Supporting actors break free

 

Of these three actors, who's really in a supporting role -- Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt," Kate Winslet in "The Reader" or Josh Brolin in "Milk?"

The answer, of course, is Michael Sheen in "Frost/Nixon."

Just seeing if you're all awake on this Friday morning before a holiday weekend. Weren't ready for that pop quiz? Don't despair. We'll help you, with the kickoff of a new Gold Rush mini-series that will attempt to unravel some of the complicated rules and minutiae surrounding the Oscars. 

Let's call it Academy Arcana and hope we don't get sued for unauthorized use of a really famous trademark for our own selfish, wiseass purposes.

Today, we'll do a quickie study on the origin of supporting actor Oscars, which film historian, THR columnist and uber fan Robert Osborne says was created in 1936 specifically to pay homage to those who had less screen time than the title-billed actors.

In the eight Oscar races before that, everybody got tossed into the same two lead acting pots, which made it rough going for players like Franchot Tone who had to compete against Clark Gable in 1935 (they were both in "Mutiny on the Bounty" but they both went on to lose to Victor McLaglen in "The Informer").

Studio bosses, who used to control everything including what hair-dos and lifestyles their stars could adopt, used to decide which actors would race in which categories. Even though it seems like they still do -- there's about a billion dollars worth of "For Your Consideration" ads to back up that assumption -- they don't. 

Ultimately, the voters decide, as they have for decades now.

In other words, if Academy members think new double-Golden Globe winner Winslet is a lead actress for "The Reader," which of course she is, they can vote for her accordingly. But she can't get nominated twice in the same category -- ie for "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader."

But that's another rule, and you'll have to come back for that.