Read it!

Despite the title, Movie of the Week (Ballantine Publishing) is not a roundup of cheesy TV melodramas. It's a list of must-see films, as chosen by Peter Bogdanovich, one of Hollywood's eminent film directors, responsible for renegade hits like The Last Picture Show. The concept - a different movie for each week of the year - is a bit hokey, but those prepared to make a regular pilgrimage to the video store will be rewarded with the kind of cinematic knowledge that stops arguments cold at cocktail parties. The book starts with Jan. 1-7 (An American in Paris), but you can join in with The Quiet Man, an Irish love story starring John Wayne that, as Bogdanovich points out, is perfect for St. Patrick's Day.		 Hear it!

The Oscar nominees for Best Original Song are:

"Music of my Heart"
from Music of the Heart (Diane Warren). The inspiring ballad from the movie about teaching violin to inner-city kids is certainly a front-runner given the pedigree of the songwriter. This is Diane Warren's fifth Academy Award nomination in this category. Having Gloria Estefan, N'Sync and producer David Foster in her corner also heightens her chances of winning.

"Blame Canada"
from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker, Marc Shaiman). The outrageous summer comedy featured so many good songs, it's sad only one nomination emerged. Who would ever have thought a call to arms from a pack of dysfunctional cartoon mothers would be so honored? Despite the slight to our fair nation,
we're voting for this one with all our fingers and toes crossed.

"Save Me"
from Magnolia (Aimee Mann). "Save Me" is one of eight Aimee Mann songs featured on the Magnolia soundtrack. As luck would have it, her new album, Bachelor No. 2, came out the same time as this nomination, which should give her career a huge boost. Oddly, her cover of Harry Nilsson's "One" didn't make the cut.

"When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2 (Randy Newman). The hits just keep on coming, don't they? This is Newman's sixth nomination in this category, his most recent being last year's "That'll Do" from Babe: Pig in the City. When you include his hit film scores, he has been nominated for an Oscar 12 times before - and hasn't won once. This may be his year.

"You'll Be in my Heart"
from Tarzan (Phil Collins). The Golden Globe has already been given out to a very gracious Phil Collins, who even managed to thank his dog in his acceptance speech. Should fortune smile on him this time, it will be his first Academy Award after being nominated in this category in 1989 for Buster and in 1985 for Against All Odds. Three times lucky?

- Tina Watts
If one movie a week isn't enough, you can always turn to The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (Random House). The hulking volume contains original reviews by Times critics from 1927 to 1998, culled mainly from the newspaper's annual "10-best" list. Not only does the book cover most of the significant films made during the talkie era, it also reflects on some none-too-subtle changes in critique style. From the days when any reviewer worth his salt could handle a semicolon with grace to the more breezy style of today, it's as good a read as it is a reference source.
More of a reference manual than a casual read is Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia (Penguin Books), a companion to the noted reviewer's movie and video guide. The book profiles more than 2,000 top actors and filmmakers,
spanning the silent era to the present day. If you need to know who Irving G. Thalberg was - and why they give out a trophy at the Oscars under his name each year - or want to learn about John Travolta's academic career (he's a high school dropout), this is your book.