Oscar nominees and winners....

The 2007-08 Oscars have been handed out and whether you agree with the winners or not, you have to admit, this had to have been the most interesting and diverse group the Academy has ever nominated.
Here's the scorecard of some of the more interesting elements of some of the nominees.

Diablo Cody - winner, Best Original Screenplay - a former stripper with a big visible tattoo of a scantily-clad woman on her arm. Right after the Oscars, semi-nude photos of her showed up on the internet and were labeled 'controversial.' Uh, that shouldn't have surprised anyone. Hello...stripper?

Viggo Mortensen - nominee, Eastern Promises - along with an actor, he's a very accomplished photographer and painter as well as a published poet. His paintings were seen in his movie A Perfect Murder (1998). Speaks several languages, including Danish. The mother of his son is a famous singer from a punk band. Never mind the Lord of the Rings stuff.

Daniel Day-Lewis - winner, Best Actor - Like Mortensen, an extreme Method actor. Day-Lewis sequesters himself during movie shoots. He lived in the wild for a month before he shot The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and not only learned how the shoot that giant rifle he carried thoughout the movie, but he also learned how to hunt and skin animals and he built his own canoe. He is also a skilled woodworker and worked as a cobbler during a long break between movies.

Johnny Depp - nominee - Nothing needed here. We know about him. Particularly his playing the cross-dressing, classically-bad director Ed Wood in the movie of the same name; his creating the Jack Sparrow character by combining Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew together and the characters of Willy Wonka, Edward Scissorhands and real-life writer Hunter S. Thompson. Just the tip of the iceberg with this dude.

The Coen Brothers - winners for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director - very interesting material in each movie. Fargo (1996) illustrates the banality of living in the South Dakota/Minnesota area. While writing Miller's Crossing (1990) they got writer's block and turned to writing something else - which became Barton Fink (1991) - to solve the problem. Barton Fink is about a writer with writer's block (among other things). When they write their scripts, every single sound said by the actors in the film - including the pauses and the 'uh's,' 'um's' and the swearing - is scripted exactly. In each movie, they do everything themselves and together. They edit their own movies under the pseudonym 'Roderick Jaynes.' Even though it's them under an alias, they talk about Roderick Jaynes like that's a real person - an angry and bitter 80ish curmudgeon who they say was bitter about losing in the Best Editing Category.

George Clooney - He was Batman. Like Depp, started on television in the 80's. Was on two different shows about a hospital in Chicago. One called ER and one called E/R. His Dad Nick was a newscaster in a variety of places, including Ohio, where he also hosted a daytime talk/variety show. Aunt was Rosemary.

Paul Thomas Anderson - nominee, as writer and director - his Dad Ernie was an actor who created and popularized the character 'Ghoulardi,' the host of a horror night on a local Cleveland television station. Nevermind that the younger Anderson made Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). What's with the frogs raining down on people in Magnolia?

Tilda Swinton - winner, Best Supporting Actress - openly admits to having a open relationship. Is in a relationship with a painter who is 18 years younger than her, but yet lives platonically with the father of her twins - who is 20 years older than her.

Saorise Ronan - nominee, Best Supporting Actress - nominated at age 13. Her father is actor Paul Ronan. Paul acted with Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own (1997).

Jason Reitman - nominee, Best Director - son of director Ivan Reitman

Tony Gilroy - nominee Best Director and Best Screenplay - His father Frank is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and writer.

Tamara Jenkins - nominee, Best Screenplay - after being a performance artist, wrote an autobiographical script that became the film The Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) that she directed. Her husband Jim has already won an Oscar for writing the film Sideways (2005).

Julian Schnabel - nominee, Best Director - also a painter and artist. Painted the album cover of a Red Hot Chili Peppers album By The Way. Directed Javier Bardem to his first Oscar nomination in the early 2000's.

Javier Bardem - winner, Best Supporting Actor - third generation in a family of actors. His grandfather performed at the beginning of Spanish cinema and his mother as still active in her career. Bardem doesn't actually drive, but yet did in No Country For Old Men.

Cate Blanchett - twice nominated in acting categories this year - at age 38, already been nominated five times. Twice for playing Queen Elizabeth I in two different movies that weren't related to each other and were ten years apart. Won for playing another Oscar-winning actress (Katharine Hepburn) and nominated for playing musician Bob Dylan in a movie where not only was she Dylan, but so was Heath Ledger and so was a black kid.

Ruby Dee - at age 83, became the second-oldest Oscar nominee.

We all know about Tommy Lee Jones going to Harvard with Al Gore. Oh and don't forget about Marketa Irglova - the young girl who won for Best Song and got the rare opportunity to come back out to do her acceptance speech after Bill Conti chased her off with music. Today's her 20th birthday.