Precious Star Paula Patton Talks to Movieline About Oprah's 'Midas Touch'

The hype surrounding Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is staggering considering it doesn't see national release until November. Mo'nique, who plays the abusive mother of a tortured teenager, is already being singled out for an Oscar nomination following stellar reception at Sundance and Toronto, and the film itself seems destined for a bouquet of noms. Star Paula Patton thinks both Mo'nique and Precious will see academy recognition, and, as she told Movieline, her comparatively glamorous character Ms. Rain was cut no slack from director Lee Daniels.

Patton, who next stars in the Queen Latifah film Just Wright, dispensed these tidbits about the mania of Precious.

On how her character was no less grungy than Mo'nique's, Gabourey Sidibe's, or Mariah Carey's:

"I wasn't wearing makeup! I didn't think she was glamorous at all. You'd be surprised, I wasn't wearing that much makeup. The director would come up and mess up my eyebrows, wipe off my lips and everything."

On Oprah Winfrey's upcoming promotional blitz for Precious and her comment that it's "the new The Color Purple:

"I haven't taped Oprah yet, no. But hopefully we will be doing that soon. I definitely know she's going to do something with us. Anything Oprah is connected to is a good thing for us. I just want her to brush a little Midas touch on us."

If the unwavering festival praise isn't a Midas touch, nothing is. But she's got a point; we're talking about the woman whose last promotional blitz may have won us a president. Precious, like Obama, is already starting its public life as an uncontested juggernaut.