Oscar Drama: Cameron, Ex-Wife Bigelow Battle for Best Director

You couldn't have scripted this one any better, or bigger. Only in Hollywood, where the bizarre passes for the mundane and weird mashups are the stuff of everyday life, would you dream up this crazy scenario.

In one corner we've got the biggest money-making movie of all time, "Avatar." In the other corner, we've got a small-budget film about a war-addicted bomb disposal expert, "The Hurt Locker." Buoying "Avatar" to the blue heavens is one of the top money-making movie directors of all time, James Cameron (remember "Titanic"). Firing up the tightly wrought "The Hurt Locker" is one of the most charismatic independent filmmakers of our time, Kathryn Bigelow.

Brilliant match, Bigelow vs. Cameron. They were married once.

Now both of them, the white-maned 55-year-old Cameron and the svelte beauty, 58-year-old Bigelow, are locked in a fight for greater glory -- far greater than their measly two-year marriage. Starting right now, if not weeks ago, Bigelow and Cameron will claw and demur and aw-shucks their way to the coveted best director and best movie Oscars.

"Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" led the Oscar nominees, announced on Tuesday, with nine nominations each but have already been going toe-to-toe in the awards season.

It's an even field, or is it?

Cameron is way ahead on cash outflow, worldwide success and box-office prowess. He might be slightly ahead on critical acclaim (for instance, The New York Times went ga-ga over "Avatar"). He wins hands down on the Oscar count -- he got three in 1998 for "Titanic," including best director and best movie.

The guy has the Midas touch. Before "Avatar" came along and turned adults into kids in 3-D glasses and magically converted nerdy film techies into the action heroes of the new century, Cameron, who cut his teeth on sci-fi and action movies, had racked up millions with "Titanic" and "The Terminator."

Sure, it took him 10 years to create his vision of an otherworldly paradise of long-nosed, pointy-eared blue people into the Cineplex rage of the decade. In just seven weeks out in the real world, "Avatar," which cost some $300 million to make, more than any other film ever, has paid back every cent -- and more. It's No. 1 at the box office and has already earned nearly $600 million in the United States alone and hundreds of million more overseas.

So who's going to deny Cameron the grand slam of Oscars on the big night of March 7?

Well, there she is, Miss Bigelow.

She came up through the arts, painting, teaching and learning, then slid into film-making, has made eight of them so far, most of them largely unseen. But her name is not unknown to those who pay attention to the film-making edges in and out of Hollywood. When "The Hurt Locker," which was so tightly constructed and filmed you barely can breathe watching it, the critics exploded with applause, standing ovations, genuflections.

Lately, in the movie award season, "The Hurt Locker" has battled "Avatar" to a draw, or close.

He beat her at the Golden Globes in January. He stood up there on the stage, smooth as silk, hoisting the award, gazing over in the direction of Bigelow (the camera in her face, her mouth toying with a smile) and saying with a slight condescending sneer, "I thought Kathryn would win this one." She let the smile play wide, her eyes glinting. They were married two years, remember, 1989-91. She was wife No. 3. He left her for Linda Hamilton, the hero of "The Terminator." He's now at wife No. 5. And so on.

So now he's ahead on statuettes (and wives).

But Bigelow doesn't go away easily. In a one-two punch, she won the Producers Guild award over a week ago and this past weekend she won a big prize, the Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement. In 54 of 60 years, the award has led to the best-picture Oscar.

Not bad for an ex, eh? Not bad for an artsy girl who may just become the first woman ever to win the Oscar for best director.

"This is the most incredible moment of my life," she said, accepting the Directors Guild award. "And with that, I'll disappear." Hardly.