The happiest writer in the world this morning

Hands down, has to be Mark Boal, the screenwriter behind "The Hurt Locker" which picked up Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture at last night's Oscars in an epic triumph of good over evil. Boal, a New York-born reporter who has also written for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice, apparently wrote a movie so realistic he is now being sued by a man who thinks the character of a rogue bomb-disposal expert (played by Jeremy Renner in the movie) was based on him. Tough break.

Second happiest is probably Sapphire, the author of the novel "Precious" was based on, because after screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher (the first African-American to win a screenwriting Oscar) thanked her in his speech, she even got a brief reaction shot in the audience. Then they cut back to Morgan Freeman, because ABC was apparently under contract to cut to him every ten minutes. It was duller than last year's awards, but somewhat redeemed by the twist ending.

ETA: I wasn't going to do this, but third happiest has to be Elinor Burkett, who caused one of the night's weirdest scenes when she cut in on her co-director's acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short. She completely Kanyed, if Kanye ever wore a purple silk caftan. (Likely.) Her name jogged my memory and now I realize she came to speak at my high school after her nonfiction book ANOTHER PLANET: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A SUBURBAN HIGH SCHOOL was published. Well... she had her moment.

Your Oscar Nominations Reading List

Randy Shilts, THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET. The screenplay for Best Picture nominee "Milk" by Dustin Lance Black was nominated in the original category, but I read somewhere that Black consulted this book by the author of AND THE BAND PLAYED ON while writing it.

Vikas Swarup, Q AND A. I didn't have time to read this before I caught up with Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," a movie I'm hoping to see again before the Academy Awards. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay)

Bernhard Schlink, THE READER. I just found out that the author of this mid-century drama is a former law professor and judge, which (if you know anything about this movie) definitely sheds some light on its subject matter. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress-Kate Winslet)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" As I said when I wrote about it a few weeks ago, it's just a short story -- what do you have to lose? And with 13 nominations overall (among them Best Picture, Best Actor-Brad Pitt and Best Director), you'll get the most bang for your buck.

Two plays-turned-Oscar-nominated movies: John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt" (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress-Meryl Streep, Best Supporting Actor-P.S. Hoffman and two in the Best Supporting Actress category, Amy Adams and Viola Davis) and Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon" (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor-Frank Langella). It's a great year for drama to be represented overall -- playwright Martin McDonagh got a screenwriting nod for his first movie "In Bruges," Hoffman co-founded his own theatre company and Best Supporting Actor nominee Michael Shannon is an Off-Broadway all-star.