Jane Fonda vs. Geoffrey Rush for the Triple Crown

You know about the Triple Crown of Acting, right? It's when an actor manages to stretch across three mediums and snag all three of the top competitive prizes: Tony (theater), Emmy (television) and Oscar (film).


To date only 15 actors* have accomplished this but the number could jump to 17 soon. Currently the rarified list reads like so...

• Jack Albertson (Tony: 65, Oscar: 69, Emmy: 75)
  
• Anne Bancroft (Tony: 58, Oscar: 63, Emmy: 99)
  
• Ingrid Bergman (Oscar: 45, Tony: 47, Emmy: 60)
  
• Shirley Booth (Tony: 49, Oscar: 53, Emmy: 62)
  
• Melvyn Douglas (Tony: 60, Oscar: 64, Emmy: 68) Did you know that this Hud star was Illeanna Douglas's grandfather? I certainly didn't.
  
• Jeremy Irons (Tony: 84, Oscar: 91, Emmy: 97)
  
• Thomas Mitchell (Oscar: 40, Tony: 53, Emmy: 53)
  
• Rita Moreno (Oscar: 62, Tony: 75, Emmy: 77)
  
• Al Pacino (Tony: 69, Oscar: 93, Emmy: 04)
  
• Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar: 78, Emmy: 81, Tony: 03)
  
• Jason Robards (Tony: 59, Oscar: 77, Emmy: 88)
  
• Paul Scofield (Tony: 62, Oscar: 67, Emmy: 69)
  
• Maggie Smith (Oscar: 70, Tony: 90, Emmy: 03)
  
• Maureen Stapleton (Tony: 51, Emmy: 68, Oscar: 82)
  
• Jessica Tandy (Tony: 78, Emmy: 88, Oscar: 90)
  

<--- Dianne Wiest on Broadway with John Lithgow (four EMMYs, two TONYs... only Oscar eludes him) and Patrick Wilson in All My Sons.

This year I expected to see one of my all time favorite actresses Dianne Wiest fighting for a place on this list. She already has two Oscars (Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway) and two Emmys (Road to Avonlea and In Treatment) but she did not receive a TONY nomination for All My Sons. I shall console myself with the happy knowledge that she's left boring-ass TV procedurals behind and is returning to fine roles elsewhere. Next up for Wiest: more In Treatment on TV and Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman onscreen... for which she could conceivably snag her fourth supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2010.

So, no Dianne. Jane Fonda and Geoffrey Rush did get nominated though and could become Triple Crowners in one month's time. Fonda has two Oscars (Klute and Coming Home) and one Emmy (The Dollmaker) and she's up for the TONY this year for 33 Variations. Geoffrey Rush has one Oscar (Shine) and one Emmy (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) and Exit the King could bring him the TONY.

The Tony Lead Acting Races

Lead Actress Play

• Hope Davis, God of Carnage
• Jane Fonda, 33 Variations
• Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage
• Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart
• Harriet Walter, Mary Stuart

This category is brutal with two squabbling pairs of leading ladies. Although as far as I know neither Hope nor Marcia lose their head in God of Carnage so the battle in Mary Stuart is deadlier. It comes with a body count. Could all this infighting / vote splitting clear the way for Jane Fonda? [p.s. Harden already has the Oscar and if she snags this TONY all she's waiting for is the EMMY. Will she get a nomination for Damages in July?]

Lead Actor Play

• Jeff Daniels, God of Carnage
• Raúl Esparza, Speed-The-Plow
• James Gandolfini, God of Carnage
• Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King
• Thomas Sadoski, reasons to be pretty

It's cause for some despair that Esparza seems like he's never going to win the TONY. And with Pushing Daisies cancelled we'll never know if they planned to bring him back as "Alfredo Aldarisio" and maybe give him a duet with Kristin Chenoweth. He's so clearly one of Broadway's best and versatile too given that he hops between plays and musicals with ease. But TONY voters L-O-V-E movie stars and vote for them when they get a chance. Geoffrey Rush should be able to snag this one and join the triple crowners.

Lead Actress Musical

• Stockard Channing, Pal Joey
• Sutton Foster, Shrek
• Allison Janney, 9 to 5: The Musical
• Alice Ripley, Next to Normal
• Josefina Scaglione, West Side Story

It's a West Wing reunion... the EMMYS on Broadway! But I don't understand the Janney nomination. At all. I find her as endearing as a celebrity as most people but let me put it this way: she makes Renée Zellweger in Chicago look like a born hoofer. I could practically hear Janney counting whenever she had to do the simplest moves onstage. Both of her co-stars sang multiple circles around her and if you ask me, Megan Hilty in the Dolly role would have a right to be pissed that she was passed over so that TONY could get its celebrity fix. But thems the breaks. All awards bodies prefer celebrities to lesser knowns, if they're in direct competition.

Lead Actor Musical

• David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish (combined) as Billy Elliot
• Gavin Creel, Hair
• Brian d'Arcy James, Shrek
• Constantine Maroulis, Rock of Ages
• J Robert Spencer, Next to Normal

I'm not exactly sure why Gavin Creel (I'm not a fan) is considered lead in Hair while Will Swenson is nominated in "featured" (the story is about Creel but Swenson controls the show and gets more stage time -my review) but I'm not part of the nominating committee. Trivia: We have our first TONY nominated American Idol alum in Constantine Maroulis. Many of the Idol players have been on the boards (an odd twist given that American Idol regularly uses "Broadway" as an insult -- never mind that most Broadway performers can sing circles around Idol contestants) but this is the reality show's first nominee.

The SNUBBED

A lot of film stars were ignored this year including: Kristin Scott Thomas for The Seagull (my interview), Susan Sarandon for Exit the King, Rupert Everett for Blithe Spirit, Daniel Radcliffe's naked identity crisis in Equus (my review), smoking Carla Gugino for Desire Under the Elms and the romantic pairing of Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Impressionism.

For a complete list of TONY nominees, click here.

Don't be quiet. What do you think of these nominations and which movie star would you most love to see on stage?

* Notable superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg have all three prizes too but they didn't win them all in competitive categories or for performances.
*