Hollywood bad boys Sean Penn and Johnny Depp are facing off for Oscar gold, testing the Academy’s ability to overlook their off-camera antics and their serial snubbing of show-biz soirees.
Penn, who received his fourth best actor nomination for “Mystic River,” has long been the favorite to win Sunday. But he failed to appear to receive his award last month at the yearly suck-up-to-the-stars party that is the Golden Globes, and his absence was widely perceived as proof he still wasn’t playing along. Anecdotal evidence suggests that if the nominee appears disinterested, Oscar voters take it personally.
Associated Press critic David Germain said that “the petulant Penn–often dismissive of Hollywood awards–was the only no-show among Globe acting winners, which could stick in Academy voters’ minds.”
Not helping matters for Penn is Depp’s surprise win earlier this week at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for his portrayal of rogue pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow in “The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Penn repented slightly for his Globe snub by playing along with Oscar protocol earlier this month when he attended the nominee luncheon with his mother. Notably absent from that luncheon, however, was Depp, who also was a no-show at the SAG Awards.
Although some in Hollywood feel Penn’s cadre of work makes him deserving of the Oscar, others view renegades like him with more jaundiced eyes. To these folks, a rigorous commitment to authenticity isn’t enough to compensate for a spiky, sometimes insolent public persona. His six-month jail sentence in 1987 for assaulting an extra (of which he served a month and small change) could seal his reputation as an incorrigible. Time passes. People grow up, marry, have kids and quit smoking on their 40th birthday, as Penn did.
But then, there’s his outspoken opposition to the Iraq war, buttressed by his visits to Baghdad before last year’s U.S. invasion and the personal account of them printed in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Is it enough to cost him the Oscar? It didn’t prevent him from getting nominations. And keep in mind he recused himself from all the pre-Golden Globes schmoozing with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gave him the award anyway.
The same logic applies to Depp, who lives in France and has been in hot water for anti-American comments to a German magazine in which he likened the U.S. to an aggressive “dumb puppy.” He quickly apologized, claiming it was an “insanely twisted deformation of my words and intent.”
As Depp said after the flap over the interview: “I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country, and for this I am eternally grateful.”
Sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech.
Take this Oscar and shove it
Oscar snubbing is nothing new. When Marlon Brando won for “The Godfather” in 1973, he sent in his place a Native American woman, Sacheen Littlefeather (photo at right), dressed in white buckskin and leather headdress, to read a speech blasting Hollywood for its treatment of Native Americans in film. Amidst awkward silence, and then disgruntled murmurs, the tiny woman finished Brando’s rant. Later, Littlefeather was discovered to be an actress masquerading as an Apache. Other notable no-shows and naysayers are George C. Scott, Woody Allen, John Wayne, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.
Playing politics
Oscars’ worldwide audience has made it a prime stage for those who would rather talk about politics than the movies.
– Jane Fonda, 1972: The Vietnam war activist accepted her best actress Oscar for “Klute” by biting her tongue. “There’s a great deal to say, but I’m not going to say it tonight,” she said.
– Vanessa Redgrave, 1978: After accepting a best actress Oscar for “Julia,” Redgrave was branded an anti-Semite for saying: “You have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”
– Elizabeth Taylor, 1993: After being given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, Taylor used Oscar’s pulpit to plea for more AIDS assistance.
– Michael Moore, 2003: Drawing a mix of boos and applause, Moore ripped President Bush days after the start of the Iraqi war.
– Susan Sarandon, 2003: Going the opposite route as Moore, Sarandon presented her views by holding up a peace sign without saying a word.
Mouth watch
Celebrities whose activism might lead to political commentary Sunday night:
– Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have spoken out against the war.
– Charlize Theron spoke out against the death penalty at the premiere of “Monster” in Berlin earlier this month.
– Angelina Jolie, a goodwill ambassador to the UN, is an activist for refugees.
– Alec Baldwin is an outspoken supporter of various causes including environmentalism, animal rights and gun control.
RedEye
