Best Actress Oscar Trivia- Page 2

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 2:12pm

Jewishboy, I think that along with Jennifer Garner's heart-breaking performance in JUNO, Tomei gave one of the most underrated performances of the year. Her name deserved to be called out the morning they announced the nominations.
She really does great work. I hope I get to see her in TOP GIRLS this summer.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 3:43pm

Here's one: This 70's actress snubbing for a Best Actress nomination prompted an unsuccessful petition from fellow actors to get her on the bill? Which actress and what movie?

Updated On: 1/28/08 at 03:43 PM

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 3:46pm

Liv Ullmann--I'll guess Scenes From A Marriage

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 3:55pm

Well played Master Dogs.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 4:00pm

I just saw AWAY FROM HER and after hearing all this buzz about Christie's performance, I was pretty underwhelmed. I actually thought that she had more of a featured role since the obvious lead was the male (who I thought was fantastic and I think he should be getting nominated).

I was also disappointed with AWAY FROM HER. I think it was really an unrealistic portrayal of Alzheimer's, and this is from somebody who has dealt with Alzheimer's with a very close family member. I think AWAY FROM HER is as true to Alzheimer's as Juno is to teen pregnancy.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 4:02pm

I was gonna guess Bette Davis for OF HUMAN BONDAGE, but that was back in the '30s.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 4:33pm

I love Oscar trivia and dishy stories, so I'll play along...

First off, the Price-Waterhouse accountants always have someone (or actually TWO reps) standing off-stage during the live ceremony who have all the winners committed to memory. This is in case a presenter reads the wrong name, can't read or see it, or if the envelope gets lost, stolen or misplaced. If Palance had misread the winning name for Best Supporting Actress that year, it would have been settled on the spot by the accounting representatives.

Also, SM2 I think I know what you're referring to, and it was a different kind of stink raised over Davis in "Of Human Bondage." Her performance that year was considered ground-breaking in the art of film acting. It was universally praised as the "best that had ever been put on film" up to that point. So, what happens when the Oscar nominations come out that year? She wasn't nominated. Jack Warner was outraged to the point of publicly denouncing the committee and calling the whole process a sham. This was back in the day when only a few studio heads, executives and a VERY elitist group voted on the awards.

His first instinct was to boycott the Oscars, then he tried a write-in campaign... but then he got even worse about it. He said if this kind of political rigging ever happened again, he would withdraw Warner Bros. as a whole from the Academy. Remember that the Oscars were only six years old back then, and not the "powerful institution" that they are today. They got the message loud and clear. And I find it funny that Bette Davis won her first Oscar the very next year for a so-so performance in "Dangerous." It was payback time, and they weren't about to hedge any bets.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 4:39pm

Julie Christie certainly deserves the Oscar more for this performance than when she won for the utterly mediocre Darling.

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 4:40pm

Not that I'm being attacked, but I never said Jack DID read the wrong name, I said it created a buzz that he had--which goes to the larger point of what a surprise her win was--that's all. Nobody thinks he really did that, except maybe Judy Davis.

And I have read that Warner was the reason Davis didn't get nommed--he was angry that she went to RKO to do the film, and it's not like they ever got along anyway...but maybe I'm wrong--it's Jack Warner, there's about four sides to every story.

But even Bette herself thought Hepburn should have won for Alice Adams that year, and boy was she right.

[broadway86]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 5:15pm

For me, it's Christie 100%. It was spectacular work, and the kind of performance that really lingers in the memory. Cotillard was a very good, showy performance.

I still think that Amy Adams deserved a nomination for what was, essentially, a high-wire act. Could have gone so wrong, but she pulled it off like a charm.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 5:32pm

Oh, lildogs, no. I wasn't attacking you. And I should have said that I too heard the buzz about the wrong name being read that night, etc.

I just felt like clarifying that it was in fact just a rumor, since the accountants would have immediately intervened. But I wasn't attacking you.

Most people don't know there are "bean counters" standing on the sidelines with all the winners committed to memory before the show even begins.

And regarding the Davis/Hepburn comment? That was two different years. Alice Adams was '35. Bondage was '34.

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 5:35pm

Ah, no, meant ALICE/DANGEROUS

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 6:36pm

Besty, got any comments on the Tomei situation?
I have read many times that people thought he read the wrong name, I think that is a bit insulting to Tomei's talents.
Neddy, I actually found JUNO to be rather poignant about teen pregnancy, poignant and non-cliched. I don't think the film tried to be a representation of ALL cases of teenage pregnancy (which is where every other film about the issue fails so profusely). Page's struggle in particular felt very real to me.
I have only dealt with Alzheimer's through my best friend's distant grandmother so I can't really say if Sarah Polley's portrayal was accurate at all. But I do feel that Christie's performance is deserving of the award, it's not the larger-than-life tragic show the Oscars usually go for (at which Marion Cotillard excelled), it's a completely different kind of performance, and it works.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/28/08 at 7:06pm

Ray---I agree that Tomei deserved it. She was great in the movie, and she elevated it to a higher level whenever she was on the screen. That's the sign of a wonderful supporting player... you show up on screen, an immediately the movie gets better.

I felt that way about Whoopi in "Ghost." Well-deserved Oscars.

I think Marissa distinguished herself in a year filled with "international heavy-hitters." She was the broad from Brooklyn. The one doing something different from the others in her category.

I'm just glad that comedic performances are honored from time to time. I wish it happened more often, truthfully.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 12:51am

lildogs: I don't know what you got all huffy about. I wasn't referring to YOU, YOUR statement, or to the fact that you may/may not have thought that YOURSELF. It was just a general statement.

