The showbiz-geek fascination with the holy grail of the EGOT – that is, an individual who wins Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards over the course of their career – is something I don”t entirely share in, largely because because at least one of the wins always comes with some kind of diminutive asterisk. (Seriously, should spoken-word Grammys even count? Call me when someone wins a Best Actress Oscar, Album of the Year and the Nobel Peace Prize. In a single year.) Still, I”d never have guessed that the first new member of the club in over 10 years, joining the likes of Whoopi Goldberg and Audrey Hepburn, would be super-producer Scott Rudin: he made the list on Sunday by sharing “The Book of Mormon””s Grammy for best musical-theater album. At least the man behind “Extremely Loud” and “Dragon Tattoo” has won something this season. [Carpetbagger] 

Ed Gonzalez on why “A Separation” will lose the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. I fear he’s probably right. [Slant] 

Nathaniel Rogers breaks down the “Bridesmaids” scenes that presumably earned Melissa McCarthy her unlikely Oscar nod. [The Film Experience]

Hadley Freeman interviews “god of gravitas” and dark-horse Best Supporting Actor hopeful, Max von Sydow. [The Guardian]

Michael Coleman sits down with the sound team of “Hugo,” who won the BAFTA on Sunday and could well take the Oscar. [Below the Line]

Nick Davis on the best visual effects of the year, including two films totally shortchanged by the Academy in that category. [Nick’s Flick Picks]

I feel a bit bad for Viola Davis having to constantly field questions about Meryl Streep. But she does so with such grace. [The Race]

From Gary Oldman to Asghar Farhadi to Thelma Schoonmaker, David Poland rounds up his impressive season’s worth of interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees. [Hot Blog]

I’m just going to quote this headline as is: “Meryl Streep’s British ancestor ‘helped start war with Native Americans.'” Because that’s how much we have left to talk about. [The Telegraph]