Monday, February 23, 2009

Oscar Did You Knows?

a few pieces of useless trivia for you!


...that in the elite community of actors who've won more than one Oscar, all thirty-eight of them with Sean Penn as the newest club member, the average wait for the second statue is 9 years. Kate Winslet for the win in 2017, baby! Of course, for some actors the love affair with the Academy is intense and feverish and the statues are back to back (Tom Hanks, Luise Rainer, Jason Robards, Spencer Tracy) as if the voting body wanted to seal the deal before they started showing... if you know what I mean. The most common wait time though is strangely but a 3 year span. That's happened to five goddesses of the silver screen (Glenda Jackson, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland).

Only four actors have won three or more Oscars (Katharine Hepburn, Walter Brennan, Jack Nicholson, and Ingrid Bergman) and though most sentient beings expect Meryl Streep to become the fifth to achieve that rare honor, she'll set another record when she does. The longest wait after the second Oscar for that third -- well, besides eternity -- was Ingrid Bergman's 18 year delay. It's been 26 years since Streep's second win so she's already shown more patience than Bergman had to.

Penn's second win also makes him the fourth straight man to win the Lead Oscar for playing a gay man. He follows William Hurt in Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985), Tom Hanks in Philadelphia (1993) and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (2005) to that distinction. Now if they'd only give the Oscar to a gay actor playing a gay man for once. Sir Ian McKellen's loss for Gods and Monsters still stings. Especially since it's better than any of those performances.

[cue music] Onesies beats twosies but nothing beats three [/music]

Cuteness alert: Kate, Sean and Penélope reenact the Vicky
Cristina Barcelona
menage a trois with their gold men.


I haven't double checked this statistic (where would one check it?) but I believe that Penélope Cruz is now only the second actress to win an Oscar for a film in which she engages in threesome loving -- the first being Liza Minelli in Cabaret (well, depending on how you interpret the events of Cabaret). Unless I'm forgetting someone. Which I might be.

These random pieces of trivia are brought to you by a ferocious hangover sponsored by Absolut Vodka. I shall try to collect myself for further Oscar post-show business.

34 comments:

Emma said...

I adore that pic of the three of them. So adorable!

Anonymous said...

Not only is the pic adorable, but as Kris over at InContention said, "he's with them in spirit"...

Anonymous said...

Emma - agree with you, the pic is adorable. feel better soon Nathaniel, nothing like water and hamburger soup for a hangover!

Anonymous said...

Did you know:

Woody has now directed 6 Oscar winning performances. Cruz, Caine, Sorvino, Keaton, and Weist twice.

From my count this puts him behind only Kazan with 9 performances and, the all time record holder, Wyler with 14.

Did I forget someone? The closest I could think of was Eastwood and John Ford with five each.

Calum Reed said...

I'm never touching Absolut again. Or any energy drink.

Interesting stats, and here's to more menage a trois performers in the future.

Anonymous said...

That picture of Sean Penn totally staring at Penelope Cruz is priceless!! I would love to know what Sean is thinking at that moment.... LOL

Anonymous said...

Well, anytime Joanne Woodward's character in The Three Faces of Eve got busy, it was a ménage à quatre.

Neb said...

Michael C.

Fred Zinneman is tied with Allen with six as well. Eastwood is tied with Ford, George Cukor and Martin Scorsese.

James L. Brooks, Jonathan Demme and Sidney Lumet are tied with Hal Ashby, John Huston and Victor Fleming with four.

Both Van Sant and Daldry got their second last night while Nolan got his first.

By the way Nathaniel, do you think Penn will win a third, will Meryl ever win a third, will Kate keep up the nominations after her win and will Rourke ever be nominated again.

Neb said...

By the way, is Dustin Lance Black the first openly gay man to win an Oscar?

NATHANIEL R said...

Neb -- no. there've been various technical people and documentarians and others who have thanked their boyfriends / girlfriends before.

No actors or actresses yet.

Jorge Rodrigues said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jorge Rodrigues said...

Sean Penn sells his stuff like no one else (except maybe Tom Hanks).

I bet he'll be back at the Kodak as a nominee very soon...

Winslet, on the other hand, will sit back and enjoy some time alone, away from the showbiz. I believe she'll be back in four years' time with another Oscar-nomination performance...

Meryl won't win next year either... Role as Julia Child is too lightweight and let's not forget Hilary's back... And you all know what that means... If the Amelia feature is any good...

Penelope will be returning next year with Abrazos Rotos from Almodovar but now since she's won I don't know if she'll be able to even get nominated...


I, for one, hope that next year will be Di Caprio's (Shutter Island) or Pitt's (Tree of Life) or Mortensen's (The Road) or even Damon's (The Informant, Shutter Island).

Nat, do you think Morgan Freeman will be any good in that Nelson Mandela film by Clint Eastwood?

I'm hoping for The Lovely Bones, Avatar or Taking Woodstock to be 2010's hit...

Anonymous said...

Love this Nat!

What a great, great night.

And Martin Richards was gay right, the producer of Chicago ?

Anonymous said...

