Robert Downey Jr.'s next Oscar turn?

Ed Norton for best actor! He was tortured -- tortured! -- as a human science experiment gone wrong who was looking for inner peace but found only his giant Gumby-colored alter ego and William Hurt and Tim Roth overacting their arses off.

We jest, of course (but not about that last part).

Not sure what's more off-the-wall these days: Web-fueled discussions that try to advance some non-Oscar performances for the major award, or blog chatter handicapping the race based on movies that no one has seen. It could be a draw.

Let's deal with these travesties one at a time, shall we?

The latest to catch our eye has been the meta-moment call for a best supporting actor nod for Robert Downey Jr. for his blackface actor/soldier in "Tropic Thunder." Not that we didn't love him -- not that we don't always love him -- but we can come to no other conclusion than that the awards drive itself is satire, as in, you guys must be kidding.

He had the most memorable line of the movie -- "Never go full retard!" -- spoken as sage advice to Ben Stiller's action hero who'd done the short-bus character flick "Simple Jack" in a fruitless quest for the Golden Guy. But in no way is that an Oscar performance, zeitgeist-catching and guffaw-inducing though it was.

We've seen our own readers spontaneously get behind unlikely Oscar candidates -- Sarah Jessica Parker in "Sex and the City," for one -- but we're suspicious of these blog-generated pseudo-campaigns. Until, that is, we come up with one of our own.

Where should we begin? Suggestions accepted, the more outlandish the better.

And soon, we'll get to that second irritant: Predicting Oscar without seeing the flicks. This will be sandwiched between our '09 charts, graphs and rankings. Content? We don't need no stinkin' content!

Comments

[Mickey Slevin, ModernMoviegoer]

James Franco as Pineapple Express's lovable drug dealer. Shoe in for best actor...

[Ryan]

How about Christine Baranski for Mamma Mia? So full of life and a great performance in one of the movie's best scenes.

And yes, Sarah Jessica Parker -- why won't you guys get around that idea?

I will concur with robert downey jr because it doesn't seem like the academy can even bring themselves to nominate him for iron man -- so why not Tropic Thunder?

The problem with most of you bloggers is the same problem that the Academy has -- you don't believe that comedic/musical or even remotely funny performances can ever be taken seriously. And until that time we are stuck with the same old boring nominees that we all know will win. Have we all forgotten that Kevin Kline won for a fish called wanda -- a comedy? Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny? Julia roberts nominated for pretty woman, melanie Griffith for Working Girl. Ghost as best picture? The Academy not only needs to lighten up but to free itself of this bias especially when great performances such as Sarah Jessica Parker come along.