There’s an a great roundtable interview on Newsweek with some of the expected best actress and actor Oscar nominees this year. It is thought that the Oscars won’t even happen as the writer’s strike doesn’t seem close to a resolution and the Oscars are scheduled for just a month away. I can’t say I’ll miss them apart from the fashion and the gossip from the parties. (Update: The Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow morning.)

George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ellen Page, James McAvoy, and Marion Cotillard were interviewed, with some funny banter between them and a lot of the actors’ insight on the business and their craft.

In one section Clooney talks about the infamous night when helicopters and multiple emergency vehicles were dispatched to Britney’s house right near his place and says he worried that a fugitive was on the loose and grabbed a baseball bat for protection:

I just found out about 10 days ago that I must live 300 or 400 yards from Britney Spears. I found out because I came home at 10 at night and there’s all these helicopters over my house with these spotlights on. I have a guesthouse where my assistant sometimes stays, and I thought someone had broken out of prison. Like something out of “Die Hard.” I get my baseball bat, which is what you always do in every film—I actually think Clive Owen said, “Get a baseball bat”—and I called up my assistant, who I thought was in the guesthouse, and I said, “Are you OK?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, “Look, if there’s someone in the house with you and you can’t talk, say the word ‘Stonehenge’.” And she’s like, “What the f— are you talking about? I’m in my apartment.” I go, “You’re not in the guesthouse?” “No.” So I’m, like, “Well, then, what the f— is going on?” And I go out and I’m running around with a baseball bat in my robe. And it turns out it’s paparazzi over at Britney Spears’s house. So now I have to move

[From Newsweek.com via The Huffington Post]

Clooney, who had success later in life, also talked about a couple of really bad projects he took when he was younger and about the moment when he realized that it was up to him to steer his own career. He’s quite candid and funny about his bad roles and says he’s “really proud of them.”

Were there ever roles that any of you ­regretted taking?
Clooney: People will give you s–t later and say, “Why did you do this movie?” Because I needed a gig. Sometimes you just needed the job…

Can some of you talk about moments where you failed?
Clooney: I did a series called “Baby Talk.” It’s a little baby that has to talk—it was the “Look Who’s Talking” sitcom. I have a whole list of really s–tty shows that I was really s–tty in. I’m really proud of them. I had a mullet in this one. I have a whole career with a mullet, actually. But this was a sitcom with a guy who was a very big, powerful producer. One of the first things he did was he fired the baby, which I thought was a little strange. And then the lead actress was fired. And then he started on me, and it was the worst experience of my life, because I had never been in that position, where you can’t defend yourself. I remember—it was a very specific moment; it changed my career, actually—going home and I called up my agent and I said, “How bad does it get if I just say ‘f— you’ to this guy?” And my agent goes, “It gets bad.” And I said, “OK,” and I walked in and the producer went after me and I said, “F— you.” And I got fired and sued by the network, though they eventually dropped all of that. It was a terrifying time, but it absolutely freed me up to the idea that the worst thing that could happen is-what? You take away my sitcom? It freed me up to decide that I was going to try to do better projects and not worry so much about succeeding. It changed everything for me.

[From Newsweek.com]

A little later in the interview Clooney tells a story about how he was in a “Western sitcom in a whorehouse” in which the producers were talking him up at first telling him how great he was, but then hired an acting coach for him within a week. He said that “TV can be really brutal” and “there are so many subtle ways to fire you if the show gets picked up.” Clooney was eventually replaced on that project and told “it’s not because of you.”

Clooney said that Harvey Weinstein is the one who got him involved in helping mediate the writer’s strike and said that he also talked to Steven Spielberg and is “happy to a part [of the solution].”

As for the actors’ feelings about what will happen if Oscar time comes and the strike is still on, James McAvoy of Atonement says that “The world will end. It’s fact,” while Clooney maintains that “Nobody is going to cross a picket line…. [or] even consider it.” Angelina Jolie says the party will be at George’s house.

For more of the Oscar roundtable, including videos and some excellent discussion between Juno star Ellen Page and reclusive master Daniel Day-Lewis, see Newsweek.com.

Clooney is shown at the People’s Choice Awards on 1/7/08, thanks to PRPhotos.