Oscar Nominees, Fans Held Hostage by Stupid 220-Year-Old American Tradition

Out of consideration for another boring-arse, unkillable civic ritual, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will push back its 2008 Oscar nomination announcement to Jan. 22, 2009 — two days after the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. The quadrennial event apparently has a century-and-a-half of media seniority over the Oscars, thus giving the Academy little choice but to bump its usual Tuesday press conference to Thursday. But wait — it gets worse.

Complicating matters further, the new schedule makes for one of the fastest turnarounds in Oscar history: Gil Cates, Bruce Vilanch and godforsaken company have a mere month to put together the Feb. 22 awardscast — the earliest ever, we’re told. Considering how this year’s will-they-or-won’t-they cancellation patter doomed Cates’ handiwork from the start, we hope Academy president Sid Ganis will again consider going head-to-head with the inauguration. Every extra day counts (especially for studio campaigns), and even the president-elect will probably be impatient to find out if this might be Kate Winslet’s year for Revolutionary Road and/or The Reader. The Oscars are the real American politics, aren’t they?

• Inauguration Day uproots Oscar noms [THR]