Best Actress 1992: Margaret Schlegel

One of my favorite Best Actress Oscar wins was Emma Thompson's victory back in the early 1990s; it also completed the trifecta of Kathy Bates and Jodie Foster the previous two years.  She first came into international public consciousness with her professional and personal relationship opposite Kenneth Branagh.  She appeared in his Henry V in 1989 and then two years later they reteamed in surprise campy suspense hit Dead Again.  At that point, she was well on her way.  This year's frontrunners, both Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence, have also had relatively brief feature length careers; like Thompson in 1992, they're both up for parts that are fairly stripped down of any artifice.

Her Margaret Schlegel was that rare role with very little bait-association.  Certainly, Howards End was period and that prestige factor helped her chances a marginal amount.  But, what she was being judged on was her performance without the bells and whistles.  There was no major physical transformation, disability, or accent (I think); she didn't learn to play an instrument.  Her character didn't get raped and she wasn't playing a real-life person.  She was Schlegel, a spinster who, along with her siblings, lived a comfortable life.  Her concerns were her family, but then she finds herself on an odd journey manipulated by the insecurities and greed of others.  I loved her simple, no-nonsense attitude, which Thompson had no problem connecting with.  There was nothing flashy or earth-shattering about Schlegel, yet, with Thompson underneath her skin, she was mesmerizing.  Small events would leave these strange ripples and that had as much to do with Thompson as it did the direction and cinematography.  Howards End was certainly when Merchant/Ivory were at the top of their game and Thompson was their crown jewel.

She was in her early 30s when End hit and had no delusions of movie stardom.  She was a rising star who cut her teeth in the theatre and British TV.  She even had her own variety show.  Post-End, she went on to multiple nominations, including winning for screenwriting her adaptation of Sense & Sensibility.  From there, her profile quieted some, but she has been working steadily ever since.  Not only is she a talented actress, but she is intelligent and has a bubbly personality.  Stupid comments don't fall out of her mouth.  She knows how to choose her words in front of a camera and isn't full of herself; she's just intuitively smart.  She also possesses an engaging beauty, that makes her seem approachable, informed, curious about the world.  She doesn't have the stereotypical English pale complexion either.  She has some color, especially in Much Ado About Nothing.  And, with that hair?!  She never looked hotter.  A win for Thompson was really a win for us all.

When Howards End arrived early in 1992, it was an arthouse smash.  It grossed $26M domestic, but with inflation, I imagine it would have blown The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel out of the water.  People showed up to see this film.  And, as a bonus, it didn't suck.  It was actually quite fantastic.  While Susan Sarandon was slowly gaining momentum towards a win, she wasn't quite there yet with Lorenzo's Oil; Thompson ended up running the boards as Schlegel.

It was Catherine Deneuve who was a bit of surprise on nomination day; her Indochine eventually won Best Foreign Language film.  While Mary McDonnell was wisely recognized for her bitchy infirm soap opera actress, Alfre Woodward was strangely left out of either category.  Perhaps, it was a poorly run campaign, considering her costar slipped in with nothing but a Golden Globe nomination (which, granted, carried a lot of weight back then).  Despite Miranda having a strong year with three movies showcasing her talents (one of which was Best Picture nominee The Crying Game) and winning the Golden Globe Comedy (often a likely ticket to an Oscar nomination), she ended up going for supporting with Damage going against her Enchanted April costar Joan Plowright.  Orion dusted Love Field off the shelf to fast track Michelle Pfeiffer to a nod.  As the competition wasn't overly strong that year (all of Thompson's fellow nominees were late-year low-grossing entries), the gloriously trashy Basic Instinct did secure nominations for both Score and Film Editing.  So, it wasn't unheard of that Sharon Stone was in contention.  It's unclear if the bad press the film received from the GLTQ community helped, hindered, or had no effect on her chances.  Though, with Annette Bening missing out for Bugsy the year before, and the smokey-voiced dame Kathleen Turner only getting noticed once by The Academy, one could surmise that the stodgy-old AMPAS just had a thing against a tough broad.  Whatever the case, with Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female and Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, it was a GREAT year for villainesses.

