Mt. Oscar

PEAKING

BRAD PACK: A swarm of paparazzi got aggressive with Brad Pitt at an industry screening of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Maybe he should have attended in little old man drag.

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CLIMBING

LOST IN TRANSLATION: Momentum for “Slumdog Millionaire” is snowballing, going from its Toronto Film Festival raves to positive opening-day reviews. But will the fact that much of the dialogue is in Hindi turn off voters?

METHOD STITCHING: We hear Meryl Streep knitted a shawl for her role as a suspicious nun in “Doubt.” This really raises the bar for her work in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”

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AT BASE CAMP

NAME THAT WINNER: Dustin Hoffman and Philip Seymour Hoffman are the only two winners of lead actor Oscars to share a last name. This year they could add Globe wins to their connection, Dustin for “Last Chance Harvey,” Philip for either “Doubt” or “Synecdoche, N.Y.”

GOD, YES: Bill Maher’s gleefully sacrilegious “Religulous” is the highest-grossing documentary of the year (more than $11 million so far), but will the polarizing approach to the sacred subject matter be taboo?

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LOOKING FOR A SHERPA

CRUISE’S CONTROL: Tom Cruise as a German? You may shudder but “Valkyrie” opens with him speaking more than passable German. Sure, he slips into non-accented English shortly after, but he nailed it for a little while.

NO ‘BODY’ TO LOVE: Poor Ridley Scott. With three nominations, the director seems to get thiiiiis close to an Oscar but never takes it. And after “American Gangster’s” snub last year, it doesn’t seem like “Body of Lies” is going to break the curse.

SENIOR MOMENTS: “Elegy” may be a long shot, but could Dennis Hopper join the ranks of veteran actors getting a supporting nod for roles involving death or dying? Consider: Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”), Hal Holbrook (“Into the Wild”), Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”).