SubscribeWhich winners would you force to give back their Oscars?
Come to think of it, maybe Matt Damon was right when he recently said that the Oscars "get it wrong more often than they get it right."
If I were the king of the Oscars (someday — just you wait, Derbyites!) and had the power to take away past wins, the first awards I'd yank from the clutches of undeserved winners are these: Reese Witherspoon ("Walk the Line"), Nicole Kidman ("The Hours"), Sean Penn ("Mystic River" — I'd let him keep the Oscar if he'd won for "21 Grams" that year), Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"), Geoffrey Rush ("Shine"), Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt ("As Good as It Gets"), Al Pacino ("Scent of a Woman" — he could keep the Oscar if he'd won it for any other nomination any other year), Sally Field ("Places in the Heart"), Glenda Jackson ("A Touch of Class"), Cliff Robertson ("Charly") and Elizabeth Taylor ("Butterfield 8").
Those are examples just among the living. If I had the monarchical powers to reach beyond the grave, all of the following would be in big trouble: Paul Newman ("The Color of Money"), Jack Lemmon ("Save the Tiger"), John Wayne ("True Grit"), Katharine Hepburn ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"), Ingrid Bergman ("Anastasia"), Lee Marvin ("Cat Ballou") and Charlton Heston ("Ben-Hur")
Oh, yeah, and I'd not only force another member of the royal class, Princess Grace of Monaco, to abdicate as Oscar queen for "Country Girl," but I'd make her give the 1954 best-actress crown to Judy Garland ("A Star Is Born") — along with an apology. Ditto Judy Holliday ("Born Yesterday") to poor Gloria Swanson ("Sunset Blvd.").
"Best pictures" that must be rescinded: "The Departed," "Braveheart," "Unforgiven," "Dances With Wolves," "Out of Africa," "Gandhi," "Rocky," "Ben-Hur," "Around the World in 80 Days," "The Greatest Show on Earth," and "An American in Paris."
All of the above are examples only since 1950. I'm too lazy right now — and too whipped up with outrage since starting to write this post— to go back further or to address the supporting races (Goldie Hawn in "Cactus Flower"!).
But the posters in The Envelope's Gold Derby forums don't shrink from any Oscar year and have been playing this same fantasy game themselves since just before the recent Academy Awards in February. Check out their fumings here. Click through the page numbers at the bottom and top of the forum thread to keep reading. And then add your own picks for an Oscar pull-back.
Caresa: "I would take away 'Crash''s BP Oscar and give it to 'Brokeback Mountain' in 2005."
Pacinofan: "'Since I think no one ever squandered their Oscar win more than Cuba Gooding Jr., I would take his Oscar and give it to ... anyone I happened to come across on the streets."
AJ: "Jack Lemmon should give his 'Save the Tiger' Oscar to Al Pacino for 'Serpico,' but Jack Lemmon deserved the lead Oscar for 'Some Like it Hot' over Charlton Heston in 'Ben-Hur.' "
Zackfins: "I would take away Nicole Kidman's Oscar for 'The Hours' and give it to Julianne Moore for 'Far From Heaven.' "
Royal Night: "I would take away Maureen Stapleton's Oscar for 'Reds' and give it to Joan Hackett for 'Only When I Laugh.' "rstang00: "Take Jennifer Connelly's Oscar and give it to ... someone's cat. I don't care, just anyone but her for 'A Beautiful Mind.' "
Billow12345: I would take Tatum O'Neal's Oscar and give it to Linda Blair for 'The Exorcist.' "
Jose: "I would remove Bob Dylan's Oscar and give it to Bjork."
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Photos: AVCO Embassy, ABC
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Have you even watched Born Yesterday? Comedy is harder to pull off than drama. While I love both Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve, Holliday deserved that Oscar. She was perfect.
Posted by: Jamie | April 26, 2009 at 08:14 AM
Actually i believe kidman deserved her win the hours.Witherspoon didnt even deserve a nomination.Kate winslet in the reader was very annoying and highly undeserving.But most of all reese witherspoon in walk the line.
Posted by: jackrosel | April 14, 2009 at 03:52 PM
Mira Sorvino should just hand over her undeserved Oscar to Kate Winslet for her best screen performance to date: SENSE & SENSIBILITY.
UNFORGIVEN over HOWARDS END? That is a travesty.
And the fact that Geena Davis has an Oscar is preposterous.
Posted by: Scott3843 | March 30, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Halle Berry is awful, give her oscar to Nicole, that way Nicole can give her oscar to Moore.