The Nominees:
Emma Thompson, Howards End: GG Drama, LA, New York, Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, Southeastern, NBR, National Socity, BAFTA winner.  (92% RT)

Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil: GG Drama, New York (2nd), Chicago, National Society nominee.  ($7.3M; 94% RT)

Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field: Berlin winner; GG Drama, New York (3rd) nominee.  ($1M; 36% RT)

Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish: GG Drama nominee.  ($4.8M; 100% RT)

Catherine Deneavue, Indochine: César Award winner.  ($5.6M; 71% RT)

The Also-Ran:
Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct: GG Drama, Chicago nominee.  ($49M / $117.7M / $352.9M; 64% RT)

The Also-Nominated (for Supporting): 
Judy Davis, Husbands and Wives: LA (supporting), Chicago (supporting), Boston (supporting), Kansas City (supporting), Southeastern (supporting), NBR (supporting), National Society (supporting), London (lead) winner; GG supporting, New York (supporting; 2nd), BAFTA (lead) nominee.  ($10.6M; 100% RT)

Miranda Richardson, Damage (possible lead for Enchanted April, supplemented by The Crying Game): AMPAS supporting nominee, GG Comedy, New York (supporting) winner; BAFTA (supporting) winner/nominee; GG supporting, LA (supporting; 2nd), National Society (supporting; 2nd), Chicago (supporting) nominee.  (Damage: $7.5M, 80% RT; Enchanted April: $13.2M, 82% RT; The Crying Game: $62.6M, 100% RT)

The Rest of the Competition:

Alfre Woodard, Passion Fish: Independent Spirit (supporting) winner; LA (lead; 2nd), New York (supporting; 3rd), GG supporting nominee.

Pernilla August, The Best Intentions: Cannes winner, National Society (4th) nominee.  ($1.3M; 100% RT)

Li Gong, Raise the Red Lantern: National Society (3rd) nominee.  ($2.6M; 96% RT)

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female: Chicago nominee.  ($48M; 56% RT)

Geena Davis, A League of Their Own: GG Comedy nominee.  ($40M / $107.5M / $132.4M; 82% RT)

Tara Morice, Strictly Ballroom: BAFTA nominee.  ($11.7M; 95% RT)

Shirley MacLaine, Used People: GG Comedy nominee.  ($18M; 38% RT)

Meryl Streep, Death Becomes Her: GG Comedy nominee.  ($55M / $58.4M / $149M; 43% RT)

Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act: GG Comedy nominee.  ($139.6M / $231.6M; 71% RT)

Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Chicago nominee.  ($88M; 59% RT)

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Best Actress 1991: Special Agent Starling, FBI

One of the few Best Actress wins of recent memory that obviously cry out in favor of Jessica Chastain's chances at winning this February is Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling.  Her FBI-agent-in-training instantly became a modern icon and was the rare (at the time) female who filled the hero archetype in movies.  (Recently, I caught Christine Lakin's brilliant sendup of Foster in Silence! The Musical.)  The film detailed the plight of a woman on the hunt while reconciling childhood memories.  Certainly, she was green behind the ears, but she was smart, capable, and relied on her instincts.  She saved the day, when others who underestimated her chased other distractions.  Sounds kind of like "Maya" from Zero Dark Thirty, without the specific political baggage, though I haven't seen anything other than that one clip leaked on the internet that I don't recommend watching out of context.  How will it fair at the box-office once it opens?  Initially, its platform release will benefit from the high critical praise and awards circuit timing, but, once it breaks for the masses in January, will it sustain the momentum and secure Chastain a win?

