Give that Oscar back!

 

Hey, you didn't deserve that Oscar. Give it back! 

Or better yet, give it to the person you inexplicably beat.

The good folks at Entertainment Weekly now have the results of their first "Recall the Gold" campaign, and the news for Gwyneth Paltrow isn't good. The agents, producers, directors, actors and other film professionals who participated in the exercise think the blond-haired beauty shouldn't have won best actress for "Shakespeare in Love." (Instead, the trophy should've gone to Cate Blanchett for "Elizabeth." That would be the one from 1998, not last year's movie-of-the-week-quality sequel).

But Gwynnie doesn't have to give the award back. Not really, just metaphorically.

There were others whose triumphs didn't hold up so well to the armchair quarterbacking participants, who looked at a few key results in the years 2003, 1998, 1993, 1988 and 1983. 

Among the retroactively unlucky? Tommy Lee Jones, Renee Zellweger, Roberto Benigni and Geena Davis, among others. Preferable outcomes? Ralph Fiennes for best supporting actor in "Schindler's List" instead of Jones for "The Fugitive," Shohreh Aghdashloo in "House of Sand and Fog" instead of Zellweger in her much-maligned performance in "Cold Mountain," Ed Norton in "American History X" instead of Benigni in "Life is Beautiful" -- finally, somebody said it! -- and Frances McDormand for "Mississippi Burning" instead of Davis in "The Accidental Tourist."

But don't fret, Charlize Theron ("Monster"), Tom Hanks ("Philadelphia"), Barry Levinson ("Rain Man"), Steven Spielberg ("Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"), Holly Hunter ("The Piano") and Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings"). Your wins have held up under scrutiny.

If anyone had asked us -- they didn't -- we might've bumped Sean Penn out of that '03 win for "Mystic River" and replaced him with Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation." But maybe we're just trying to cement our pick this year for Penn in "Milk." Wouldn't it be better/more likely if he hadn't won before?

And that still-raging debate about "Shakespeare in Love" winning over "Saving Private Ryan"? Outside the icy glare and Oscar campaigning tsunami of Harvey Weinstein, voters said that the Spielberg WWII drama really should've won. Gotta agree with that one. 

Go here for all the EW details.