[nitsua]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 12:56am

I love Bette in OF HUMAN BONDAGE.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 1:16am

"And after you'd kiss me, I always used to wipe my mouth, WIPE MY MOUTH!"

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 1:28am

Neddy, I actually found JUNO to be rather poignant about teen pregnancy, poignant and non-cliched. I don't think the film tried to be a representation of ALL cases of teenage pregnancy (which is where every other film about the issue fails so profusely). Page's struggle in particular felt very real to me.

Regardless, I am ashamed at the amount of attention this terrible film has been getting.


Updated On: 1/29/08 at 09:56 PM
Updated On: 4/12/08 at 01:28 AM

[Urban]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 4:58am

I think a good example of the BeanCounters making sure the right person accepts the award instead of the wrong one, a few years ago at the Daytime Emmys, Susan Lucci started walking onto the stage thinking she had one after people backstage misheard her name (it was actually Susan Flannery that won). They did manage to stop her in time. So those people actually do work.

I think Marisa clinched that award with the Courtroom scene. Most Supporting Actress awards I feel often go to somebody who is able to produce at least one memorial scene, (like Catherine Zeta-Jones with "I Cannot Do It Alone") and Marisa had that with her testamony on cars on the stand.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 5:17am

The testimony is fabulous, really. But to me every scene in MY COUSIN VINNY that features Tomei is pure gold. Honestly, her reading of the last line alone "a burp is spontaneous, and a burp isn't romantic" leaves me with no doubt that she deserved that award. It is just a precious performance.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 5:26am

Personally, I love how she says, "Yeah, you blend."

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 9:02am

"And I have read that Warner was the reason Davis didn't get nommed--he was angry that she went to RKO to do the film, and it's not like they ever got along anyway...but maybe I'm wrong--it's Jack Warner, there's about four sides to every story."

lildogs---First of all, Jack Warner agreed to loan Bette Davis to RKO for "Of Human Bondage," so he wouldn't have been angry that she went to do the film. He negotiated the deal. This movie made her a star, and Jack couldn't have been happier, because she was under contract to him. Both Warner Bros. and RKO were sure Davis was going to win the Oscar that year. But the Academy was run (mostly) by MGM back then. They dominated the early awards and nominations... and this was the "straw that broke the camel's back," as far as Jack Warner was concerned. He basically told them to stop their little "MGM party" or he would withdraw his studio from the Academy.

I'm not saying I was there and heard all this... but my grandfather was. He was the first Executive Vice President and Treasurer of Warner Bros. He was with the studio from the very beginning until he retired in 1955. He was in charge of all the money, and he ran the NY office with Albert Warner, as well as handled all European distribution for the studio. He decided Davis's salary, Crawford's, and the budgets for all the films.

To this day, I wear the gold watch that Jack Warner gave him when he retired in 1955. His last project with the studio was Garland's "A Star Is Born."

I'm not claiming to have all the facts straight, but this is the story, as I heard it. I was 18 when my grandfather died, so I never did get to ask him all the questions I wanted to. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. It's only now, years later, when I see all these films, that I realize what an incredible era he lived and worked in.

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 10:28am

Well, I don't have the connection that you have--who does? But I think I read that in Tom O'Neil's Oscar book--so there you go--like I said, it's Jack Warner, so there's probably several versions....lol...

I didn't really mean that he was angry she did the film; I should have said resentful of her success at another studio--kinda like when Gable won for an RKO movie--his punishment..you know, one of those kinda things--

And hey, I could have easily "dreamed" it up--it's always 4:20 in my house.

I found a little blurb about it from the NY times, but like I said, there's four sides to every Jack W story...lol




NY TIMES

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 11:36am

Jack Warner was "a piece of work," there's no denying it. And yes, I have stories (most of them are well-known already) that would curl your toes. But that article (and many speculative historians) seem to paint Davis as a "diva bitch" from the start. She wasn't. This move "Of Human Bondage" is what made her a star. She was fairly new at Warner Bros. and had starred in only a couple of films prior to this one. She asked Jack Warner if she could do it, and he did think it was an inferior project, but he agreed because they offered decent money for her (and she was BARELY known back then).

That's the difference between this "Davis loan-out" and the "Gable loan-out" that happened at MGM. Gable was a HUGE established star, and to loan him out for (what was perceived by Mayer as) a throw-away, light romantic comedy WAS punishment in Louis B. Mayer's eyes.

For Jack Warner, it was a so-so film project that wanted one of his up-and-coming, leading lady contract players for it. When the film came out, he was thrilled because she was HIS. She was under contract to Warner Bros., and this "mediocre" film had made her a star. He figured if she could take crappy material like that and turn it into gold, he really had something there. So Warner Bros. along with RKO helped spin the buzz about her. He wanted her to win the Oscar, and was in her "corner" if for no other reason than she was a new hot commodity for him.

Of course AFTER this film, she got handed "Dangerous" and a few other so-so Warners projects, and that's when the fighting began between them. She knew she was worth something at this point, and she complained loudly about the roles he was giving her. Even after she won the Oscar for "Dangerous." And yes, it's true, they fought a LOT. Jack wanted to fire her, but she was making too much money for Warner Bros. My grandfather and Harry Warner usually jumped in and told him he couldn't let her go. She had the powerful ability (at that point) of turning so-so "women's pictures" into big box office hits.

Updated On: 1/29/08 at 11:36 AM

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/29/08 at 1:58pm

Tomei was nothing short of brilliant in My Cousin Vinny. For a supporting character to have so many memorable scenes and lines is amazing. My two favorites are rant on the cabin porch about her biological clock, and her condemnation of Vinny worrying about what pants to weat while deer hunting.