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Forget the tattooed home wrecker, the headlines and the heartbreak: It's not too late for Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock to save her five-year marriage, experts say.

The ugly public revelations that husband Jesse James cheated on Bullock are painful but not fatal for the couple's reeling relationship.

"Sandra would have to get to a place where she could give her husband the gift of trust," said Dr. Flo Rosoff, a marriage counselor.

"That can only happen if she is based in a relationship where they have a high regard for each other as people, not as simply an attractive man and attractive woman."

Rosoff is a contributor to Ladies Home Journal's "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" column, as is fellow Long Island counselor Dr. Robin Newman.

Newman echoes her colleague's prognosis that the celebrity couple can salvage their relationship, despite James' reported affair with ink-stained wench Michelle (Bombshell) McGee.

"Fight for your marriage, fight for it," Newman advised. "And look at what your part in it was. I'm not saying Sandra was all at fault, but there's something going on there that she needs to address herself."

The Oscar-winning star of "The Blind Side" remained out of the public eye Friday, offering no response to her husband's apology after garish tattoo model McGee claimed the two had an affair.

Bullock has canceled an appearance at the London premiere of her hit film and reportedly moved out of the couple's Southern California home.

Beleaguered husband James surfaced to walk his kids to school Friday morning, his wedding ring still visible on his left hand.

His inked-up inamorata surfaced, too, in a far-less flattering series of Nazi-themed photos.

The raven-haired McGee sported a black officer's cap, bra, panties and a Nazi armband in the shots unearthed by TMZ.com.

In one picture, McGee suggestively licks the tip of a knife.

McGee was also denounced by her ex-husband, who hopes to regain custody of their 5-year-old son.

Ronald Modica charged in court papers that McGee was an unfit mom who exposed little Avery to X-rated antics, Us Magazine reported.

"I need protection for my son," Modica said. "I will not continue to expose him to the kind of life Michelle desires and seeks: full on, pornographic, party all the time."

According to McGee, the affair started while Bullock was filming her Academy Award-winning role in "The Blind Side."

James had been married twice, including a two-year union with porn star Janine Lindemulder, before landing America's sweetheart in 2005.

For Hollywood pundits, industry folk and Oscar fans still paying attention on Monday, a major question remained: How did Hurt Locker beat Avatar?

For as much as "The Hurt Locker" was the critics' darling, it had three major strikes against it in its battle against the mighty James Cameron's "Avatar."

First, the box office was paltry — it's taken in just $14.7 million domestically, compared to an amazing $720.6 million for "Avatar." That makes "The Hurt Locker" the lowest-grossing best picture winner since accurate records have been kept.

Second, it had no big acting names, usually an important factor in Oscar victory.

And third, it was about the Iraq war, a subject moviegoers traditionally just don't want to deal with. "Iraq is usually the kiss of death at the Oscars," says Tom O'Neil, blogger for the Los Angeles Times' Envelope, an awards site.

But even with 10 nominees in the running for this year's best picture Oscar, the two films — whose directors were once married — were quickly pitted against each other in the race for Hollywood's highest honor.

How did "The Hurt Locker" win out? Theories abound:

Finally a non-political film about Iraq
Many films about the Iraq war have fallen into a trap of appearing preachy or at least having a strong point of view. Viewers may or may not agree with that view — that still doesn't mean they want to get it at the movies.

But "The Hurt Locker," a story of three technicians on a bomb-defusing team in Baghdad, is at heart an action movie — a documentary-style close-up of the men, their relationships, their missteps and the almost unbearable tension inherent in their exhausting, terrifying, tedious work.

"This isn't that kind of muckraking film aiming to show torture or violation of rules of war," says Robert Sklar, film professor at New York University. "This is a film about men trying to save lives rather than take them. It's also a buddy story. It has classic war-movie themes."

Oscar likes films with an important message
Often the Academy honors big, sweeping films, which "The Hurt Locker" is certainly not. But it also looks for films with a substantial message. "Oscar likes films of importance, with a capital I," says film historian Leonard Maltin. "Often they're big films, but this is a small film that dealt with a really important subject."

Oscar voters don't care about box office
Who says Oscar cares about box office? "The Oscars don't pay attention to that at all, and nor should they," Maltin says. In fact, he adds, they've often been accused of being too elitist, favoring independent movies over big films favored by the broader public.