Foster had already won an Oscar for The Accused three years previously, which legitimized the former child star's career as an adult.  Lambs was the first film she made after her Oscar win, thanks to Michelle Pfeiffer turning down the opportunity to reteam with director Jonathan Demme.  This classic movie hit big at the beginning of the year, scaring audiences and drawing them in droves.  Foster's second film of 1991 would be her directorial debut Little Man Tate.  Her one-two punch would nab her Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year.

Though there was little doubt that she would win for her performance in the high-grossing eventual Best Picture winner, her main competition, Thelma & Louise, had a built-in vote split the lead acting categories haven't seen since.  There was no Terms of Endearment dilemma here.  Like Foster, Geena Davis had just won an Oscar in 1988.  And Susan Sarandon was just getting started on a litany of nominations that would culminate in a win four years later.  The race was pretty straight forward with no real surprises, though Mrs. Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, came awfully close to joining the field of Oscar nominees that year as that tough broad Virginia Hill in Bugsy.  (This would have been the sixth year in-a-row--that would end the next year--that the Golden Globe Comedy winner would attain entry into the final Oscar race.)

After winning Oscar again, Foster would solidify her reputation for being selective about her projects, making one movie every year or two.  Aggravating for fans, it helped build up her box-office cache.  And, in an age where most actors will take a paycheck for anything, she turned down another go as Starling in Hannibal, the inferior, forgettable, unnecessary sequel.  And she did it for the right reasons (the story just wasn't right).  She could get Nell, a film about a backwoods woman who speaks her own language, passed $30M (in 1994), as well as single-handedly bring films like Contact, Panic Room, and Flightplan at or near the magical $100M mark.  While Julia Roberts may have been the Hollywood Queen for her commercial power, none of her films in her heyday ever contained much cerebral content or style.  These days, Foster hasn't drummed up quite the numbers, but still commands great respect in the industry.  Will Chastain enjoy a similar fate?  We shall see.

The 1991 Best Actress Nominees:
Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs: GG Drama, New York, Chicago, Kansas City, BAFTA winner; National Society (2nd), London (2nd) nominee.  ($19M / $130.7M / $272.7M; 96% RT)

Susan Sarandon, Thelma & Louise: NBR, London winner; GG Drama, New York (2nd), Chicago, National Society (3rd), BAFTA nominee.  ($16.5M / $45.4M; Summer release; 91%)

Geena Davis, Thelma & Louise: Boston, NBR winner; GG Drama, LA (2nd), New York (2nd), Chicago, BAFTA nominee.

Bette Midler, For the Boys: GG Comedy winner; Chicago nominee.  ($40M / $17.9M; $38% RT)

Laura Dern, Rambling Rose: GG Drama, Chicago nominee.  ($7.5M / $6.3M; Fall release; 100% RT)


The Also-Ran:
Annette Bening, Bugsy: GG Drama, Chiago nominee.  ($49.1M; 88%)


The Also-Nominated (for Supporting):
Mercedes Ruehl, The Fisher King: AMPAS (supporting), GG supporting, LA (supporting), Chicago (supporting), Boston (lead), Venice (lead) winner.  ($41.9M; Fall release; 84% RT)

Jessica Tandy, Fried Green Tomatoes: AMPAS, GG supporting nominee; BAFTA (lead) nominee. ($82.4M / $119.4M; 83% RT)

The Other Competition:

Kathy Bates, Fried Green Tomatoes: GG Comedy, BAFTA (supporting) nominee.

Angelica Huston, The Addams Family: GG Comedy nominee.  ($30M / $113.5M / $191.5M; 60% RT

Lily Tomlin, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe: Seattle winner; ISA nominee.  ($0.6M, Fall release;

Alison Steadman, Life is Sweet: National Society winner.  ($1.5M; Fall release; 100% RT)

Anne Parillaud, Le Femme Nikita: Chicago nominee.  ($5M; Spring release; 88% RT)

Juliet Stevenson, Truly Madly Deeply: BAFTA nominee.  ($1.6M; Spring release; 72% RT)

