Eastwood vs Scorsese in fight for Oscar glory

IT'S the question everybody's asking: when the Oscars are handed out tomorrow night, will Clint Eastwood and his Million Dollar Baby clip the wings of Martin Scorsese's The Aviator's wings and burst Sideways bubble?

The irony is that if Scorsese wins, it will make up for the fact that he lost the decision in perhaps his most heralded work, Raging Bull. Effectively, his boxing movie classic could deliver the knockout punch to another great boxing movie.

Eastwood's boxing opus and Scorsese's Aviator look to be the favourites for the Best Director and Best Picture prizes, respectively, but that does little to break Scorsese's notorious losing streak having been overlooked four times for Best Director (for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas and Gangs of New York) and twice for Best Adapted Screenplay (The Age of Innocence, Goodfellas).