing up Tom Cruise's nomination for "Tropic Thunder." Guy calls it "goofy," Kris calls it one of the best Globe calls.

• Sasha Stone likes the nominations of Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet at AwardsDaily.com.

• New York Times Carpetbagger David Carr believes in the Harvey Weinstein conspiracy to explain how "The Reader" got so many noms. No, no, David — not this time anyway. Believe it or not, voters really like the movie. I've heard that directly from many HFPA members. EW's Dave Karger heard the same buzz.

• Over at Hollywood-Elsewhere.com, Jeff Wells wonders about such Harvey conspiracy thoughts, but acknowledges that "many critics and smartypants-types" were probably too quick to dismiss the kudos chances of "The Reader" earlier.

• Uh, oh! That Hollywood Reporter wag, Gold Rusher T.L. Stanley, is risking her neck with some bold (?) prophecies: "There are a number of foregone conclusions in the nods today, namely, 'Gomorra' in the best foreign language category, Heath Ledger as best supporting actor for 'The Dark Knight' and Penelope Cruz for best supporting actress in 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona.' "

• At Variety.com, Anne Thompson writes, "Athough the Globes saw fit to only recognize Sean Penn's performance in Gus Van Sant's very American and very political Milk (which won best film from the New York Film Critics Circle), that should not hurt its overall awards chances."

• Hang tough, Lou! New York Post's Lou Lumenick acknowledges that he "received some criticism on other blogs for supposedly revealing 'spoilers' in our year-end wrap-up" at the NYFCC voting, but, come on, other journos before Lou did the same for decades in Gotham's newspaper pages dating back to the group's launch in 1935. Plowing through those ancient reports on microfilm for many days and weeks at the New York Public Library was how I was able to document past scores and voter battles while compiling my book "Movie Awards." In recent years that tattle's lapsed a bit and I've had to resort to snooping via telephone calls to various members for such reports here at Gold Derby, but I'm happy that this ballot reportage is now back out in the open, as it should be. Huzzahs to Lou!

Last year Jack Mathews, then movie critic for the New York Daily News, wrote a scathing indictment of the Gotham film crix awards. "I dropped out of the New York Film Critics Circle a few years back because I thought its awards voting process was corrupt," he explained. "Many of its winners are compromise candidates that score third or fourth on the first ballot and, after several more politically motivated ballots, come in first. In fact, as many critics vote against movies as vote for them."

Mathews went on to give an example: "Let’s say that Joe Wright’s 'Atonement' is leading after the first ballot, but doesn’t have the majority of votes needed to win outright. On the second ballot, those critics who may have had 'Atonement' second or third will leave it off, depriving it of points in order to strengthen their No. 1 choice. When it gets to a point where a critic doesn’t like either of the leading vote getters, he or she will pick the lesser of two evils, vote for it at No. 1 and leave the other off the ballot. And, of course, various cliques get together and throw their weight behind or in front of movies gaining steam."

That is just what happened this year as "Milk" won best picture on ballot four with 29 points. "Rachel Getting Married" had 25 points while both "Happy-Go-Lucky" and "Slumdog Millionaire" had 20 points. As Gotham critic circle member Mike D'Angelo of  Esquire wrote on his Twitter stream: "My sense is that 'Milk' wound up as the I-can-live-with-that compromise choice for voters blocking 'Slumdog' and voters blocking 'Rachel.'"

Explains Lou Lumenick of the New York Post, "The 'blocking'  part Mike refers to comes from the NYFCC's notorious voting system, which requires critics to choose three weighted candidates after the first ballot, assigning 3, 2 and 1 points to each. Some members 'block' something they don't particularly want to win by leaving it off their ballot and filling in the second and third slots with something they know can't possibly win." Admits Lou, "I personally made 'Slumdog Millionaire' my first choice for the first three ballots, when it became clear that 'Rachel Getting Married' could take the top prize instead. So I switched my top choice to another movie I loved, 'Milk,' which triumphed on the fourth ballot. Not that I have anything against 'Rachel,' which landed just outside my top 10 list. I just don't want to encourage any filmmakers less talented than Jonathan Demme to make faux-Altman movies. The real thing could be excruciating enough."

