By Joe Neumaier, Financial Times
James Lipton has a problem. Discussing the Oscars the day the nominations were announced, the vice president of the Actor's Studio and host of the popular US cable program "Inside the Actor's Studio" admits that so many of this year's nominees have either gone through the renowned New York acting school or been guests on his show that it's hard for him to be objective about who should win on March 25. But that doesn't mean he can't appreciate a good horse race.
"For Best Actor, the serious voting should be between Tom Hanks (Cast Away) and Ed Harris (Pollock)," Lipton says. "This is a good category, but what Hanks did - carrying a role like that alone - in motion pictures is the rarest of occurrences. He's one of the three or four actors alive who could have carried it off. And Pollock is Harris's picture entirely - it was his dream, his passion, for 100 years, and it's all there."
"Russell Crowe lent gravitas to Gladiator, but I think even by his standards it's not a great performance. And Geoffrey Rush may have a chance for Quills, it just depends on how many sadists there are in Hollywood. And knowing Hollywood like I do, there may be just enough."
In the Best Actress category, while everyone expects a juggernaut for Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich), with Laura Linney a dark horse for You Can Count on Me, Lipton adds another wrinkle: "Beware of a surprise - Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream). She gave the most nakedly emotional performance I've seen since I first saw Maria Falconetti in Carl Dreyer's 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc back in the 1960s. I hadn't seen it equalled until Burstyn. I wouldn't bet against her."
"It's a wonderfully crowded category," Lipton continues. "Julia wears the mantle of a kind of actress that stopped existing after about 1950; she is remarkably beautiful and very, very gifted. You can read her thoughts, you can see her thinking, and when it's happening on a canvas that is that beautiful, it's just amazing. And Laura Linney is turning into one of the outstanding actors of her generation right before our eyes. But if you were to ask the actresses in this category who among them is the most gifted, I think they'd all agree it's Ellen."
In the supporting categories, Lipton favours Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) - "the one to watch in the next five years. I don't think there's any stopping him" - though Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich) has two things going for him, Lipton thinks. "Finney has more Oscar nominations from a long career. And they would enjoy an English actor winning. They give the best, most eloquent acceptance speeches, in which they're funny and often drunk." He sees Best Supporting Actress as more nail-biting. "Kate Hudson has a problem - she and Frances McDormand are in the same movie, Almost Famous. In Hollywood, that's a problem. It shouldn't be, but it is. The one to watch is Marcia Gay Harden. She's terrific in Pollock, and I believe Hudson and McDormand will cross each other out and she'll win."
Finally, for Best Picture, Lipton favours two above all. "Traffic is the first movie that has ever told the truth about the drug wars, which is this nation's new Vietnam. Plus, the director was the cinematographer, carrying the camera on his back, and he still got those performances. He's my choice for director as well. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the only competition. It's not a martial arts film, it's Peking opera. It's balletic. And it's magic realism. If I weren't so bowled over by Traffic, I would choose Crouching Tiger."
As for glaring omissions, Lipton thinks Michael Douglas should have gotten a nod, though for Traffic, not Wonder Boys. And he's surprised Cast Away didn't get a Best Picture nod. But when rationalising the Academy's choices, Lipton defers to a higher power: "Marlon would tell you that everybody should be nominated, and let it go at that."
� 2001 Financial Times