Michelle Pfeiffer, Frankie and Johnny: GG Comedy nominee.  ($22.8M; Fall release; 78% RT)

Ellen Barkin, Switch: GG Comedy nominee.  ($15.6M; Spring release; 33% RT)

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Flash in the Pan

Either I am pushing the unintentional innuendo of my blog title, there's a trend happening, or both.  How do we title this post, let me count the unmodified Twilight title ways: New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part 1 ...  So, you have a nominal role in one of the most successful and crappy franchises of all time (I shouldn't judge, because I never saw the last four installments and I'm sure they were all just fantastic), the final chapter has just closed, and will soon fade from the box-office and memory (hopefully permanently).  And, one of the most poised and proper actresses of her generation just got caught with her dress up earlier in the week.  What do you do while pimping your movie in Hong Kong?  Why, you flash your pussy!  Oh, wait, maybe Elizabeth Reaser forgot to put on underwear and the paparazzi, hungry from the recent release of Anne's Hathaway, sniffed her out and ambushed her!  I'm sure it was unintentional on her part.  I'm sure she was tired and she just had to wear that short of a skirt.  I mean her knees are (sort of) together, right?  There's no planning for these things.  I imagine she expected there to be a table to sit in front of.  Should we just chalk this up to "it happens"?  Well, when "it happens" to Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett, then I'll consider the possibility that, yeah, beavers just fall out in front of the world.  There isn't actually a non-pixilated version of the Reaser photo that I can locate and even those have begun disappearing, so maybe it never happened.  Well, at least, in this version, Edward Cullen has swooped in to protect the Julliard graduate.

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I Hope Ashton's Hand Ain't His Only Wrapped Appendage

So, I offered my unsolicited opinion on the Demi Moore/Ashton Kutchie divorce stalemate.  My idiotic take was for her daughters to shut the hell up about wanting their mother to move on.  My unicorn-and-rainbow theory was that Moore's stubbornness would payoff (if you define payoff, like I do, as Mila Kunis leaving Kutchie's ass and moving on to a suitor more suitable for her charm and beauty).  Well, I feel horrible for harboring such a wish, because it's clearly taking a toll on beautiful Mila.  Oh, Mila, only two years ago, Black Swan was opening.  You almost got an Oscar nod and starred in one of the few legitimately great Best Picture nominees in a long while.  Last year, you played a hot young headhunter with that curly blond 'N Sync guy in a flat rom-com to respectable grosses.  This last year, you were the love interest in rare surprise talking-bear comedy hit Ted where you tried to make beer jokes and look cute.  Now, you have the soon-to-bomb Dr. Oz movie opposite that over-inflated ego called James Franco.  You're chained at the hip to Obnoxious Kutcher after what was supposed to be a few dates for old time's sake.  And, you look and dress like you've given up on life.  I know he's picking up dog poop and that's chivalrous and all, but you can pay someone to do that.  You don't need him.  Leave those 70s behind.  Please.

[Image via Celebitchy]

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Lindsay WasThisCloseToAnEmmy

I spy with my little eye something to steal ...

This morning, the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association failed to make Lindsay Lohan's carcass of a career briefly relevant again and give her something to tweet about.  They didn't nominate her for her amazingly bland portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor in Lifetime Movie Liz & Dick.  She would have been in the ranks of such company as The Tourist, which received three nominations a few years ago, and Pia Zadora, who won a Globe, as well as a Razzie, for Butterfly in 1983.  I'm sure this placed her in a grouchy disposition, enough that fortune tellers and pedestrians better be on the watch for the next 24 or so hours.  Now, instead of attending the Golden Globes in January, she has that postponed court date.  She didn't have any money to buy anyone off, so she is going to have to put off that Emmy and delusions of Oscar for now.