Besides best picture, these other races went to four ballots with the Gotham crix: director -- Mike Leigh ("Happy-Go-Lucky"); lead actor -- Sean Penn  ("Milk"); screenplay -- Jenny Lumet ("Rachel Getting Married");   and foreign film -- "4 Months, 3 Weeks, Two Days." To read the full report on the voting process CLICK HERE.

L.A. Times columnist Patrick Goldstein reports a similar scenario unfolding with the L.A. film critics on Tuesday. "'Slumdog' sparked the most divisions of any film. Its partisans praised its filmmaking energy and social consciousness. But its scrum of detractors said they wouldn't vote for it under any circumstances, with some critics claiming it was too derivative, coming off like an amped-up Satyajit Ray film. The only slam dunks in the voting were Penelope Cruz, who won best supporting actress for 'Vicki Cristina Barcelona,' and Heath Ledger for 'The Dark Knight.' The voting for best picture was extremely close, with the joke being that whether the vote went for 'Wall-E' or 'The Dark Knight,' that it was still a thumbs-up for an animated film, since 'Dark Knight' is loaded with computer animation effects."

Here's the winners' list:

Best picture: "Milk"
Best director: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Best actor: Sean Penn, "Milk"
Best actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Best supporting actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Best screenplay: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best animated film: "WALL-E"
Best foreign film: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days"
Best documentary: "Man on Wire"
Best first film: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"

Our great pal Lou Lumenick, film critic of the New York Post, delivers fascinating insight into the voting of the Gotham crix this morning. As Lou explains, "each critic ranks choices with 3, 2, and 1 points and the winner also has to appear on the majority of ballots." This means there may be more than one round of voting. Putting all of Lou's top notch reporting together, we know the following about the margin of victory for each award.

Best Picture: "Milk" won on ballot four with 29 points. "Rachel Getting Married" had 25 points while both "Happy-Go-Lucky" and "Slumdog Millionaire" had 20 points. LA champ "WALL-E" had to settle for a win as best animated picture.

Best Director: Mike Leigh ("Happy-Go-Lucky") won on ballot four with 31 points. LA winner Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire") had 30 points and David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") had 26 points. (Ballot two had Boyle ahead by two and ballot three had Fincher up by one.)

Best Actor: LA pick Sean Penn ("Milk") won on ballot four with 59 points. Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") had 50 points and Clint Eastwood ("Gran Torino") had 17 points.

Best Actress: LA champ Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky") won on ballot two with 39 points. Melissa Leo ( "Frozen River") had 32 points while Anne Hathaway ("Rachel Getting Married") and Kate Winslet ("Revolutionary Road") each had 22 points.

Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin ("Milk") won on ballot three with 33 points. LA winner Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight" ) had 26 points and Robert Downey, Jr. ("Tropic Thunder") had 24 points. (On ballot two, Brolin, Ledger and Eddie Marsan ("Happy-Go-Lucky") were tied with 29 points each.)

Best Supporting Actress: LA victor Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Christina Barcelona") won on ballot two with 40 points. Viola Davis ("Doubt") had 31 points and both Rosemarie DeWitt & Debra Winger ("Rachel Getting Married") had 28 points.

Best Screenplay: Jenny Lumet ("Rachel Getting Married") won on ballot four with 44 points. LA winner Mike Leigh ("Happy-Go-Lucky") had 38 points and Robert Seigel ("The Wrestler") had 19 points.

Best Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire" won on ballot three with 37 points."The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" had 28 points and "The Dark Knight" had 16 points.

Best Animated Picture: LA best pic "WALL-E" won on ballot one with 17 points over LA animated pic "Waltz with Bashir" with 11 points.

Best Foreign Film: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, Two Days" won on ballot four with 45 points. Two French films followed - "A Christmas Tale" had 34 points and "The Class" had 23 points.

Best Documentary: LA pick " Man on Wire" won on ballot two with 45 points. "Waltz With Bashir" had 25 points and "Trouble The Water" had 22 points.

