Before they were Oscar nominees

In recent years, Newsweek has hosted an Oscar roundtable and, invariably, one of its participants doesn't get nominated for an Academy Award.

This year, it was Sally Hawkins, considered a very strong possibility for "Happy-Go-Lucky." Everyone else at the interviews - Brad Pitt, Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr., Frank Langella and Anne Hathaway - is now booked for Feb. 22 in Hollywood.

The interview, which you can find online at www.newsweek.com (or in the magazine, if you're old school and subscribe, like me) is fascinating. Among the tasty tidbits:

Pitt recalls moving to Burbank, Calif., two weeks before college graduation. A week later, he picked up a job as an extra, on "Less Than Zero" starring Robert Downey Jr. Hawkins was an extra on the "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" and says she can be spotted in a crowd scene with Jar Jar Binks.

Downey talks about how his criminal record made gaining entry into Japan to promote "Iron Man" difficult, and Pitt ruminates on how the "publicity machine is out of control." He also gives a shoutout to "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (photo below), which is worth your Netflix list.

Pitt also says Langella gets the degree-of-difficulty award. "Because he's taken on someone that's such a caricature," and Langella avoided caricature and lent humanity. Yes, he did.