It's silly to think that anyone other than Mo'Nique will win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After her moving acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards, I'm sure that Academy members were dying for her to come to the Kodak Theatre and give another similar speech.
But if Mo'Nique doesn't win for her role as a horrifyingly abusive mother in Precious, you can bet that it's going to be a close race between the two actresses from Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga, to get the award. However, their being in the same film might hurt their chances, much like Amy Adams and Viola Davis kept each other from winning the award for Doubt last year.
It's very unlikely that Penelope Cruz will pull a repeat win of the award for Nine (she took home last year's Oscar for her role in Vicky Christina Barcelona), and Maggie Gyllenhaal's role in Crazy Heart seems unlikely to win as well.
[...] Best Supporting Actress [...]