"Lincoln" legal mistake

[Liz Rosenthal]

The headline in AOL today is "Big Flaw Found in Spielberg's 'Lincoln.'"

I wonder if this is going to hurt "Lincoln's" chances of winning the Oscar.

That? I don't think so. What's going to hurt the movie's chance of winning for Best Picture is the Argo juggernaut. It's cleaning up in all the pre-Oscar awards - run by the various guilds and critics' circles. Lincoln is pretty much getting nothing, except that Daniel Day Lewis has won for Best Actor 99.9% of the time that that category has been up in this awards season. There seems to be this meme going around in Hollywood that Ben Affleck is "David" and Spielberg is "Goliath." Except that Affleck is doing all the winning, which makes this seem like a role reversal!

The Lincoln movie's best chance for honors would be in the director (since Affleck wasn't nominated for that) and adapted screenplay categories.... Except that if Argo wins Best Picture, then it's probably going to win Best Adapted Screenplay. After all is said and done, Daniel Day-Lewis may be the only one from the film to walk away with an Oscar in two and a half weeks!