Dragon Tattoo

With late-arriving prestige pictures "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (Stephen Daldry!) and "War Horse" (sentimental Steven Spielberg!) and the looming shadow of Oscar magnet Meryl Streep playing England's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, the award season, at its outset, sported an air of uncertainty all but absent from last year's front-loaded race. Or it did, until right about the time we handed out candy to a kid dressed up like J. Edgar Hoover (the angry old guy version) and realized that, yes, some spots continue to be up for grabs, but in terms of who'll get the nominations, the major races have already narrowed into focus.

Low-cost horror movie "The Devil Inside" will try to do what Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks and a girl with a dragon tattoo couldn't: knock Tom Cruise out of the top box-office spot. "The Devil Inside," about a woman investigating her mother's exorcisms, probably will open this weekend to between $12 million and $15 million, people who have seen pre-release audience surveys said. That should put it very close to Cruise's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," which after two weekends in the No. 1 spot is expected to drop to about $15 million.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Thursday. R. Kelly says he is ready to film 32 new chapters of his infamous melodrama hip-hopera series, "Trapped in the Closet. " All he needs is a little funding. ( TMZ ) "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is already doing well at the box office. Look out, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" -- the No. 2 spot is up for grabs. ( Los Angeles Times) Josh Krajcik sings a duet with Alanis Morissette during the final performance episode of "The X Factor.

Fiction 1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson ($14.95) 2. Little Bee by Chris Cleave ($14) 3. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick ($14.95) 4. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See ($15) 5. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ($14) 6. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks ($7.99) 7. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann ($15) 8. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery ($15)