O

PEAKING

GET ME REWRITE! Somebody write a speech for Sean Penn, whose SAG acceptance seemed to be -- among other things -- a nearly indecipherable retort to rumors that Mickey Rourke had been bad-mouthing him.

CLIMBING

DRESSING UP: Meryl Streep was so sure she wasn’t going to win a SAG award that she hadn’t even bought a new dress for the show. We think the Oscar race is tight enough that she should go shopping soon.

VOTES FOR NIXON: Frank Langella, nominated for “Frost/Nixon,� is the second person to be given a lead actor nod for portraying former President Nixon. Anthony Hopkins was the first, for 1995’s “Nixon.�

AT BASE CAMP

THE BACKLASH BEGINS: Fox Searchlight has moved from “Slumdog Millionaire� promotion to “Slumdog� crisis control, trying to knock down negative media fires around the globe over what some outlets are calling “poverty porn.�

DARK DEEDS: Heath Ledger is the first acting nomination from a superhero movie. Two other actors have gotten nods for graphic-novel adaptations though: Paul Newman for “The Road to Perdition� and William Hurt for “A History of Violence.�

LOOKING FOR A SHERPA

AN EARLY START: Who says Phat Girlz don’t get Oscars? On the strength of her emotionally rending performance in this year’s most lauded Sundance film, “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire,� plus-size comedienne Mo’Nique -- star of a certain 2006 calorie-conscious comedy -- has been getting mentioned as an early front-runner for a 2010 nod.

PARTY OF FOUR: The producers branch of the academy granted special dispensation to “The Reader� to credit four producers: Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris and the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack. A fifth did not make the cut: Scott Rudin took himself out after a spat with Harvey Weinstein.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: More makeup artists were thanked at the Globes than agents.