I am EXCITED. 

As I posted yesterday, even though A Star is Born is currently the Oscar frontrunner across most major categories, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Bradley Cooper, they’re not letting them run away with it. Nobody is standing aside, not yet. Why would they? It’s October. Plenty of time and plenty of strategy left to play. 

Obviously ASIB’s strongest chances are in the musical category. Kathleen just wrote about ASIB’s three song submissions in the Best Original Song category in her defence of “I’ll Never Love Again”, aka the weakest song on the team. We haven’t spent enough time talking about “Always Remember Us This Way”. “Always Remember Us This Way”, to me, is like the “Evergreen” of Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, thematically anyway. “Evergreen” was about love that is ageless and always. It won the Best Original Song Oscar in 1977 from Barbra’s A Star is Born. Will “Always Remember Us This Way” or "Shallow" do it this time? Wait, wait, wait… 

It’s not a foregone conclusion. 

Dolly Parton’s not standing aside. 

I posted last week about Dolly working on the Dumplin’ soundtrack to be released on November 30. She wrote six original songs for the movie. Yesterday there was a press event to promote the music. Dolly sang “Girl in the Movies” for a group of journalists and, Dolly being Dolly, she was very clear about her intentions:

“We’re just happy to be here because we’re actually out politicking trying to get our song heard and maybe get nominated for an award on those Oscars and all that stuff.” 

Did she say “politicking”, with a “g”? Or was it more like “politickin’”, no “g”? I’m thinking there was no “g”. And I’m thinking Dolly Parton is going to campaign the sh-t out of this song and this soundtrack, even if it’s a major longshot. Because Dumplin’ is a Netflix film. And, well, you know the Academy’s relationship with Netflix. That said, if there’s one person you don’t want to ever count out, it’s Dolly Parton. 

Also, if we’re playing the “due game", please note that Dolly Parton doesn’t have an Oscar. She was nominated for “Nine to Five” and she was nominated for “Travelin’ Thru” from Transamerica in 2005/6 but she’s never won. Who in the category this year could possibly be more “due” than Dolly?!? 

Dolly’s on the campaign trail! Dolly is politickin’! So it’s not Gaga’s, not quite yet.