Best First Picture: "Frozen River" won on ballot two with 39 points. "Ballast" had 26 points and "Reprise" had 18 points.

While snooping among the ranks of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. today, it became quite clear that "Slumdog Millionaire" is destined to win best drama picture next Jan. 11. Considering it recently won the National Board of Review and is the current fave of The Envelope's Oscar pundits to bag the top Oscar, it seems poised to sweep most of the annual derby.

But the cliffhanger remains: how thorough the sweep?

Only once in modern film history has one movie won the top prize at every major Hollywood award — "Schindler's List" (1993) — so the odds are stacked against "Slumdog" to do the same. I don't think it can sweep the trifecta of print critics' awards, for example: the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and the National Society of Film Critics. Even when the Gothamites and Angelenos agree on a best pic, the NSFC usually takes its own course. In 2004, when New York and L.A. picked "Sideways" in early December, NSFC embraced "Million Dollar Baby" a month later. In 2005, when New York and L.A. picked "Brokeback Mountain," NSFC chose "Capote."

New York and L.A. don't usually select the same film, though. Last year NYFCC picked "No Country for Old Men" and LAFCA chose "There Will Be Blood." This year I'm betting that they both pick "Slumdog" when the Angelenos vote today and the New Yorkers cast ballots Wednesday. The reason: The movie is not only a winner in every way, it's got snob appeal, being an indie with art-house credentials. Director Danny Boyle has been a critics' darling since "Trainspotting" (1996), but he's never won an award from a major U.S. film critics group. "Slumdog" is just the chance they've been waiting for.

The big difference between the New York and L.A. critics' awards will be in acting races. If the Angelenos pick Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"), as I think they will, then the New Yorkers will pick someone else, just to be different, a day later. Rourke's a good bet for LAFCA because the group of 44 members is more than 75% male. Count on them getting caught up in a testosterone rush over "The Wrestler." Wanting to pick something else the next day, the New York group (also overwhelmingly male, but it just added several female members!) will probably opt for a low-budget, critically praised indie about a nerdy abandoned old guy (just like NYFCC members) that was produced in New York: "The Visitor," starring Richard Jenkins.

Beware: If "The Wrestler" sets off a hormonal tsunami, it might end up snatching away one of the best-picture awards from LAFCA or NYFCC. The other one will still go to "Slumdog."

In the best actress race, one of the two critics groups will inevitably opt for snooty Kristin Scott Thomas speaking French and looking all morose and depressed all the time in "I've Loved You So Long." Since LAFCA votes first, it'll probably nab her before the New Yorkers do. Gothamites will want to pick someone else, but who? I'm just guessing Kate Winslet ("Revolutionary Road"), but that's just a wild guess, and anything's possible given the group's odd voting process.

Here are my full predix below. See a full breakdown of other pundits' at AwardsDaily.com.

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSN.
Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Best Actress: Kristin Scott Thomas, "I've Loved You So Long"
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

If "Slumdog Millionaire" is really the new "Chariots of Fire" — a little indie flick about champion underdogs that wins best picture at the Oscars — then it just hit a kudos jackpot by being named best picture of 2008 by the National Board of Review. In 1981, the National Board of Review was the first and only major U.S. awards group to give its top prize to the small film about runners with big dreams of breaking into the Olympics before it went the distance in the Oscars derby. Now the little movie about a ghetto boy who wins India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" has emerged as a top dog in this year's Oscars race.

This is the second year in a row that National Board of Review issued its top 10 list of best films separately from the winner of best picture. This year's entries: "Burn After Reading," "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Defiance," "Frost/Nixon," "Gran Torino," "Milk," "Wall-E," "The Wrestler." Notable snubs: "Doubt," "Revolutionary Road," "The Reader," "Australia" and — considering the awards love it received in other NBR categories — "Frozen River."

All major movies were seen by National Board of Review members this year with one exception: United Artists did not screen "Valkyrie" before voting but will show it to members before it's released to theaters this month. In past years, NBR's awards came out so early in December that its voters missed seeing such Oscar best picture winners as "Gone with the Wind" (1939), "Rain Man" (1988), "A Beautiful Mind" (2001) and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003).

