Here’s how to win your Oscar pool

The Oscars are here! Finally! And once the carpet is rolled up and Hollywood Boulevard returns to normal (“normal” being in the eye of the beholder), I’m going to try to do everything, everywhere, all at once, ticking off as many of these California road trips as I can before I’m obligated to return. (It is going to stop raining, right?)

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter, which, yes, will be going on hiatus for a few months after this edition. But one more cup of coffee ... and one more edition for the road, my friends.

Final Oscar predictions for all 23 categories

It’s been a year and a day since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” premiered at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. No one proclaimed it an Oscar contender then. But that was before it became a box office hit, before we were reintroduced to Ke Huy Quan, before Jamie Lee Curtis turned into a weapon of mass promotion.

Now, on the eve of the Oscars, this loopy, frenetic family drama appears poised to win best picture, along with several other awards. If it duplicates its showing at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, netting individual honors for Quan and Curtis along with star Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would become just the third movie to win three acting Oscars. (The others: “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network.”)

That would be a lot, particularly because in the last decade or so, Oscar voters have spread the love each year among several movies. The last best picture winner to take more than four Oscars? That was “The Artist” in 2012, a triumph that, like many other moments in Oscar history, hasn’t aged particularly well.

The thing is, it feels like ages since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” lost. Anything. The movie swept through the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and the Independent Spirit awards. How many hot dog finger high-fives will be happening at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday? Here are my final predictions for each and every category. I’ve always said I’ll cash out if I hit a perfect score. Whether that’s a threat or a promise, I’ll leave you to decide.

Austin Butler is a favorite to win the lead actor Oscar for his turn in “Elvis.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Looking back at a cringeworthy Oscars for the ages

Twenty years ago, Rob Marshall’s “Chicago” won six Academy Awards, including best picture, beating out Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours,” Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist.” The triumph of “Chicago” — one of several contenders backed by Harvey Weinstein, then at the peak of his power — had been widely expected; so were the wins for lead actress Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”), supporting actor Chris Cooper (“Adaptation”) and supporting actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”).

Less expected: a startling late surge for “The Pianist,” which scored upset victories for lead actor Adrien Brody and director Polanski, whose 1977 rape scandal had resurfaced in awards-season headlines. Elsewhere, Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” was named best animated feature, Caroline Link’s “Nowhere in Africa” won foreign-language film and — with one of the evening’s most explosive acceptance speeches — Michael Moore took the stage to receive his documentary feature Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine.”

Times film critic Justin Chang and I took a look back at one of the most cringeworthy Oscars ever and what it portended for the movie industry more than a decade before #MeToo. We also revisited the winners of the eight primary categories, arguing what should have won — and what should have been nominated.

Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein and his then-wife, Eve Chilton Weinstein, arrive for the 75th Academy Awards in 2003.

(Kin D. Johnson / Associated Press)

‘Everything Everywhere’ laundromat now an L.A. tourist spot

Times staff writer Jonah Valdez headed out to San Fernando recently to visit Majers Coin Laundry, the spot that for six days in March 2020 became home to the production of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the likely best picture Oscar winner.

“Since the film’s release,” Jonah reports, “fans from as close as Burbank and as far as Singapore have come to Majers. They pose for selfies in front of the building’s recognizable green roof and red signage. Some come in costume. Others simply gawk at the washing machines and dryers, attempting to relive shots from the movie.”

Those tourists don’t always mesh well with the regulars, who ask the owners, Kenny and Irene Majers, what all the hubbub is about. “What movie?” they respond with irritation when told. But who isn’t a little grumpy when waiting for your clothes to dry at the laundromat?

“We’ll be forever connected — this laundromat will be forever connected — to that, making history,” said Kenny, referring to the groundbreaking nominations and wins for the film’s majority Asian cast.

“I’m proud,” said Irene, who is a registered nurse in a local hospital oncology unit. “I’m proud of my husband ... and I’m proud of my laundromat.”

Kenny Majers inside his Majers Coin Laundry in San Fernando, the laundromat used in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)