Hollywood's new golden girl Rooney Mara has spoken of her joy of being nominated for a Oscar. The 26-year-old convinced the panel with her gripping interpretation of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

"I was very surprised, and I feel very honoured and humbled to be a part of a list of women that I've looked up to for a while," she said.

Meanwhile, Bridesmaids' Melissa McCarthy - up for supporting actress - said domestic chores meant the excitement of the announcement wore off pretty quickly.

"I had a diaper to change. So the glamour? That went away pretty quickly," she said."I'm hard on comedies because I love them so much. It's nice to see comedies are back."

 

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Two-time nominee Nick Nolte played down his chances: "At 70, I'm moved, you could say - I don't know if you'd say excited. That's for young people. Because, you know, you've had experience with these emotions by 70.

"You just can't predict it. I can't go by 'third time's a charm.'

"As age enters in, (Christopher) Plummer's got it. It's sentiment there. But to draw distinctions about who's the best, you can't really distinguish," he said.

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