Speaking of buying people off, Zadora's biggest hit stateside (when she wasn't giving audiences gloriously crappy performances, she was giving listeners gloriously crappy songs) was "When the Rain Begins to Fall."  This would be in the spirit of Los Angeles' downpour last night which surprised me at midnight with a leak that flooded by bathroom.  Zadora sings the duet with Jermaine Jackson, and because it was the early-to-mid-80s and someone ambitious had a brilliant idea, they turned it into a mini-movie!  Jackson tries to dress like his more talented brother Michael, flanked by a bunch of brothers wearing black apocalyptic outfits that can only be described as bargain-basement Mad Max-lite.  A gang of crackers wearing white (oh, how symbolically racial!) ride motorbikes on the beach and tread on enemy turf looking for a bar.  Tensions rise, and Zadora sells Whitey out by trying to get a piece of chocolate love, setting off a firestorm of a dance-fight.  Think trashy West Side Story with synthesizer accompaniment.  Once Zadora gets what she came for, she ditches Jermaine, because it's the 80s and she was married to a white multimillionaire, so he had to be happy with the ending.  Or, maybe she was just saving Jermaine for Tootie from The Facts of Life, who, you know, loved Jermaine so much, she made a ginormous God-awful paper maché sculpture of his head that got mistaken for a bomb and ended up in a dumpster.  Rejection is a bitch.  Ask Lindsay today.  But, wear a helmet.

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Anne's Hathaway Sees Its Shadow: Ten More Weeks Til Oscar

In case you haven't already heard, Anne let her cooch out for a breather while awkwardly climbing out of a car on Monday night in a much more awkward dress at a Les Mis premiere and the paparazzi digitally captured the moment.  Rather than delete the evidence, as Hathaway went on record would have been the fair and sensible thing to do, the photographer made some money off of it.  Sacrebleu!  It was as if someone's dying moments were captured for entertainment value.  Not.  Hathaway talked about it to Vanity Fair and then went on The Today Show, where ratings-killer Matt Lauer lecherously introduced her with, "We've seen a lot of you lately."  Gee, thanks, Matt Lauer.  You were already a douchebag who probably cheats on his wife and killed crybaby Ann Curry's dreams by orchestrating her exit from Today, but now you're also unabashedly gross.  Anyway, Hathaway, a woman of grace and dignity, couldn't just have a good laugh; rather, she chastised the media for capitalizing on her "vulnerable moment" and went on to cleverly tie this indiscretion to her latest film role.  However, I don't know if clever is really the appropriate word considering that she's a multimillionaire sans kids who had an embarrassing moment who compared her predicament to an impoverished 19th-century mother who had no choice in life to provide for her daughter other than to prostitute herself for money.  Um, Anne, I get where you're going with this, and, yes, you may have a point with commodifying sexuality, but, girl, you are treading on some thin ice for the more discerning.

If she should be admonishing anyone, it should be Tom Ford for putting her in that caped dress (and whoever made those Matrix-style boots).  There are some of the camp that she is the still the classy-type who went commando to avoid the panty-line and wasn't accustomed to the practice.  There are others who cry foul, because it's all the internet is talking about (including Cinesnatch), she's not beneath calling attention to herself, and, duh, a small purse could have blocked that small breeze she had to have felt up in her bidness.  We haven't really heard about this type of biscuit delivery since the Paris/Lindsay/Britney Baker's Dozen from six or so years ago.  But, we can all agree they're trash and Anne, a talented film actress, who is known for her prestigious choices isn't one we'd normally place in their company.  Aren't we living in a different world now where very little is sacred?  It's not like she holds a high political position, where one has to command some semblance of respect in order to be taken seriously.  If Secretary of State Hillary Clinton really isn't running for president in 2016, she'll be flashing us pretty soon to make it clear, I imagine.