Other winners of 2008 NBR Awards:

Best director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Best actor: Clint Eastwood, "Gran Torino"
Best actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best supporting actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Best foreign-language filim: "Mongol"
Best documentary: "Man on Wire"
Best animated feature: "Wall-E"
Best ensemble cast: "Doubt"
Best breakthrough actor: Dev Patel, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best breakthrough actress: Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Best directorial debut: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Best original screenplay: Nick Schenk, "Gran Torino"
Best adapted screenplay (tie): Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Eric Roth, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Freedom of Expression: "Trumbo"
William K. Everson Film History Award: Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris

Top five best foreign-language films, listed alphabetically: "Edge of Heaven," "Let the Right One In," "Roman de Guerre," "A Secret," "Waltz with Bashir"

Top five documentary films, listed alphabetically: "American Teen," "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Dear Zachary," "Encounters at the End of the World," "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired"

Of the 100 films nominated for best picture at the Oscars over the last two decades, the NBR named 72 of them on their annual lists. The comparison is a bit skewed since National Board of Review picks 10 or 11 films per year instead of five, but it's still worthy of note. Three times in those 20 years all five Oscar nominees made the NBR top list and the winners agreed: 1989 ("Driving Miss Daisy"), 1994 ("Forrest Gump") and 2002 ("Chicago"). The two awards also chose the same best pictures five other times in those two decades: 1990 ("Dances With Wolves"), 1991 ("Silence of the Lambs"), 1993 ("Schindler's List"), 1999 ("American Beauty") and 2007 ("No Country for Old Men").

Comparisons between the awards are most apt only when stacking up results over the past several years since there was a huge changeover in members of the exceptional photoplay committee after a power coup at National Board of Review. Consider how these top NBR awards compare with Oscar results over the past three years:

X = Oscar champ

2007
X - Best picture: "No Country for Old Men"
Best actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Best actress: Julie Christie, "Away from Her"

2006
Best picture: "Letters From Iwo Jima"
X - Best actor: Forest Whitaker, "Last King of Scotland"
X - Best actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"

2005
Best picture: "Good Night, and Good Luck"
X - Best actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Best actress: Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"

The National Board of Review is the New Hampshire primary of kudos season because the group is hellbent to be the first major award of the derby. Its influence has been considerable through the years, dating as far as 1934 when it probably nudged the Oscars to notice its eventual best-picture choice, "It Happened One Night," which came close to being dismissed as a quickly lensed screwball comedy.

In 1955, low-budget, black-and-white indie "Marty" got attention at the Cannes Film Festival, but the board was the first to hail it stateside before it snagged the top Oscar.

Its impact can probably be measured best by three of its best-picture choices: "Patton" (1970), "The Sting" (1973) and "Chariots of Fire" (1981). All were subsequently snubbed by the film critics' groups and the Golden Globes, then resurfaced later at the tail end of the derby.

The National Board of Review was founded in New York in 1909 by a coalition of forces determined to stop the city government from censoring movies. The coalition consisted of movie-makers plus community and family organizations and, in effect, it took over the censoring job themselves. NBR gave its seal of approval to films it liked and assigned viewing-age recommendations: "M" for mature audiences (18 and older), "F" for families (12 and up) and "J" for juvenile (under 12). From the 1920s to the 1940s, many U.S. cities forbid the public showing of films unless they displayed the legend "Passed by the National Board of Review" in their credits.

Over time the Motion Picture Association of America took over the role of officially approving film content and NBR evolved into a film appreciation society. The New York-based group got into the awards game by issuing lists of the year's best films just months after the first Oscar ceremony was held out on America's other coast in 1929.

NBR is not a journalists' group, as commonly believed. It comprises sophisticated New Yorkers, a few of whom are journalists, but others are scholars, lawyers, doctors, students, etc. Of its 122 members, 41 are either film students or people who can be classified as young filmmakers. Last year NBR bestowed 29 student scholarships ranging in sums from $500 to $5,000, totaling $75,000.