Gwyneth winning over Cate, WTF?
That chick from American Idol winning, WTF was that??
This year were all ripoffs...
who cares if she already have lost 5 times... Kate Winslet stole that oscar from Anne Hathaway.. Anne's performance was the best last year!
Penelope over Viola.. Penn over Rourke, Heath really? I'm sorry but that one belongs with Huffman
Posted by: K.. | March 25, 2009 at 06:37 PM
Bette Davis looses two times an Oscar, one (1951)for "All about Eve" to Judy Holliday
for "Born yesterday" and in "What ever happend to baby Jane?" to Anne Bancroft for "The Miracle Worker" (1963) - two of the biggest Oscar-mistakes!
Posted by: Steolicious | March 24, 2009 at 12:03 PM
I would start with this year and take Penelope Cruz's and give it to Viola Davis, where it belonged.
And the 2005 year is a total mess. Brokeback should have won picture, actor (ledger), and supporting actress (michelle williams). Also, i wouldn't have been upset if Felicity Huffman and Jake Gyllenhaal got awards. Wow... and people think the TONY awards are the gayest awards show...
Posted by: Brad | March 23, 2009 at 09:03 AM
I'm a little late jumping in, but I think everyone knows that Marisa Tomei should give her Oscar to any one of those other four (foreign) nominees the year she won. That was a purely political move on the Academy's part. Great article, by the way.
Posted by: Ann | March 22, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Either of the women from "Babel" were WAYYY better than Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls." Jennifer was good, for a beginner, but not award worthy!
Posted by: Shawn | March 21, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Take from Gwyneth and give to Cate for "Elizabeth." Please and thank you.
Posted by: Ryan | March 21, 2009 at 01:12 PM
KATE WINSLET ROBBED ANNE HATHAWAY !!! JUST LIKE REESE OVER FELICITY??? AND DONT GET ME INTO JULIA ROBERTS / ELLEN BURSTYN !!! I THINK VOTERS DON´T EVEN WATCH THE MOVIES AND MOST OF THEM VOTE "THE NAME" OVER "THE WORK" THIS VERY SITE SAID ONCE : --"SOME OSCAR VOTERS TOLD ME THAT THEY DIDN´T SAW THE "TRANSAMERICAs SCREENERS" --- SO WHY BOTHER !! THIS AWARDS (AS MUCH I LOVE / HATE THEM) ARE BUILD OVER PUBLICITY AND THE ONLY ONES WHO DID GO AND SEE THE "SUPPOSED BEST FILMS" ARE PEOPLE LIKE US, NOT ACADEMY VOTERS !! SO WHY DON´T WE ASK FOR THE ELIMINATION OF DVD SCREENERS AND FIND SOME ONE LIKE "A VOTER" AMONG US IN THE CINEMA ! <<<
Posted by: ARGO09 | March 21, 2009 at 12:17 PM
The talented French beauty Marion Cotillard (no "hunchback" as far as I'm concerned!) fully deserved her Oscar for her extraordinary performance in "La Vie en Rose". She gave one of the most memorable performances on screen ever. Julie Christie was also truly excellent in her role in "Away From Her" but Cotillard's performance was perhaps more exceptional and, in the end, above all the others.
Posted by: TennisFan | March 20, 2009 at 03:52 PM
its not like the academy is going to read all these and take the oscars away. im also sure that they know a lot more than us. in the mean time, i respect everyone's opinions and i have my own but i think doing these things is a waste of time. rant all you want, though.
Posted by: eric | March 20, 2009 at 02:00 PM
I hate posts like this. Who wins and who doesn't win an Oscar is so subjective. To call any of the above performances or movies terrible or horrible is extremely short sighted. Now I will agree there are some performances or movies that win Oscars that I will sometimes say "That's not who I would've chose" but that doesn't make it a horrible decision.
I sometimes think people who rip actors and movies like this have no respect for movies.
Posted by: Kristin | March 20, 2009 at 11:07 AM
One name tops the list :
Roberto Beningi
Posted by: Jack | March 20, 2009 at 08:12 AM
Julie Christie should have won over the French hunchback last year.
Posted by: Jack | March 20, 2009 at 07:22 AM
Worst Best Actress Win:
Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl"
Worst Best Actor Win:
Well, I always thought it was John Wayne in "True Grit" until I watched James Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story" one night--boy, was he bad, and probably only won for his performance the previous year in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
I'd love for any Academy member who is still out there that voted for Grace Kelly to explain WHY?