Meanwhile, Hathaway will be working with Steven Spielberg on Robopocalypse.  Is he going to send her a quilt with a note that says, "Cover yourself up" before cameras roll like he did with Drew after she showed David Letterman her fun bags on air?  It's not like a slip-up, so to speak, of this nature would harm anyone in the entertainment world or their award's chances, would it?  We already know she's winning the Oscar.  She has made it very clear.  The AMPAS don't really have a choice.  However, remember when Paul Verhoeven "tricked" Sharon Stone into slipping off her underwear in Basic Instinct, because of the "glare."  We all know that Stone's beaver cameo kept her from Oscar, so perhaps Anne should be sweating now.

Just so we're clear, I have a history of reporting on Hathaway and not what some may incorrectly associate with "cinesnatch."  So, I couldn't help but post on this, but, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have.  Though, if there was ever a post to live up to the unintended meaning of this blog, I guess this would be it.  Well, that, and my scene by scene of Instinct.  Cheers.

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Best Actress 2003: She Got Ugly

I had such a fun time writing the last post on the 1998 Best Actress race, I thought I'd try doing another one.  The impetus was placing the 2012 race between Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain (as it appears right now) into the context of Gwyneth Paltrow's win over Cate Blanchett (two fairly new ingenues going head to head) in 1998.  The Paltrow win speaks to an increased profile that may have not otherwise happened (perhaps Chastain), as well as, by a small margin, youth (Lawrence).  With 2003, we had another starlet on the rise, Charlize Theron, but in an incredibly baity performance where she had all kinds of boxes ticked off.  She played a real-life person (Aileen Wuornos) with a very unusual story (female serial killer), who had a devastatingly horrible upbringing that led to a tragic adult life, including rape, abuse, and prostitution.  Monster also shed a sympathetic angle to the script and the glamorous Theron completely transformed herself, gaining a hefty percentage of her body weight, shaving off her eyebrows, frying her hair, and wearing prosthetics   At the time, there was a healthy debate on style vs. substance.  There were some in the camp who believed her Wuornos rode off the superficial changes she made to her body.  Others, including myself, bought into the performance and believed her internal work lived up her physical modifications.  The $8M Monster grossed a remarkable $35M domestic, $60.4M overall. Theron won additional awards from SAG, Golden Globe (Drama), Satellite, Berlin, Broadcast, National Society, Independent Spirit, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas-Forth Worth, Las Vegas, Central Ohio, and Vancouver.  She was recognized by LA (2nd), New York (3rd), Seattle (2nd) and was nominated by BAFTA, London, Online.  Basically, Theron came as close to nailing it as just about anyone in Best Actress history.

Excuse the malnourished look,
I'm still recovering from my transformation,
but look what I have!

In some ways, she had the final word on "going ugly."  A noticeable amount of Best Actress wins were attributed to that process at the time, where normally beautiful actresses played impoverished characters that were less attractive and/or physically different from themselves, and/or endured unbearably traumatic events like being raped.  Hilary Swank and Jodie Fosters' first Oscars make this group and some even place Halle Berry here.  Even the nose Nicole Kidman wore as Virginia Woolf places her in this company.  While Swank would do it again for another kind of physical transformation just a year later and other baity choices remained in play (learning a musical instrument, art form, an accent, glamming it up, and, especially, playing a real-life person), Theron kind of sent the practice packing, at least, for now.  She left such an impression on the Academy with her balls-out performance, that sometimes I joke that it got her and Frances McDormand nods two years later for North Country.  But, where one trend was ending, Theron also blazed a trail by producing herself to her Academy Award.  While the feat hasn't been repeated since then, more recently Nicole Kidman, Michelle Williams, and Glenn Close have all produced themselves to nominations.  Theron was also the fourth or so woman to be directed by another female to a Best Actress Oscar.

