Meryl Streep may not win the Oscar this weekend because she's too ... brilliant. Too unbelievably talented, an actress who can do anything or disappear into anyone, from a drunk ("Ironweed") and dying wife and mother ("One True Thing") to a frosty fashion editor ("The Devil Wears Prada").

She is like the A-plus student who excels at everything she tackles and who is expected to be at the top of the class -- because she is Meryl Streep. She can meet and master any challenge, perfect any accent and appear to transform herself, no matter what the role demands.

As John F. Kennedy once said, "To whom much is given, much is required." Much has been given to Ms. Streep and much is required and, often, taken for granted.

Of course she can play Julia Child, even if that means creating the illusion that she's 6 foot 2, with a thicker midsection, curly brown hair, a lower voice and the ability to be moved almost to tears by superb food. She did just that in "Julie & Julia."

A judgmental nun? Been there, done that in "Doubt."

Divorced mother teaching violin to children in East Harlem? "Music of the Heart."

Blue-collar heroine whose battle for truth exacts the highest price? "Silkwood."

And the list goes on, all the way back to "The Deer Hunter" (1978) when she received her first Oscar nomination, and "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), when she won for the first time, in the supporting race. "Holy mackerel!" she exclaimed, from the podium of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Ms. Streep's second win, this time for leading actress, came in "Sophie's Choice" as a Polish concentration camp survivor who had faced a question about her children that was the embodiment of evil. When Sylvester Stallone opened the envelope on April 11, 1983, he announced her as "Marvelous Meryl Streep."

Her nomination for "Julie & Julia" is her 16th, a record for performers, with three coming in the supporting category and the balance for leading roles. She long ago pulled ahead of Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn, each with a dozen nominations.

Ms. Streep could win her third statuette for "Julie & Julia," but the conventional wisdom has Sandra Bullock getting the gold for "The Blind Side."

It is Ms. Bullock's best starring role, although her finest work came in "Crash" as a district attorney's wife, a woman who is angry all the time but doesn't know why.

Ms. Bullock powered "Blind Side" to the eighth spot on the 2009 box office roster while her comedy "The Proposal" was a few notches down at No. 13. In other words, she borrowed a page from the Streep playbook, moving effortlessly from comedy to drama and changing her accent and attitude.

In "Blind Side," she plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a real-life woman who mothers a homeless teen from the projects and steers him into her loving family, college and a pro football career. Ms. Bullock donned a blond wig, adopted a Memphis accent and turned her spine into steel as she welcomed Michael Oher into her heart and home.

It is the sort of performance that spawned excellent word-of-mouth recommendations over Thanksgiving tables and Christmas buffets. It also is the sort of commercial performance often overlooked by Oscar or Screen Actors Guild voters.

Not this year, though, when first-time nominee Bullock (also up for a Razzie for "All About Steve") may beat the most nominated performer in Oscar history. And Ms. Streep, no doubt, will cheer if an actress barely in her teens when "Deer Hunter" came out, floats to the stage of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Because she's Meryl Streep and that's what she does.

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