By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY  LOS ANGELES  The Golden Globes have never been much of an Oscar predictor, but Tuesday's scattershot nominations indicate an awards race that's unusually nip and tuck and, as usual, dominated by movies few people have seen.  With seven nominations for the British drama The King's Speech and a half-dozen apiece for Mark Wahlberg's boxing film The Fighter and the Facebook film The Social Network, only Social can claim a sizable audience. The picture has earned $91.4 million since its release Oct. 1.  That could be a challenge for the Academy Awards, which last year moved to 10 best-picture nominations to become, like the Globes, more of a populist award.  But fall and winter remain dominated by dramas that please critics circles more than moviegoers, and the films with the most nominations Tuesday had one blockbuster in the bunch: Inception, which has earned $293 million and is expected to contend for a best-picture Oscar.  This film year is dominated by character studies on tragic ego. Speech centers on King George VI's struggles with stuttering. Social is a scathing profile of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Fighter features Wahlberg's down-but-determined boxer, while Black Swan, about a tormented ballerina, earned four nominations and probably will take multiple Oscar nominations.  Still, don't look for many tea leaves from Tuesday. The eccentric Hollywood Foreign Press Association bills the Globes as a barometer for the award season and an Oscar Magic 8 Ball. It is neither. Instead, it serves as Hollywood's grandest consolation prize, a place where musicals and comedies go to make acceptance speeches.  As usual, the Globes raise eyebrows. The Coen brothers' True Gritwas ignored, a snub analysts expect the academy to reverse. And more than a few observers were surprised to see the critically panned Burlesque nab three nominations, a feat some attributed to the paucity of high-caliber light fare.  "True to form, the Golden Globe nominations are a buffet of the good, the bad and the unconscionably hideous," says Guy Lodge of the awards site InContention.com. "With perhaps a touch more emphasis than usual on the latter."  The Globes are awarded Jan. 16.  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
Odd picks and close races are only adding to the intrigue of the awards show, which airs Jan. 16.