SAG winner Ruby Dee: Oscar next?
January 27, 2008 | 6:49
pm
The timing of Ruby Dee's victory in the supporting race couldn't be better. Final Oscar ballots won't be shipped out for three more days: that provides lots of time for this win to settle in, feel just right and lead to a big upset over presumed frontrunners Cate Blanchett and Amy Ryan on Oscar night. In the past 13 years, winners have only agreed 8 times, but some of those years were out of whack. Oscar champ Marcia Gay Harden ("Pollock") wasn't nommed here at SAG in 2000. In 2001, Oscar champ Jennifer Connelly ("A Beautiful Mind") was nommed in the lead race at SAG. Most significant perhaps: SAG and Oscar lined up in the supporting actress race for the past five years.
The SAG award was merely a consolation prize to acknowledge Ruby Dee's body of work and won't translate into Oscar gold. Many of the SAG attendees are Academy members, yet they didn't have the decency to give Dee a standing ovation when she first appeared on stage and they reluctantly got up after her SAG win. Obviously, if they can't be bothered to get out of their seats to honor this legendary actress, they're darn sure not gonna give her an Oscar!
Posted by: Diane | January 28, 2008 at 01:35 AM