SubscribeRumorbusting: Lead! We said Helena will go LEAD!
Hey, New York Magazine, check your sources! The Gotham mag is spreading further the false rumor that Helena Bonham Carter will go supporting for "Sweeney Todd" (see here). Dreamworks insists she'll go lead, which is the corresponding category that Angela Lansbury won when the show swept the Tony Awards in 1979. Of course, that doesn't always mean anything, as we learned last year when Jennifer Hudson won best supporting actress in "Dreamgirls." Her stage predecessor, Jennifer Holliday, won the lead Tony in 1982. Hudson was really the lead in the film version, of course, but she didn't want to try and usurp "The Queen" star Helen Mirren.
Those New York "Vulture" guys aren't proving very reliable as Oscar reporters in general. Recently they spread the false rumor that Universal has spent "millions" to do last-minute reshoots to save a faltering "Charlie Wilson's War." Studio reps and other sources close to the film insist that no reshoots were done at all.
Agree with AJ. Though she was the true lead in "Dreamgirls" (as was Holliday), JHud had to go supporting because Beyoncé Knowles was promised the lead. Zeta-Jones was supporting because the "Chicago" film was reworked to emphasize Roxie (Renée Zellweger) over Velma, much like the older versions of the story (1924 real-life, 1926 stage play, 1927 & 1942 films); the 1975 musical and especially its 1996 revival made Velma at least Roxie's equal, so Bebe Neuwirth's leading Tony for the revival was appropriate.
A better comparison would be to Laurence Fishburne in "What's Love Got To Do With It", in spite of the gender flip. Though the story was clearly about Tina Turner (Angela Bassett), Fishburne's Ike Turner was the male lead, and he ended up with a Best Actor nom even though many thought it was a supporting role.
Posted by: RBBrittain | October 29, 2007 at 07:25 PM
I think Helena Bonham Carter is in a similar situation such as Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind or Courtney Love with The People Vs. Larry Flynt. It's essentially a lead role that might get pushed into supporting because the lead actor is the center of the story.
Posted by: bblasingame | October 28, 2007 at 01:05 PM
It really really irks when people pull a Jennifer Hudson/Effie and Catherine Zeta-Jones/Velma argument. Yes the roles were lead, but they were co-female leads ie there were other lead females. HBC is the one and only lead female. Why its so hard to understand why she is going Lead is beyond me.
Posted by: AJ | October 27, 2007 at 09:17 PM