*‘Tis the Season For Your Consideration: The Independent Spirit Awards announced its nominees, with the much-ballyhooed abused-teen drama Precious and yet-to-be-released Leo Tolstoy biopic The Last Station leading with five nods each. Joining them for the Best Picture contest is (500) Days of Summer, Amreeka, and Sin Nombre. It’s not surprising that three of the top-honored are films few audiences have seen—these awards are, after all, dedicated to the Little Movies That Could—but one notable omission is Kathryn Bigelow‘s The Hurt Locker, which because of film-festival showings in 2008 received two nominations last year. The Academy should make up for that, though—and if Hurt Locker doesn’t in fact get a slot among Oscar’s now-10 Best Pic selections, we might as well admit that Michael Bay wins.

*Rupert Everett Comes Out as the Worst Person to Go to for Advice: The star of My Best Friend’s Wedding has publicly announced his opinion that homosexual actors stay in the closet for the sake of their careers. On one hand, you can understand his position, considering his last and most well-known leading role was 12 years ago. But telling young actors that they won’t succeed unless they make like Rock Hudson is kinda like advising starlets to starve themselves if they want to hit it big…oh, wait.

*Oren Peli Leaps from Paranormal to Hollywood Normal: The Paranormal Activity director, who famously made his crazy-scary ghost story for a mere $11,000 (plus $4,000 for Steven Spielberg‘s suggested alternate ending), has struck a deal with Paramount to distribute his follow-up, Area 51. The budget’s $5 million—still pennies compared to even indie films these days —and though everyone’s keeping mum about the plot, the story allegedly uses the fake-found-footage technique of Paranormal. Really? I have a feeling that, à la Blair Witch, lightning is not going to strike twice.