demographics

So... how does Tom Hooper, formerly the director of the superlative "John Adams" miniseries, currently director of "The Kings Speech" - possibly the blandest, safest, most staid (increasingly-prospective) Oscar Juggernaut since... I dunno, "Out of Africa?" - pull a "surprise" upset at the DGAs  for said overblown A&E special over the heavily-favored David Fincher?

Search me, but it's a pretty unpleasant turn of events - yes, even for Hooper to some extent, who's actually pretty talented (see: "John Adams") and now gets to have a 21st Century "WTF" equivalent to "Driving Miss Daisy" hung on him. If I had to take a stab at it, the probable answer is that MOST of the Directors Guild is comprised of paycheck-to-paycheck "journeyman" TV guys, which is precisely what Hooper has been up to this point, so there's a hometown-boy-makes-good angle.

The takeaway, of course, is that given this, the similar Producers Guild win and the fact that it's a big-cast "actor's film" you can pretty-much pencil-in "Speech" as this year's Best Picture Oscar winner which is... simultaneously meaningless and blood-boiling, so... whatever.