While most Oscarologists are now proclaiming "The King's Speech" for Best Picturre, 6 of the 23 pundits polled by Gold Derby continue to back "The Social Network" -- including Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere) and Erik Davis (Cinematical).

"I will not change my Best Picture pick to 'The King’s Speech,'" Travers roars to Gold Derby. "I believe that Oscar voters will come to their senses and see that 'The Social Network' is the best picture of the year even if it’s not the picture that most warmed what passes for their hearts. It's more than a battle between New Hollywood and Old. It's a battle to ignore business as usual and put the groundbreaking movie in the Academy time capsule. That’s 'The Social Network.'"

Most pundits nonetheless remain faithful to "Social Network" helmer David Fincher in the race for Best Director. Even though "King's Speech's" Tom Hooper recently won DGA, 17 of the 23 Oscar seers predict Fincher will claim the equivalent academy contest.

Recent SAG and Golden Globe champs lead the acting contests by overwhelming vote: Colin Firth ("The King's Speech"), Natalie Portman ("Black Swan"), Christian Bale ("The Fighter") and Melissa Leo ("The Fighter").

However, some notable pundits disagree. Peter Travers and Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood) pick Annette Bening ("The Kids Are All Right") to win Best Actress and Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Kris Tapley (In Contention) and Anne Thompson (Indie Wire) believe Haile Steinfeld ("True Grit") will stage an upset for supporting actress. Do you agree? Vote in our poll HERE.

See the full list of predix HERE.

Of the 10 Best Picture nominees, three have cracked that mark, another three are on track to do so, one got tantalizingly close and three are fated to fall far short.

"Toy Story 3" made $415 million domestically while "Inception" topped out at $293 million. "True Grit" has just passed the $150 million level and continues to play well after six weeks, earning an average of $2,400 for each of the 3,100 screens it showed on last weekend.

"The King' Speech" got the biggest boost from the Oscar nominations, drawing an average of $4,300 for each of its 2,500 screens. That added $11 million to a tally which now stands at $72 million after 10 weeks.

After nine weeks, "Black Swan" has taken in $91 million and made $5 million last weekend playing on 2,300 screens at approximately $2,200 per.

"The Fighter" averaged $2,000 at each of about 1,900 screens and has a total gross of $78 million after eight weeks.

KEEP READING

In advance of the Academy Awards on Feb. 27, the contenders for Best Animated, Documentary and Live Action Shorts are getting theatrical releases via Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International.

This marks the sixth year that the partnership is bringing these contenders to a wider audience. Last year's screenings earned over $1 million.This year's series unspools on Feb. 11.

For Carter Pilcher, chief executive of Shorts International, "the Oscar-nominated short films are some of this year¹s best entertainment. They’re made by the world¹s stand-out, emerging filmmakers and represent the cutting edge of entertainment. Audiences this year will experience intense emotional highs, laugh-out-loud comedies and brilliant insights, all in the space of 90 minutes.”

This year's contenders will also be available for individual purchase via iTunes beginning Feb. 22.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
"Day & Night"
"The Gruffalo",
"Let’s Pollute"
"The Lost Thing"
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
"Killing in the Name"
"Poster Girl"
"Strangers No More"
"Sun Come Up"
"The Warriors of Qiugang"

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
"The Confession"
"The Crush"
"God of Love"
"Na Wewe"
"Wish 143"

The American Society of Cinematographers will present Julia Roberts with their Board of Governors Award at the silver anniversary of their kudos on Feb. 13 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland. This honor is bestowed on those "who have made extraordinary achievements to advancing the art and craft of filmmaking." Previous recipients include Warren Beatty, Francis Ford Coppola, Sally Field, Morgan Freeman, Ron Howard, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

In making the announcement, ASC Awards Committee chairman Richard Crudo said, "Cinematographers and actors have a special rapport that begins with mutual trust. Julia brings something extra to that relationship and further elevates what we do with her beauty and grace. She's a gift to every cinematographer she works with." And said ASC president Michael Goi, “In an industry that accords the respect of legendary stardom very infrequently, Julia Roberts has demonstrated continuously, by the strength of her performances and the perfection of her craft, that she has earned this distinction many times over. She represents the best of Hollywood to the world.”

The Oscar-winning actress ("Erin Brockovich") is married to lenser Danny Moder. The two, who met while making "The Mexican" a decade ago, have been married for almost nine years and have three children. 

The Academy has set up an interactive display in midtown Manhattan that will give passers-by a chance to walk the red carpet and accept an Oscar. As per the announcement, "As people walk past the eight-foot high wall of LCD screens, specially designed sensors react to their motion, triggering a flurry of virtual flashing paparazzi cameras and spotlights." And there will be two photo stations set up at 1333 Broadway where people can pose with a "virtual" Academy Award and then email the snap.