Neb -- Alan Ball and Pedro Almodovar spring to mind

Kurtis O said...

I'm probably about as tired as you are, but I just wanted to chime in and say that last night was the best Oscar telecast I've ever seen. I was GA-GA over the actor awards format. It was so exciting wondering which five previous winners would walk onto the stage next. Even Cuba Gooding Jr. looked dignified (though I could've done without the long-expired "give-a-brotha-a-break" jokes). But I'm not going to nitpick. I was in starstruck heaven.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and it really was about celebrating those performances. The actors nominated clearly loved it.

Anonymous said...

Martin Richards is gay, true. But so is SCOTT RUDIN, who won just last year for "No Country for Old Men."

John T said...

Did anyone feel for the Supporting Actors, though-they were the only of the four groups that didn't get a standing ovation (granted, the other three were helped by having Eva Marie Saint, Robert de Niro, and Sophia Loren, but still, Christopher Walken is nothing to shake a fist at).

And Nat, you could argue that Whoopi Goldberg should at least be mentioned-it was just kissing, and it was celestial, but still.

R.E.M. Borja said...

27 years between Oscars, but Streep still has a few more years left to beat Hepburn's 35 year wait between her first and second.

NATHANIEL R said...

this is true but Hepburn doesn't even hold the record there. That's Helen Hayes who waited 38 years between.

Anonymous said...

I am expecting DDL to win his third for Silence. I know he will. Alright, I also said that Kate would wear brown but that was totally different. :p


Nate, are you taking an Oscar time-out or will you start any time soon with the next predictions?
I know the former is more probable (and logical for most people) but I hope not. It's not so much about the "who might win" but more about your cute design with photos and comments.

I just realised Kate will be invisible for a long time. God...

Anonymous said...

...and helen hayes, i believe, gave the worst oscar-winning perormance ever! Ever.

NATHANIEL R said...

jim t... i never do the next year's predictions until April 1st. but i won't be taking my occasional week long "vacation" of any sort until maybe late march or early april.

so... more posts and articles to come about everything. but as far as predictions go, they're always an april fools thing.

Anonymous said...

Alright, totally understandable. I'm a fan of your writting anyway, even if it's not Oscar related.

Anonymous said...

Not to spoil everyone's love-fest but I HATED the format for the ceremony last night. Why oh why did they take away the acting clips. To condense a great performance into a single great moment (Marisa Tomei "I'm really here", Anne Hathaway's toast etc.) is chill-inducing. Also the curved stage and glossy curtain looked a little too American Idol for my taste and Hugh Jackman was meh-worthy. I guess I just prefer witty asides from comedians than overly flashy dance numbers. Great, heartfelt speeches from Cruz, Black, Winslet and Penn though.
- Sean C.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Oh but the difference between Streep and Hepburn is that the latter had to struggle with a lot of backlash for not seeming friendly enough to her fans, whilst the former is ever so kind...

I don't think she'll have to wait that long...

Anonymous said...

i also enjoyed this years ceremony! the presenting of the actor awards was inspired! i loved the feeling of the 5 previous winners welcoming the newbie to the group!

other highlights include hugh jackman as a presenter in general, penelope cruz's speech and anne singing!

i am over the moon that kate has finally won! now nobody can say that wasn't a great speech! she had people laughing and i loved the bit with her dad whistling(so cute!) and her merlyl shout out! love that woman. i hope she takes some really daring pictures next now that she has the win out of the way but i hope she's not gone from the kodak theatre for too long!

p.s. i'm officially in love with sean penn after that speech. swoon.

David Giancarlo said...

Ugh. I'm starting to doubt that Meryl will ever win that "third Oscar" everyone says will eventually come. *sigh*

Anonymous said...

"Did anyone feel for the Supporting Actors, though-they were the only of the four groups that didn't get a standing ovation"

Because they all knew what was coming and everyone wanted to emotionally prepare for the moment.

adam k. said...

I'm disappointed that Meryl no longer has First Man and Dirty Tricks on her plate, since both of those sounded promising as oscar vehicles. A lot of her projects got scrapped. Oh well...

Pablete said...

The leading actresses even got a greater round of applause than their male counterparts. That is new in the Oscars, and that should be acknowledged!

I loved Penelope's speech! Thank you, Penelope!

Anonymous said...

"Only four actors have won three or more Oscars (Katharine Hepburn, Walter Brennan, Jack Nicholson, and Ingrid Bergman) and though most sentient beings expect Meryl Streep to become the fifth to achieve that rare honor, she'll set another record when she does."

with last night's loss to a much lesser performance, are there more sentient beings within the academy who can appreciate meryl streep's work?

Glenn said...

Meryl will win once more. I just think it's going to be for something much more surprising and less Doubt-ish. If that makes sense. Something really outta the bag that people don't see coming like Adaptation (except in lead).

Pablete, that may just be because they weren't expecting it.

Neb, Adam Elliot won Best Animation Short a few years back and thanked his boyfriend. Just another example.

NATHANIEL R said...

yeah the Dirty Tricks role is SO good... so if they ever make the movie I hope it goes to someone who is really ready to rock the role.