Affleck Wins Top Directors Guild Award

Ordinarily Ben Affleck would be considered a sure bet to win the Best Director Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 24. After all, he continues to pile up top awards for his work as director of Argo, which itself has jumped ahead of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln to become the clear front-runner for the Best Motion Picture award of 2012. Affleck picked up his latest trophy Saturday night, when the Directors Guild of America named him best director. The problem, however, is that Affleck isn't even nominated for an Oscar this year. Nevertheless, each time he accepts another statuette, he makes it clear that he has no hard feelings. In fact, he told the DGA on Saturday that the film may have a better chance of winning the top award without him in the race for director. You take me out of it, maybe [it] helps -- it's just about that picture. (He's also one of the producers of Argo and could wind up accepting the award for best film.) In an interview with USA Today, Tom O'Neill, who runs the awards site Goldderby.com, said that Affleck's DGA win proves what fools Oscar voters were to snub him in the best-director category. How can a movie possibly be the greatest film of the year if it doesn't have great direction? Go ahead, Oscar voters -- explain that to your grandkids, who'll try to make sense of this derby someday.