Here are key dates of major kudo news coming up on the derby track:

Dec. 2 - Gotham Awards declares winners
Dec. 2 - Indie Spirits announces nominees
Dec. 4 - National Board of Review announces winners
Dec. 9 - Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. winners unveiled
Dec. 9 - Critics Choice announces nominees
Dec. 10 - New York Film Critics Circle declares winners

Illustration by Ty Wilson

Extra! Extra! Breaking news: Newspapers' Stalinist rule over all media is kaput!

The triumph of the Internet over competing media is official. Its clout was widely acknowledged for years, sure, but there's been a curious holdout: a bunch of graybeards hiding in the alternate universe of the New York Film Critics Circle who think they still rule the planet along with chaps named Pulitzer and Hearst.

When the New York Film Critics Circle was formed in 1935, it was comprised of "13 metropolitan cinema soothersayers" engaged in "star chamber proceedings," according to the New York Times. Members all belonged to the city's many newspapers, which included the American, Daily News, Herald Tribune, Journal, Mirror, Post, Times, Sun and World-Telegram. No one else was permitted to join — not even widely respected film critics writing for magazines and book publishers.

Magazine writers were so irked about being shut out of NYFCC that, in 1966, they formed a rival critics group also based in Manhattan — the National Society of Film Critics, which permitted newspaper journos to join too. Technically, all critics can join NSFC, but TV riffraff like the late Joel Siegel has always been shut out. (Joel used to complain to me bitterly about it when he was a regular contributor to the old GoldDerby.com.) For the most part, Web writers have been shunned too, but a few have been tolerated. At least they are — theoretically — eligible to submit applications for membership.

Not true at NYFCC, which finally caved in and permitted magazine journos to join a few decades ago, but otherwise it's remained a print-only closed circle.

However, today NYFCC announced that Web writers are finally included as the names of three new members were unveiled: Karen Durbin (Elle Magazine), Dana Stevens (Slate.com) and Stephanie Zacharek (Salon.com). It's startling that all three are women.

KEEP READING - CLICK HERE!

For the first time in modern memory, members of the New York Film Critics Circle will vote for their awards on a Wednesday instead of the usual Monday. This year balloting will occur on Dec. 10. Apparently, waiting until the following Monday, Dec. 15, would be too late and moving up to Dec. 8 too early.

Now the next question is: What will the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. do? To stay out in front of the Gothamites, they're going to have to convene on Dec. 7 if they want to stick with powwowing, as usual, on a Sunday. Too early? Last year LAFCA voted on Sunday, Dec. 9. NYFCC on Monday, the 10th. Voting dates in 2006: Dec 10 in L.A., Dec. 11 in N.Y. In both cases, the National Board of Review stayed out in front, as usual. However, in 2005, things got tricky. NBR planned to announce winners on Dec. 7, but missed the date and ended up unveiling its choices on Dec. 12, the exact same day as NYFCC. (LAFCA got out front on the 10th.)

Those snooty members of NYFCC insist they don't care a hoot what NBR does because it's not a critics' organization (call NBR an uppercrust People's Choice Award bestowed by a small group of New York lawyers, teachers, dentists, writers, PR folk), but, in 2005, NYFCC members halted their voting periodically throughout the day to find out if results of NBR were in yet, then read off the NBR winners during their meeting. Being snobs, they didn't want to pick the same stuff NBR did and probably would've changed their vote outcome just to be different, if necessary. But it wasn't. NBR chose "Good Night, and Good Luck" for best picture. NYFCC had no problem copying what their counterpart critics in L.A. picked two days earlier: "Brokeback Mountain."

This year NBR plans to trumpet choices even earlier: Dec. 4. Can members manage to see all major movie contenders in time? Sometimes its dogged insistence upon being first out of the derby gate carries a high price. They missed "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" in 2003 and had to leave it off its award list, which was especially embarrassing because it went on to tie the Oscar record for most wins (11) set by "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic." But that also happened way back in 1939 with "Gone With the Wind." Talk about oversights! This year it's possible they could miss "Gran Torino," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" or "The Reader."

This year the National Board of Review will celebrate its 100th anniversary with its award bash on Jan. 14, 2009, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York.

Illustration by Ty Wilson