Posted by: Larry, RI | March 20, 2009 at 06:53 AM
Sorry to be a Dame freak!- but Hepburn robbed Dame Edith Evans for The Whisperers, and Hunt robbed Dame Judi Dench for Mrs Brown. And to add Kate Winslet should never have waited an agonising 6 nominations and 13 years had she not been robbed for Sense and Sensibility by Mra Sorvino (who- quite!!)
Posted by: Antony | March 20, 2009 at 04:55 AM
If getting Oscar means that you're the best of the year I must agree that Nicole Kidman shouldn't have won because Julianne Moore was better (and only her among the nominees) but Kidman was great in THE HOURS and should have won the year before (MOULIN ROUGE) so her Oscar was understandable. And I think that Sean Penn's Oscar for MYSTIC RIVER was deserved as well as Oscar for UNFORGIVEN (everyone in Europe thinks it's a masterpiece).
It's quite obvious that CRASH was much worse than BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and that Heath Ledger should have won with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jake Gyllenhaal with George Clooney. Felicity Huffman was better than Reese Witherspoon, Ellen Burstyn (REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) than Julia Roberts, THE HOURS than CHICAGO, THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (or MOULIN ROUGE) than A BEAUTIFUL MIND and BRAEHEART is probably the worst film ever nominated for the Academy Award (so it's even more shocking that it won).
Actually - I might agree with TORRENCE5 that almost every supporting award from the '90s wasn't deserved.
Posted by: Someone | March 19, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Russell Crowe got ripped off twice. He should have received Best Actor for The Insider, instead Kevin Spacey won mostly because Crowe wasn't as well known. But Denzel Washington winning for Training Day was a complete joke as everyone knows it was purely political!!!
Posted by: sarah | March 19, 2009 at 09:11 PM
There is no question that Crash should NEVER have won the Oscar for Best Picture over the unforgettable Brokeback Mountain (how could that happen!?!!). Brokeback Mountain was a landmark film and a true masterpiece; it was the most talked-about & decorated film of the year and remains one of the most honoured films of all time. What were they thinking?! In any case, Crash can keep its Oscar... for what it's worth. I don’t think many people were fooled into believing that it really was the best film of the year. Thus, Crash now stands as one of the most hated Best Picture winners ever, whereas Brokeback Mountain is now legendary just like a number of other “non-winners” like Citizen Kane.
Posted by: D.D. | March 19, 2009 at 08:32 PM
ok so with nicoles oscar i think they gave it to her for feeling guilty about giving the one she deserved to halle berry!!! moulin rouge is by far her best performance. I think halle berry only won because it was the anneversary of a black person winning so denzel washington won but it so should have gone to russle crow
who ever won best actress in was it 1966? and stole julie andrews 2nd oscar for sound of music should get thiers "yanked" off them
Posted by: Louise | March 19, 2009 at 07:31 PM
Please tell Hilary Swank to give her two erst actress Oscars to Annette Bening who was wrongly robbed. both times. Annette Bening is a world class actress as far as I'm concerned. Also, Nicole Kidman should've given her "The Hours" Oscar to Julianne Moore in "Far From Heaven".
Posted by: Julie | March 19, 2009 at 07:31 PM
I'd force Reese Witherspoon to give her oscar to Felicity Huffman. While I'm at it, she should give Felicityher awrds from the NYFCC and the NSFC!
Posted by: Dan | March 19, 2009 at 05:20 PM
TOM--
I am shocked and appalled at this posting. Are you trying to incite riots?
I take 110% exception to wanting to rescinding Sean Penn's "Mystic River", Helen Hunt's, Katherine Hepburn's "Dinner", and Field's "Heart" Oscars. Who would you have preferred to win in these instances?
Felicity Huffman was robbed in 2005 for "Transamerica". I have enjoyed Reese Witherspoon in "Election", "Legally Blonde" and "Sweet Home Alabama" as well as "Walk the Line", but her role was more supporting in the latter.
I recently saw "Brokeback Mountain" again and as much as I enjoy Phillip Seymour Hoffman as an actor in independent films, Heath Ledger was also robbed in 2005.
Posted by: Terrence | March 19, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Cuba Gooding Jr's Oscar should be taken back. Along with Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt, & just about every supporting actor/actress from the '90s on. Newman & Pacino might have deserved Oscars before hand, but what they won for was a crime.
Posted by: TORRENCE5 | March 19, 2009 at 11:39 AM