To say the least, Theron's rise in Hollywood was shrewd.  While she scored a few leading roles in dubious films early on, she was not beneath taking whatever role she could while working alongside the industry best (Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, James Gray, John Frankenheimer, Taylor Hackford, Lasse Hallstrom, Woody Allen twice), opposite all of the hot leading men at the time (Johnny Depp, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg twice, Keanu Reeves twice).  Yet she flew under the radar just to knock everyone out with Monster.  Despite getting some positive attention for North Country, she laid low after laying an egg with huge loser Aeon Flux.  The movie proved she had limited drawing power, particularly with films nobody wanted to see or asked for.  Again, she hunkered down and took on smaller projects and roles, which included producing.  She rode on Will Smith's coattails in the inexplicably bad, but profitable Hancock (which may eventually lead to a sequel).  Her exposure increased again in the last year, thanks to a smart turn in Jason Reitman's Young Adult, as well as involvement in Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman, and the upcoming Mad Max sequel.

Sometimes, wins like Theron's come at the cost of casting a shadow over more veteran actresses--former winners--in less showy, but admired performances that aren't such awards grabs.  Theron's main competition that year was Diane Keaton.  She headlined Nora Ephron's Something's Gotta Give as a woman who craves an emotional relationship with a man older than her, yet closer to her age, but can't help but be entertained by the advances of strapping gent young enough to be her son.  It was also Keaton doing Keaton's thing (which she does quite well).  The $80M production (when I saw that audacious figure, I nearly jumped ... in a good way) grossed a spectacular $124.7M and over double that worldwide. Keaton would surely be rewarded for her nuanced comedic work and she was.  She won a Golden Globe (Comedy), Satellite, NBR; as well as being recognized by Southeastern (2nd), Dallas-Fort Worth (3rd); and nominations from SAG, Broadcast, Washington D.C., and Phoenix.

As far as 2012 is concerned, there aren't really any parallels to draw from 2003, other than the obvious: 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes got nominated for the $3.5M Whale Rider (she was 11 when it was filmed).  The summer release grossed $20.8M, and $41.4M worldwide.  Quvenzhané Wallis is 9 years old and was 5 when she auditioned for Beasts of the Southern Wild.  The bayou-set movie, which released this past Summer originally, debuted at Sundance almost a year ago, yet, despite not quite measuring up financially to Whale Rider, the slightly less traditional tale is still on most pundit's shortlists for Best Picture.  This has to strengthen Wallis' chances, considering the weak year (as was 2003).  In the competitive category, Castle-Hughes only picked up nominations from Chicago, Washington D.C., and, Chlotrudis, as well as a supporting bone from SAG.

It was a funky year of actresses, not clear-cut in the nomination possibilities by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, it seems it would have been pretty impressive for someone to have guessed beyond Theron, Keaton, and maybe Naomi Watts.  The main precursors SAG and Golden Globe (Drama) didn't line up neatly with The Academy and were all over the map.  And, unlike another meager year 1994, Oscar couldn't even turn to leading dramatic performances in high-grossers like The Client and Little Women.  There was, however, a slew of hardly seen independent turns, a good chunk of which straddled both lead and supporting categories.

The Other Nominees:
-Naomi Watts, 21 Grams: LA, Online, Washington D.C., Florida, San Diego, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Southeastern Venice winner; National Society (3rd), New York (2nd), Boston (2nd); SAG, Broadcast, Satellite, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, BAFTA nominee.  Watts' ugly-lite performance was her first and only time at the Oscars and the AMPAS don't appear eager to ever single her out if they don't recognize anyone else from her movies.  We'll see what their temperature is on her if she manages to grab their attention with The Impossible.  ($20M / $16.3M / $60.4M)

-Samantha Morton, In America: Satellite, Broadcast, Independent Spirit, British Independent nominee.  Morton, a previous nominee, proved in a weak year, you don't need the stamp of approval from the Globes or SAG in order to get in good with the AMPAS.  ($15.5M / $25.4M)

The Also-Ran's:
-Evan Rachel Wood, Thirteen: SAG, GG Drama, Satellite, Washington D.C., Phoenix nominee.  She managed to land two of the biggest mentions, but it was her onscreen mother Holly Hunter who ended up getting in (the supporting category).  ($2M / $4.6M / $10.1M; Summer release)

