Suburban Newspapers of America awards presentation
JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA-Review Publishing, LP the company that operates Atlantic City Weekly celebrated award recognition here tonight. Left: Review Publishing Advisory Board Member, Tom Bradlee, of Chesapeake Publishing Co. is congratulated by SNA VP-Operations, Al Cupo as he accepted National SNA Editorial Contest awards.
At right, Review Publishing's Lew Steiner, Publisher of Atlantic City Weekly is also shown with the SNA Vice President, Al Cupo for awards won by the South Philly Review's Art Director, Brendan Moss and Atlantic City Weekly's Managing Editor, Jeff Schwachter. (Photos: Christine Steiner)
Now it time to give myself props. I nailed my Academy Award predictions. Yes, I know it didn’t take a genius to know that Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker were going to win best actor and best actress. Jennifer Hudson was a safe choice too. However, not everyone was sure that Martin Scorsese would win for best director and that The Departed would win as best picture. I predicted the upset foreign language film win for The Lives of Others over Pan’s Labyrinth, and that Happy Feet would be the most popular mode of transportation over Cars as best animated film. I also predicted the screenplay wins for Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed. I did think that if Eddie Murphy were bested for best supporting, it would be Mark Wahlberg, and not Alan Arkin. Not that I mind Arkin’s win, a terrific performance in a career filled with terrific performances.
The Dixie Chicks played it cool and humble, but they had to feel vindicated by the five Grammy Awards they took home Sunday night including Record of the Year, Song of the Year (for “Not Ready to Make Nice”) and Album of the Year (Taking the Long Way). While country radio had turned their back on the Chicks and the CMA and ACM award shows had been Chick-less as well, the Grammy community gave them a big “way to go Chicks!” with their five for five. The Chicks also won the Best Country Album and Best Country Duo or Group award.
This year’s Oscar nomination announcement went pretty much by the book, which made for a boring announcement. About the only shock wave was generated by the nine nominations for Dreamgirls, but not for best picture or best director. Of course the predictability of the nominations made me look as good as Medium’s Alison DuBois. 
Of course the movies we are talking about this time of year are not the brand new 2007 films, but the 2006 flicks that have Academy Award aspirations. Since the Atlantic City region is not exactly a prime movie locale, there are 2006 movies that have not yet trickled down to our area, playing only in major cities until the Academy Award nominations come out on Tuesday, Jan. 23.