Best Actor in a Supporting Role

WHO I'D PICK:

GEOFFREY RUSH- THE KING'S SPEECH

Yes, he's won before.  Yes, he plays a part in that Oscar cliche-fest.  But how can you not love a guy who has the gall to tell a King they must be treated as equals?  Rush is Lionel Logue, the Australian speech therapist who agrees to take poor "Bertie" as a patient to cure him of his crippling stammer.  While Bertie lacks the self-confidence to speak his mind most times, Logue has more than enough for them to share.  Constantly crapped on for his Aussie heritage and lowly station as (gasp) a wannabe Shakespearean actor, he never gives up on his dream to be great, and to have his voice heard as well.  He never lets his circumstances stand in the way of his charm, and you have to like a man who wants to help people.  

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: On averagre, Rush has an awesome comeback about every thirty seconds; but the fuzzy moment has to be playing a game with his two sons, wherein he recites (and, with great attention to detail) Shakespeare and has them guess the source material.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

CHRISTIAN BALE- THE FIGHTER

I may be the only person who doesn't think that The Fighter is mind numblingly awesome.  Maybe I'm annoyed that we can't seem to make an award-winning sports movie that isn't about boxing.  Maybe I don't get Irish people.  But I've gotta say, Bale did a pretty good job portraying Dickey Ecklund, the crackhead half-brother/manager of Mickey Ward, the aforementioned fighter.  It's tough to see Bale, who we all know and love as the gravely voiced Dark Knight, as a tweaked out and low-life has-been.  Heart breaking moment: he refuses to believe 1) that his much coveted knock out of Sugar Ray Leonard was actually just the boxer tripping, and 2) the HBO camera crew following him around is actually making a documentary about the effects of crack, rather than his comeback fight which cannot happen at his old age.  Dickey has fights of his own, just not in the ring, and it does us good to see him get his act together.  Who wouldn't want to reward that?

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: Hoping not to get caught in a house of ill-repute by his mother and brother, Dickey must plummet a few stories into the trash through the back window.  Shoot, I want to try it.