Oscar Watch

Next to the Miracle Bra, the best support going.

Here's where predicting the Oscar race goes from tricky to downright impossible: Since supporting performances are supposed to emerge as delightful, previously unheralded surprises, how can we guess who this year's Anna Paquin or Cuba Gooding Jr. will be? Which member of Saving Private Ryan's platoon will be singled out? (Our guess: loyal sergeant Tom Sizemore or cowardly Jeremy Davies.) Will the enormous all-male combo of superstars and newcomers in The Thin Red Line cancel one another out? Can recent nominee Edward Norton repeat for his turn as a crazy compulsive gambler in Rounders? Will Judi Dench, nominated as Queen Victoria for Mrs. Brown, be recognized again as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love? Will voters pick Lynn Redgrave as a crusty German housekeeper in Gods and Monsters, Thandie Newton or Kimberly Elise in Beloved, or one of the five sisters in Dancing at Lughnasa? How about Kathy Bates in Primary Colors, Ed Harris in The Truman Show, Patricia Clarkson in High Art, or that awesome dog in There's Something About Mary? Who knows? But we tip our hat to A Civil Action, which, taking no chances, has bought Oscar insurance by casting four previous nominees — Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Kathleen Quinlan, and John Lithgow — in small roles.