The latest coup by Fox Searchlight, which has relentlessly, cleverly, expensively and quite successfully pushed “Little Miss Sunshine” for the Oscars, is landing Best Supporting Actor nominee Alan Arkin on the cover of Los Angeles CityBeat, a free alt-weekly, just before Academy ballots are due next Tuesday. Andy Klein’s profile of this charming New York-born veteran is not only quite readable, but it opens by predicting that Arkin will vanquish Eddie Murphy, the former favorite in the category.

I’ve been saying that ever since the deserving but humility-challenged Murphy won the SAG awards, and now Oscar prognisticator par excellence Anne Thompson of the Hollywood Reporter writes on her Risky Biz blog that Arkin “could win.” No kidding.