Pair tie for honors in Oscar Contest

It’s nice to have a passion. And sometimes it pays.

It certainly does for Spokane resident Megan Albertus, who for the third time has won The Spokesman-Review’s Oscar Contest.

Albertus tied with Judy Lorenz of St. Maries for first place. Both correctly picked 20 out of the 24 Oscar categories.

And, strangely enough, both incorrectly predicted that the favorite, “Brokeback Mountain,” would win for Best Picture. Instead, the Oscar went to “Crash.”

“It’s my passion,” said Albertus, 24, who also won third place in the contest one year in addition to her three first-place finishes.

“I follow the movies all year, and I try to learn as much as I can. I read all the advance buzz.”

Lorenz, a retired U.S. Forest Service worker, had a different view.

“It’s luck,” she said.

Both winners take home $100 in movie passes.

Three other entrants out of the 460 people who submitted ballots correctly guessed the winners in 19 Oscar categories.

By virtue of our tie-breaker, online entrant Dan Kaiser of University Place, Wash. (near Tacoma), wins the third-place prize of $25 in movie passes.

Kaiser predicted that “Brokeback Mountain” would win the most Oscars, with four; it actually was one of four films that won three awards each. The other entrants with 19 right guessed that “Brokeback” would win five Oscars, as did both Albertus and Lorenz.