Gran Snubino

It's just gotta be said . . .

Our admiration for the body of Clint Eastwood's work is not mitigated by the fact that Clint constantly refuses interview requests from his hometown paper, that he won't say boo to us, and that he brushes us off with such regularity that we're starting to feel like home plate. We know he has his reasons, but . . .

So it's not like we're provincial clodhoppers when we say that Eastwood was robbed by the Motion Picture Academy this year. His terrific and tragic "Gran Torino" received not a single Oscar nomination. This seems a travesty, considering that even "Australia" managed at least one nomination.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a nice gimmick, well-crafted and jammed with sweet performances, but wasn't "Forrest Gump" nominated 15 years ago?

If it's any consolation, "Gran Torino" remains box-office gold and has already earned $78 million. Also, "The Changeling," which wasn't quite as successful among movie-goers, was nominated for three Oscars.