Let's talk Oscars one more time.
One month ago we checked our traffic logs to see which of the new Oscar nominees was most popular with Lycos users. The results had Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and American Beauty as overwhelming favorites in their categories.
Now we've taken a fresh look. Below are the final rankings of this year's nominees based on your search queries last week. The percentages show comparative search "votes" -- each category adds up to 100%.
And the winners are...
BEST ACTRESS
35% Hilary Swank
32% Julianne Moore
25% Annette Bening
7% Meryl Streep
1% Janet McTeer
BEST ACTOR
51% Kevin Spacey
25% Denzel Washington
22% Russell Crowe
1% Sean Penn
1% Richard Farnsworth
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
76% Angelina Jolie
21% Chloe Sevigny
1% Catherine Keener
1% Samantha Morton
1% Toni Collette
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
52% Jude Law
45% Tom Cruise
1% Michael Caine
1% Michael Clarke Duncan
1% Haley Joel Osment
BEST PICTURE
55% American Beauty
15% The Cider House Rules
14% The Green Mile
12% The Sixth Sense
4% The Insider
Two leaders have tightened their grip since February: Kevin Spacey has moved from 45% to 51% of the Best Actor search vote. And American Beauty looks like a sure bet for Best Picture, moving from 47% to a gaudy 55% -- mostly at the expense of The Green Mile, which dropped from February's 25% to an anemic pre-Oscar 14%.
Two other front-runners have smaller margins. Hilary Swank is still the surprise Best Actress leader with 35% (down from February's 41%). And while Angelina Jolie now sports 76% of the Best Supporting Actress vote, in February she had an even more amazing 90%.
The big surprise: Jude Law has overtaken Tom Cruise in the running for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise dropped 16%, with Law gaining a whopping 24%.
The last question to ask, then, is: how much predictive weight should we give to growth in user interest during the last five weeks? If we go strictly by volume, your winners are listed above. But if we go by growth, look for Chloe Sevigny to steal Best Supporting Actress from Angelina Jolie -- and for Annette Bening and The Cider House Rules to sneak to victory as Best Actress and Best Picture.
We'll see you on Monday!