As Janet Weiss, director of marketing for the Academy, explains: "Our theme for this year’s Academy Awards presentation is ‘You’re Invited,’ and we have tried to extend that idea across as many platforms as possible. We’re excited that this innovative, interactive experience gives our fans a fun new way to engage with and share in the Oscars."

And for those wanting to hold a real Oscar, the Academy will host an exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal for five days beginning Feb. 23 that will give the public that chance.

The 17th annual edition of these awards did well with their simulcast on TNT and TBS. TNT averaged 2,820,000 viewers while TBS delivered 2,185,000 viewers for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The kudocast rated as the top show on basic cable Sunday and can boast of growing its audience by 6% over last year.

And, in a sign of just how popular awards shows are, the two-hour ceremony posted strong gains in the key adult demos:

Adults 18-34: 1,163,000 (+30%)
Adults 18-49: 2,181,000 (+13%)
Adults 25-54: 2,238,000 (+8%)

The SAG Awards topped Twitter during the simulcast and ranked as one of the trending topics on the service on both Sunday and Monday. 

UPDATE: Ricky Gervais has clarified that it was not the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. which asked him to emcee the Golden Globes again next year but NBC. As he wrote on his blog:

"The TV show organisers said they were happy with everything and asked me to not rule out a third gig. However, it is not entirely up to them. The Hollywood Foreign Press and various other committees need to meet and agree. I have no idea if they want me back again. It depends whether they care about fifty delicate egos in the room or the 200 million people watching at home who want a laugh.

Also, even if they did want me back, at the moment I'm pretty sure I shouldn't do it. But I'll tell you this. If they do invite me back and I accept, I'm going to pull exactly the same s**t again or even worse.

Once again, everyone has been warned."

HFPA president Phil Berk had issued this denial at the notion that the group wanted Gervais back as hot : "There is no truth to this rumor. We have not asked him to come back. Nice try, Ricky."

Gervais certainly played fast and loose as host of these kudos for the second year running, taking potshots at the HFPA and various nominees. As Gervais wrote in his wry recap of the week for Heat magazine: “The ratings went up again and the organisers asked me to consider a third year. I don't think I should." As he notes, "I don't know what I could do better. I certainly couldn't get more press for them, that's for sure." And, he explains, “You know me. Two seasons is enough.”

This will come as bad news to our readers who responded to our poll and overwhelmingly endorsed the English comedian's performance at the podium: 42% of you thought he was simply the best while another 33% said he went too far but was still fun to watch. Indeed, only 15% of respondents gave him the thumbs down.

None of our eight editors did better than pundit Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) who scored 13 out of a possible 15 with her predictions for Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards. Marcus Dixon did the best, getting 12 races right. To see the individual editors' picks, click here. And to see the experts' results, click here.

While none of the experts foresaw Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock") taking home his fifth SAG, two of our editors -- Chris Beachum and Andrew Pickett -- saw that fifth win coming. Conversely, only one of our editors (Matthew Cormier) predicted Betty White ("Hot in Cleveland") to win, compared to two of the experts.

All of the editors correctly forecast Colin Firth ("The King's Speech") and Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") to win while most also went with triumphant supporting players from "The Fighter" Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. 

12 correct -- Marcus Dixon

11 correct -- Chris Beachum

10 correct -- Matthew Cormier, Andrew Pickett

9 correct -- Darrin Dortch, Rob Licuria, David Schnelwar

8 correct -- Matt Noble

7 correct -- Ben Scuglia

For our experts, the TV actors proved to be much less predictable than those on the movie side. Only two of our 19 pundits foresaw Betty White ("Hot in Cleveland") for Best TV Comedy Actress, while not one of them predicted Alec Baldwin would five-peat for Best TV Comedy Actor.

Conversely, almost all of our pundits agreed that Colin Firth ("The King's Speech"), Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") and "The Fighter" supporting players Christian Bale and Melissa Leo would take home the Actor.

Congratulations to Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) for squashing the competition. Out of 15 categories, Stone got 13 correct -- missing only Julianna Margulies ("The Good Wife") for Best TV Drama Actress and, of course, Alec Baldwin.

See all of their individual picks here.

13 correct -- Sasha Stone (Awards Daily)

12 correct -- Paul Sheehan (Gold Derby)

11 correct -- Tim Appelo (Hollywood Reporter), Michael Musto (Village Voice), Bob Tourtellotte (Reuters)

10 correct -- Erik Davis (Cinematical), Greg Ellwood (HitFix), Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood), Dave Karger (EW), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Anne Thompson (IndieWire), Chuck Walton (Fandango)

9 correct -- Scott Feinberg (Scott Feinberg), Joseph Kapsch (Zap2It), Kevin Lewin (WENN), Guy Lodge (InContention), Tom O'Neil (The Envelope, Gold Derby), Susan Wloszczyna (USA Today)

4 correct -- Kevin Polowy (NextMovie); he only predicted the six movie awards.