Some Oscar nominees are at Sundance

Oscars nominations morning always brings surprises -- not the least of which this year is the discovery that three acting nominees are at Sundance right now. 

That list includes Michael Shannon (best supporting actor "Revolutionary Road), Melissa Leo (best actress "Frozen River") and Josh Brolin (best supporting actor "Milk").

Reached by phone around 9:00 a.m., Brolin explained that he's at the festival to perform a reading of "The People Speak: Voices of a People's History of the United States" at the ASCAP Music Cafe tonight. The spoken word event "brings to light little known voices from U.S. history" according to a festival write-up and is the basis for a forthcoming documentary of the same name.

Shannon is at the fest to promote the film noir feature in which he stars, "The Missing Person."

"I'm in Sundance," Brolin said. "I actually woke up early, I screwed up the time difference [between Park City and Los Angeles]. I woke up at 5:55 [a.m.], naturally there were no calls. 'OK.' Twenty minutes later, CNN is on. And I got a great call from Javier [Bardem] from Spain. He's been running through the streets screaming." (Bardem was Brolin's co-star in "No Country for Old Men.")

"How am I going to celebrate? I'm going to do a live performance. I do a Mark Twain speech and a Dalton Trumbo speech. Melissa Leo's here. She's going to do a speech. Redford's going to do a speech. And Rich Robinson from the Black Crowes is going to do a musical piece."

-- Chris Lee

(Photo: Josh Brolin, courtesy Shea Walsh / AP)