Clint Eastwood must be feeling lucky as he's taking on another acting role after "retiring" from being in front of the camera three years ago.

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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One of the stories in today's round-up is yesterday's news that Clint Eastwood is coming out of "retirement" as an actor to star in another film, "Trouble with the Curve." You may recall that the actor-turned-director said around the release of "Gran Torino" in 2008 that that film would bring his last performance. The hoopla around the announcement had many thinking he might finally win an acting Oscar, but, well, he wasn't even nominated. So maybe this is another stab.

In any case, it got me thinking about my favorite Eastwood performances over the years. Sure, he generally puts the same spin on every portrayal, but I've always been partial to his work in "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," "Unforgiven" and "The Bridges of Madison County." You can't deny the iconic Man with No Name. He's wonderful in "Escape from Alcatraz" and, of course, "Dirty Harry," and even though I'm not a fan of "Million Dollar Baby," I've always thought he did excellent (Oscar-nominated) work there, too. Anyway, let's see what's going on in the Oscarweb today...

Clint Eastwood comes out of acting retirement to star in Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with the Curve." [Deadline]

Octavia Spencer saddles up to Diablo Cody's latest. [Variety]

Want to own a jacket like Ryan Gosling's from "Drive?" Now you can! [Steady Clothing]

Steve Pond gets Academy CEO Dawn Hudson on the record about the AMPAS's new museum. [The Odds]

Cancer patients, survivors find truth in "50/50." [Los Angeles Times]

Stu VanAirsdale charts the ups and downs of Oscar's course this week. [Movieline]

Sasha Stone looks ahead to the coming critics awards frame, takes the opportunity to once again bemoan the fall of "The Social Network." [Awards Daily]

David Poland passes along an email from Nikki Finke announcing her "Contenders" series, which sounds absolutely ridiculous. [The Hot Blog]

A UK trailer for "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" reveals a bit more. [Motion/Captured]

Reluctantly, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi becomes a symbol. [24 Frames]

Kristopher Tapley
Editor-at-Large

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Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.