-Nicole Kidman, Cold Mountain: Las Vegas (2nd); GG Drama, Broadcast, London, Dallas-Fort Worth nominee.  Fresh off a win from the previous year, the AMPAS took notice of the criticism aimed at Kidman looking like she stepped out of a spa everyday while playing a frontierswoman.  She also quite possibly got caught up in the Harvey Weinstein backlash against the Minghella film, which ended up collecting an esteemed seven nomination total and one win anyway.  ($79M / $95.7M / $173M)

-Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation: LA, Boston, Palm Springs, BAFTA, Venice winner; GG Comedy, Chlotrudis, Online, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Vancouver nominee; Satellite, Broadcast (supporting) nominee.  Unlike Clarkson and Hunter, Johansson, with two competitive lead bids (one a baitier role and the other part in a Best Picture nominee), couldn't land in either category. ($4M / $44.6M / $119.7M; Fall release)

The Also-Nominated (for Supporting): 
-Patricia Clarkson, The Station Agent (sometimes with Pieces of April and other films): SAG nominee, Central Ohio (2nd) (lead); Sundance, San Diego winner; NBR, National Society, Boston, Florida, Kansas City, Chlotrudis winner (supporting); Satellite, Broadcast nominee (supporting).  **Clarkson ended up getting nominated, but for Pieces of April in the supporting category.  ($5.7M / $8.7M; Fall release)

-Holly Hunter, Thirteen: London (lead) nominee; Las Vegas (supporting) winner; Southeastern (2nd); AMPAS, SAG, Golden Globe, Online, Chicago, Washington D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Satellite, Broadcast, BAFTA, London nominee (supporting).  **Hunter ended up getting nominated, but for the supporting category.  ($2M / $4.6M / $10.1M; Summer release)

The Rest of the Competition:
-Cate Blanchett, Veronica Guerin: GG Drama, Washington D.C. nominee.  ($17M / $1.6M / $9.4M; Fall release)

-Jennifer Connelly, House of Sand and Fog: Kansas City winner; Satellite, Broadcast, Vancouver nominee.  ($16.5M / $13M / $17M)

-Hope Davis, American Splendor: New York, Seattle winner; National Society (2nd); Satellite, Chlotrudis, Chicago, Phoenix, GG (supporting) nominee.  Like Johansson, she was unsuccessful at capturing her first Oscar nod.  ($6M / $8M; Summer release)

-Scarlett Johansson, The Girl with the Pearl Earring: LA, Palm Springs winner; GG Drama, Phoenix, BAFTA, London, British Independent nominee.  ($11.7M / $31.5M)

-Charlotte Rampling, Swimming Pool: Seattle (2nd), Chlotrudis nominee.  ($10.1M / $22.4M; Summer release)

-Sarah Polley, My Life Without Me: Chlotrudis, Vancouver winner.  ($0.4M / $9.7M; Fall release)

-Frances McDormand, Laurel Canyon: Independent Spirit, Chlotrudis nominee.  ($3.7M; $4.4M; Winter release)

-Zooey Deschanel, All the Real Girls: Independent Spirit, Chlotrudis nominee.  ($0.6M; Winter release)

-Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 1: GG Drama, Online, BAFTA nominee.  ($30M / $70.1M / $181M; Fall release)

-Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday: GG Comedy, Satellite nominee.  ($20M / $110.2M / $160.9M; Summer release)

-Helen Mirren, Calendar Girls: GG Comedy, Satellite nominee. ($10M / $31M / $96.6M)

-Toni Collette, Japanse Story: Satellite, Chlotrudis nominee.  ($0.7M / $4.1M)

-Diane Lane, Under the Tuscan Sun: GG Comedy, Satellite nominee.  ($18M / $43.6M / $58.9M; Fall release)

-Katie Holmes, Pieces of April: Satellite nominee.  ($0.3M / $2.5M / $3.3M; Fall release)

poll by twiigs.com

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