Mt. Oscar: Who’s scaling the golden slopes and who’s sliding

Mt. Oscar: To scale the heights of the Oscars — to reach the precarious pinnacle of that golden O — wrap yourself in raves and pack lots of buzz. This week’s altitude readings are by John Horn, Rebecca Keegan, Julie Makinen, Tom O’Neil and Nicole Sperling.

PEAKING

PRETENDERS TO THE THRONE: Colin Firth brings a human vulnerability to King George VI in “The King’s Speech” and is considered a front-runner for the lead actor Oscar. Could Ralph Fiennes, Paul Bettany or Robert Downey Jr. have done as well? They were each considered for the part at one point.

CLIMBING

SEE YA LATER, HON: Nicole Kidman began work on “Rabbit Hole,” a film about the loss of a young child, when her own daughter was a baby, so she knew things might get ugly emotionally. She warned husband Keith Urban, “I’m going into a place that’s altered. I’ll come out OK at the end.” An Oscar would sure help lighten the mood.

SOMETIMES, THERE’S A MAN: There’s a little bit of the Dude in all of us, but more so in Jeff Bridges, who shows shades of that “Big Lebowski” character in both “Tron: Legacy” and “True Grit.” The Dude abides.

AT BASE CAMP

50 REMISSIONS: Javier Bardem’s been in some tough movies, but the Spanish actor says his role as a dying man in “Biutiful” explored such emotional depths and shot for so long that he considers it the hardest he has ever done. “I died of cancer, like, 50 times.”

CLEAN FIGHT: Score one for Harvey Weinstein — again. Not only did he get plenty of coverage over his ratings fight with the MPAA over its NC-17 tag on his “Blue Valentine,” he also won the battle to make it an R, making it much easier for voters to nominate it with a clear conscience.

LOOKING FOR A SHERPA

GOSH DARN HIM: Is Aaron Sorkin’s Sarah Palin-hating, anti-caribou hunting screed on Huffington Post a count against the screenwriter when it comes to Oscar voters, or will his foul-mouthed commentary energize the left-leaning base?

EENIE MEENIE: “Tron: Legacy” and “Alice in Wonderland” seem to be the front-runners in the visual effects categories. Is Disney facing a “Sophie’s Choice” in deciding which film to push?

CALL THE EEOC: In “Made in Dagenham,” Sally Hawkins plays a woman fighting for equal pay in her field. As an actress, could she relate to that? “On a much lesser scale, the film industry is rife with it, it’s sad to say,” she noted at an Envelope screening.