Hobnobbing with the hottest celebrities and attending the biggest bashes to celebrate the cinema, Etalk’s senior reporter Danielle McGimsie has become a fixture on the entertainment scene. Before she heads to Los Angeles for the 2014 Oscars, we catch up with the bubbly Canadian personality to discuss the contenders and the pretenders in this special prediction roundup.
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DANIELLE McGIMSIE’S OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Actor in a Leading Role
I think Matthew McConaughey will win for Dallas Buyers Club. He won the Golden Globe, he won the Critics’ Choice Awards, so he’s got really good momentum. My second choice would probably be Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street, I’m always excited when he shows up in a film. I really am. I think he’s a brilliant actor and I’m glad he’s getting the recognition he deserves.

Actress in a Leading Role
I think it’s gonna go to Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, although Amy Adams in American Hustle has some really good momentum leading into this as well. I would love to see Meryl [Streep] win, because I loved her in August: Osage County, but I do think Cate will take it.

Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity. It was like nothing we have seen before in film. I watched it in IMAX 3D, and even if you didn’t see it with all the bells and whistles, it was cinematically beautiful.

Best Picture
Twelve Years a Slave. It came out with quite a few nominations, and if the Globes are any predictor of the Oscars, which they can be, it did come out with Best Picture. The movie is really well loved, and deservingly so.

ENTERTAINMENT BLITZ
DANIELLE MCGIMSIE WEIGHS IN

Surprise Academy Snubs
I was surprised to see not a lot of love for The Butler, and Joaquin Phoenix not nominated for Her — it was one of my favourite films of the year. A lot of people say it’s because he doesn’t really campaign. Emma Thompson is phenomenal in Saving Mr. Banks, but the problem is that the lead actress category is so stacked. And also, Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips. I think a lot of people were shocked not to hear his name.

Actor or Actress with the Best Personality
Hugh Jackman, hands down. He’s just the nicest, kindest, warmest, friendliest, unpretentious guy. And a great actor.

It Girl for 2014
I think Jennifer Lawrence has got it again for 2014. People still talk about her, and everything she does — you know, at the Golden Globes when she was on the platform and she made that growly, ugly face — makes news on social and news media.

Best Celebrity Interview
A recent favourite was with Julia Roberts for August: Osage County. She swears a lot in this movie. I asked her about it and she said, “You know what, everyone keeps saying that, but I don’t really remember it.” I then dropped an F-bomb just to get her to react, and she died laughing. I made Julia Roberts laugh and smile, and she sort of buckled at the waist, and was laughing quite hysterically. That was a good one.

Most Likely to Be Best Dressed
I was very underwhelmed with the Golden Globes dressing, apart from Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Lupita Nyong’o, who looked amazing! Naomi Watts, who wore Tom Ford, always looks, great too.

Most Likely to Commit a Fashion Faux Pas
I can’t see Julia Roberts in that shirt-dress thing again. That can’t happen ever again. And who wore the dress with the big, puffy white thing? Oh, Paula Patton’s dress. Maybe she wouldn’t do that again, though. I’m going with … I don’t want to say Sandra Bullock, but I have to. I have to. It’s always either the fabric is wrong, or the length is wrong; something’s always off.

Follow Danielle McGimsie on Twitter:
@MissDMcG