WGA predictions & actuals

Here are my predictions for the two WGA categories, with actual nominees in bold:

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (4/5= 80%)
Babel by Guillermo Arriaga
Half Nelson by Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden
Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt
The Queen by Peter Morgan
Stranger Than Fiction by Zach Helm
(alt. Borat by Sacha Baron Cohen)

...and the shocker was: United 93 by Paul Greengrass

POST-NOMS: So they honored United here after all. I was starting to give up hope. I think it's looking better for some oscar attention, either here or in director. Half Nelson, apparently, didn't have the support to place here, though my alternate made the OTHER list. All in all, this category was not too surprising...

PRE-NOMS: I'm not entirely sure all these are eligible for the WGA (Babel in particular is a question mark), but I left off both the foreign films cause they are generally NOT eligible. This category sure is thin without those foreigners, huh? Sad.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (3/5=60%)
Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron, et al
The Departed by William Monahan
The Devil Wears Prada by Aline Brosh McKenna
Little Children by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
Notes on a Scandal by Patrick Marber
(alt. Thank You for Smoking by Jason Reitman)

...and the shocker was: Borat by Sacha Baron Cohen (predicted in other category)

POST-NOMS: Wow. So three of my predictions, my alternate, and my OTHER alternate all made it. And Dreamgirls didn't. Yay!

Weird to see Notes on a Scandal miss here... but then, not really; Patrick Marber missed in this category when he wrote Closer a few years ago. Is the Notes script not as safe as it seemed? Both it and the snubbed Children of Men could resurface as oscar nominees, but I'm not holding my breath.

This nod is very good news for The Devil Wears Prada. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Prada's huge success might carry it to a nod in the most unlikely of categories: writing! Then again, maybe not... this is the kind of thing the WGA often goes for when oscar does not. Also happy for Little Children, which looks good with both this and a globe nom.

But the real question here is: can Borat repeat this trick at the oscars? It's not totally fraudulent (it is basically adapted from the TV character, and TV is technically another medium), but it recalls the bizarre Before Sunset placement (that WAS fraud; jesus, you can't call it adapted just cause it's a sequel). Anyway, I'm betting it'll be replaced in the end by Children, Notes or Veil, but Borat is a contender, to be sure.

PRE-NOMS: This category's not so thin. I'm pretty sure all of these are eligible. And there are several more that I couldn't even list as alternates (Dreamgirls, The Painted Veil, The Last King of Scotland, The Illusionist) even though any of them could make it. I don't expect to be right here. But I could get lucky.

P.S. Sorry, I have no time to deal with the ASC awards or other things. GRE, GRE, GRE!