It's time to get excited-ish for the 67th Annual Golden Globes, the nominations for which will be announced bright and early Tuesday morning. In the spirit of reader service and/or your compulsive awards-race bookmaking habit, Movieline has plucked a handful of developments that may come as tomorrow's most surprising. Some factors -- Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep's likely dual nominations, for example -- were disqualified as surprises on account of the surfeit of slots made available by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Others are simply waiting for you to suggest them. Please do so after the jump!
1. Clint Eastwood will get the worst of the Rise of Avatar.
By the time Oscar nominations come around in a month, the well-intentioned and lukewarmly received Invictus will be safely nestled among this year's awards-season also-rans. That's a little tougher decision for the HFPA to make on this timetable. While the star-f*cking organization would no doubt love to welcome director Eastwood and Co. to a table at the Beverly Hilton, it also needs to clear a space for James Cameron and his sudden awards juggernaut Avatar. It could knock off Lee Daniels, but I don't think it will -- at least for the Globes, I think Precious is a package deal. So... yeah. Better luck next year, Clint. He's probably working the night of Jan. 17 anyway.
2. (500) Days of Summer will own.
Remember last year when the violent crime dramedy In Bruges sneaked in seemingly out of nowhere with three nominations? That's (500) Days of Summer in 2009. You've got at least Best Picture and Best Actor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in the Musical or Comedy category; the same category on the Actress side is wide open for Zooey Deschanel. Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter also have a solid shot at the fifth screenplay nod, edging out either Nick Hornby (An Education or maybe -- maybe -- the Coen brothers for A Serious Man.
3. No White Ribbon.
Forget about its Palme D'Or and rolling critical accolades that will carry it to the Oscars. Michael Haneke's bleak epic won't rate a second glance among a votership that will go for the more lilting overseas pleasures of Broken Embraces, The Maid, Coco Before Chanel and even A Prophet -- also a bleak epic, but at least it's in color. (Their hang-up not mine, for the record.)
4. Cloudy With a Chance of Snubbed
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was an entertaining, tidy little hit for Sony, and following the Oscars' example, the HFPA this year ostensibly expanded its Animation category to five for films just like it. Nevertheless, Disney and Focus have influence in the organization, and Up, The Princess and the Frog, Ponyo, Coraline and 9 will block out the competition -- including the too-eggheaded Fantastic Mr. Fox and the foreign megahit Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
5. So long, Entourage.
Entourage has been a Globes mainstay since 2004, earning a Best Comedy/Musical nomination in five out of six contests. This year, having underwhelmed even its most loyal devotees and with upstarts Glee and even Parks and Recreation waiting to break through, the HFPA will finally close the books on the boys. Good riddance.