My Oscar Picks: Judy Blume If you were a child or adolescent any time in the 1970s or later, you may know Judy Blume as the author of your youth, with seminal books like "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. If you are a Twitter habitue, you may know Ms. Blume as one of your own: she is a generous and prolific user. But residents of Key West, Fla., where Ms. Blume lives with her husband, may know her best as an avid moviegoer. At least once a week, she visits the Tropic Cinema, a multiscreen nonprofit theater that her husband, George Cooper, helped found as an evolution of the Key West Film Society; Ms. Blume has volunteered there. "I used to sell tickets," she said. I was told I was the slowest person to make change. Now it's really fancy. If I weren't working I would be a full-time volunteer. Ms. Blume has seen all of this year's best-picture nominees, and then some: she is a lifelong cinema buff. "Always, always, always loved movies," she said. My parents took me every week when I was little, and every week I would come home and act out all the parts. She filled out our Oscar ballot and talked about her choices, her disbelief in writer's block and which young star she has the hots for. You loved "The Artist" - you chose it for best picture, best director, even best score. I do like "The Artist." I'd love to be different for you here - I filled this out before I started reading about the oddsmakers [choosing it as the frontrunner]. I think it's so original and charming. Often I love movies but I don't feel any need to see them again, but I feel a need to see this again. I can tell you the ones on the list, I did love "The Descendants," and I liked "The Help." I loved "Midnight in Paris," I loved "Moneyball," I enjoyed "War Horse." The only one that truly made me furious was "Tree of Life." I don't like pretension, and I found it very pretentious. [But] you know what I liked about that movie? I loved the little family drama that was inside it, the scene of Jessica Chastain jumping on the bed with the little boys when the husband was out of town. I thought, this is the movie I wish I was here seeing. You also picked Jean Dujardin, the star of "The Artist," for best actor. So you're impervious to the charms of George Clooney? I liked George Clooney! This is what's difficult, I'd be happy with many of them. I loved "Moneyball," I thought that was a great Hollywood movie. I like baseball, but I don't know that you have to like baseball to like that, I thought it was really well done. "The Artist," to me, it's different, it's original. I believe that "The Artist" is the kind of movie you see and you don't forget. I know it's going to stay with me. I know you loved Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady" but you chose Michelle Williams as best actress. "My Week With Marilyn," I loved it, I thought it was one of the classiest, best movies of the year. I could go with Viola Davis or Meryl Streep, I could give it to any of those people. [But] I loved the movie so much, my pick is Michelle Williams. She wasn't impersonating Marilyn as much as she embodied her - I just felt it inside. The scene where she does that little Marilyn wiggle in the white dress was pretty breathtaking. The thing that left me breathless, that I loved most of all, was when they went off together - she's wearing the white shirt - and all the people came out to see them at the school and she says to the young man, "Should I be her?" And then suddenly she's Marilyn. I just thought that was so great. As a writer who was so inspirational to so many young women, I'm very curious to get your take on "Bridesmaids." I did like "Bridesmaids," and I love Kristen Wiig. I thought that our guy from "Mad Men," Jon Hamm, I thought he was fabulous in this. Did I want it to be something different? It was what it was, it was funny, and I liked it. I didn't need the food poisoning [scene], I didn't need that at all. I'm easy, you have to understand - I'm not analytical and I hate analytical discussions about these things. I'm a spontaneous, "this is how it made me feel." The screenplay categories are actually interesting races this year - you chose "Midnight in Paris" for original script. Are you a big Woody Allen fan? I think I've probably seen almost all his movies, but this one, the Hemingway stuff alone was so worth it, it was so funny. [For adapted screenplay] I picked the "The Descendants." I like small movies like that. By small I mean, a story that centers around a family, kids - of course I'm drawn to that. I'm very tough when I see kids in movies, I thought these kids were good. Owen Wilson's novelist character in "Midnight in Paris" has so much anxiety about his work, he basically has writer's block. Have you ever dealt with that? I don't deal with writer's block, I don't allow myself to believe that there is such a thing. I think that there are good days and a lot more less good days. I'm trying to write a novel right now. What does it mean when I'm procrastinating? Is that writer's block? I don't call it that, I know I'm thinking about it even when I'm not writing it down. Is it a young adult novel or is it for adults? I don't know, it's one or the other. It's probably both. It's too soon to know. Did you see that thing with Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert, it's on YouTube. [Bagger's note: it is really worth watching. Especially when they get to the marker-sniffing.] Colbert says something about, so did you always know you were going to write for children, and Sendak says, "Write for children? I just write, and they decide where it should go. I will have to decide, but I'm on a first draft of an intricate novel, it's a complicated story for me to tell. You're working on your first feature film adaptation, of your book "Tiger Eyes," right? Your son Lawrence Blume directed and helped you adapt the script. What was that experience like? Writing with Larry, that was not the fun part. I've never collaborated on writing, but he knows script rules better than I do. And also it just seemed endless, it was like, let this be over so I can move on to something else. [But] being there [on set in New Mexico], I just liked every part of it. The casting and the crew - it was just great, I just loved it, it was family. For 24 days we were family. Aside from the Tropic, do you see big multiplex movies too? Was there anything you thought was overlooked this year? I don't go to see everything. We have a strip mall here that has Regal - I don't necessarily go to see all of those movies. I saw "Drive." Are you a fan of Ryan Gosling? Oh yes. Oh yes, I am. I could probably be his grandma. [laughs] But those things never stop.