Yes, they do!
Nonsense, says O'Neil, of The Envelope: "The Academy wants their movies to do well. Then they anoint them." Even last year's "Slumdog Millionaire," which originally almost went straight to DVD, had made $40 million before the nominations, then rode to $70 million by the time of the awards, he says.

It's about the campaigning
All of "Hurt Locker's" technical merit aside, "it would be naive to think Oscar campaigning had nothing to do with it," says O'Neil. He credits Cynthia Swartz, whose public relations firm was given the Oscar campaigning job by Summit, the film's distributor, which was looking for industry respect and had plenty of money to fund the campaign, having already cashed in with the "Twilight" vampire movies.

"It was a very savvy campaign," says O'Neil. "Full force, and highly aggressive."

The woman factor
As compelling as her movie was, director Kathryn Bigelow had a compelling story of her own. This director who specializes not in female-oriented films but in big action thrillers had a real shot at becoming the first woman in Oscar history to win the best director prize, with her film winning best picture, too.

Yet Bigelow tried to downplay that element of her story, saying in interviews that she just wanted to be seen as a filmmaker, not a female one.

"Bigelow refused to capitalize on the woman factor, and to her credit," says Maltin. Everyone else wanted to make it a story but her. Still, you can't deny it had some impact."

The ex factor
Nor did Bigelow have any desire to capitalize on the "Ex Factor" — in case you're way behind on your Oscar gossip, she was married to Cameron from 1989-91. Were there some voters who were secretly rooting for her to leave him in the dust? No way of knowing, and the two seemed amicable through the awards season, with him standing and cheering as she won her Oscar. Still, there's no doubt that the "battle of the exes" (ok, we're done with the puns) added to the hype.

Best Picture

      The Hurt Locker
      Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
 
Actor in a Leading Role

      Jeff Bridges
      Crazy Heart
  
Actor in a Supporting Role

      Christoph Waltz
      Inglourious Basterds


Actress in a Leading Role

      Sandra Bullock
      The Blind Side

Actress in a Supporting Role

      Mo'Nique
      Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Animated Feature Film

      Up
      Pete Docter

Art Direction

      Avatar
      Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)

Cinematography

      Avatar
      Mauro Fiore

Costume Design

      The Young Victoria
      Sandy Powell

Directing

      The Hurt Locker
      Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary Feature

      The Cove
      Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens

Documentary Short

      Music by Prudence
      Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

Film Editing
      The Hurt Locker
      Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Foreign Language Film

      The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)
      Argentina
      Directed by Juan José Campanella

Makeup

      Star Trek
      Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow

Music (Original Score)

      Up
      Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song) : Crazy Heart

      "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)"
      Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

      Logorama
      Nicolas Schmerkin

Short Film (Live Action)

      The New Tenants
      Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

      The Hurt Locker
      Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing

      The Hurt Locker
      Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

Visual Effects

      Avatar
      Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

      Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
      Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Writing (Original Screenplay)

      The Hurt Locker
      Written by Mark Boal







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Hollywood-With the Academy Awards just days away, fans online are increasingly discussing the nominees for best picture, a category that has expanded to include 10 films this year, along with the actors and actresses nominated in a lead role, according to analysis undertaken by The Nielsen Company using Nielsen Online BuzzMetrics.

Mirroring its global box office success, Avatar dominates online discussion of films in the movie category, grabbing more than a quarter of all buzz globally surrounding the 10 Oscar-nominated films.

In India too Avatar is the most discussed movie online and has a majority share of buzz, followed by Up in the Air which is the second most discussed movie in India.

"It is not surprising to see discussions revolve around the movie Avatar so much, as it was one of the most awaited movies of the year 2009 and the fact that it came from the James Cameron stable, who had previously wowed everyone with Titanic, the wait was only justified. On the other hand following AR Rahman's double Oscars for his music in the film Slumdog Millionaire last year, the buzz online in India is quite palpable," said Karthik Nagarajan, Associate Director - Nielsen Online, The Nielsen Company.

In the main acting categories, Golden Globe winners Jeff Bridges (for Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (for The Blind Side) take the global buzz lead against their competition, with each capturing more than a quarter of buzz globally.

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Britain's love of the underdog triumphed Sunday as intimate war drama "The Hurt Locker" beat 3D spectacular "Avatar" to take six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards.