The Nominees

He could very well be the next Cary Grant. Jude Law, who took sailing and saxophone lessons in preparation for his role as the elusive Dickie Greenleaf, added a touch of class to The Talented Mr. Ripley. Despite a whirlwind career that began with a part in a soap opera on British TV at age 17 and has included a stint on Broadway, Law is skeptical about the idea of fame. "Half the actors and actresses walking up the red carpet on Oscar night think they have arrived, and you never hear of them again," Law told a reporter last year. Let's hope such is not the case with him.

A Golden Globe win for his motivational guru Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia makes Tom Cruise the favorite to win the Supporting Oscar. And although considered Hollywood royalty, Cruise, 37, has never won an Oscar. (He has been nominated twice - for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire.) Since his debut in Endless Love with 

Brooke Shields in 1981, Cruise has consistently churned out the hits, becoming one of the industry's highest-paid talents - not bad for someone who initially wanted to become a priest. And guess what? Word has it that he's a really nice guy.

Michael Clarke Duncan, 42, earns his first Oscar nomination with his role in The Green Mile. As the hulking death-row inmate with a healing gift, his emotional performance had audiences, not to mention a gang of prison guards, reaching for the Kleenex. Although success seems to have come overnight, Duncan has been around for quite a while, playing mostly thugs and bouncers. Starting off as a character named Slash in TV's The Bold and the Beautiful, his recent film credits include Bulworth (1998), Armageddon (1998) and Breakfast of Champions (1999). With an Oscar nomination under his belt, and quite possibly a win, the 6-foot-5-inch actor has nowhere to go but up.

In a part that was originally meant for Paul Newman, British actor Michael Caine won over critics and audiences alike in The Cider House Rules. As an obstetrician/orphanage director with a heart of gold, Caine had to affect an American accent for the first time in his 43-year career. On an upswing since 1998's Little Voice, Caine, now 66, has garnered his fifth Oscar nomination - winning Best Actor for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986. But don't think a lifetime of the spotlight has spoiled him: "Movie stars are inconsequential. The only people who take movie stars seriously are other movie stars."

Every so often, a young actor comes along and blows everyone away with honest and natural skills. For one so new to his craft, 11-year-old Haley Joel Osment is a perfect example. Seeing dead people may have made his life miserable on screen, but it has shot him to the top of the child-actor heap, making him the busiest actor on the block. Osment, whose film debut was as Forrest Gump Jr. in 1994, is the one who gets the last laugh - he auditioned for the part of Anakin Skywalker and didn't get a call-back. Because the Academy sometimes likes to surprise us with a kid win, he's sitting at even money.

- Doug Wallace