Comments

Chris, it was beautiful women who won in the last several years, but more disturbing than how thin they are is this: They had to ugly themselves up to win (until Reese Witherspoon last year for Walk the Line). Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking; Frances McDormand, Fargo; Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry; Julia Roberts, Erin Brokovitch; Halle Berry, Monster's Ball; Nicole Kidman, The Hours; Charlize Theron, Monster; Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby. Even, arguably, Gwyneth Paltrow playing a woman dressed as a man in Shakespeare in Love, and Helen Hunt playing a harried mom in As Good As It Gets. As if an actress is only to be taken seriously if she is NOT glamorous.

Posted by cathy mosca at February 23, 2007 11:58 AM

Cathy has a point, but it's ironic: you have to be beautiful and thin to get a studio to even consider you for a role, even if it doesn't require someone who's beautiful and thin. Plus their versions of "ugly" are still light-years beyond how the average woman looks ...

Posted by Paula at February 23, 2007 2:17 PM

Might it be...especially state side...that so many people view the movies as an escape, as a fantasy of what is or can be. Try as they might to create art that imitates life in the story lines, it is still about the unreal. That beauty can be ugly...guess that is the standard for "Oscar Worthy" performance. Even among the older women.

Posted by Bernadette at February 23, 2007 2:30 PM

Wonderful how Chris’s question has turned into a discussion about the merits of thinness, beauty, ugliness or average!

At the risk of being ‘virtually’ beaten with handbags I have to say I have yet to see or meet a VERY thin women I find remotely attractive. Most of these fashion models (and sadly ‘role models’ to young girls) look ill to me. Frankly I would worry sick if my daughter looked like these alleged beautiful thin women - but then what the hell would a middle aged man know about these things :-)

Back to Chris’s question - Has anyone got a great example of a maniacal obsession with talent to the point of being blind to prejudice in their organisation that cheer us all up?

Answer definitely not in my 37 year career so far.

In my experience the only ‘maniacal obsession’ I ever saw in the healthcare world is checking CV’s for the right exam passes. ‘Talent’ doesn’t feature in the recruitment process at all unless we are talking art or sport as far as I can see. I have seen thousands of advertisement for jobs in healthcare and even more job descriptions and I cannot recall one advert or job description where the word talent has actually been seen in print. Sad isn’t it?

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 23, 2007 6:34 PM

1. "Hollywood has woken up." The entertainment culture [EC] & Hollywood never wakes up ... same low-IQ - low-class drivel year after year

2. They "define" EC & make it - then nominate it - then award it - same as House of Lords with similar cool disdain for commoners & front-liners

3. "... being blind to prejudice..." - please Chris - your mini-rant is full of it - trying to balance sex & race %'s - OWM - et al - maybe we'll visit someday on a 15k Zurich run if your knees can make it :>]

Posted by sean_zurich at February 24, 2007 4:34 PM

Sounds like you have been spending time in the Pharma industry. It is an industry-wide issue.

Posted by Jeff at February 25, 2007 2:45 PM

viagra price Most of the time more mature women will be nominated for best actress because their characters have been on this earth longer and they have more layers to their personality and behavior.

Mirren was and still is one of the sexiest British actresses in recent memory. Don't forget she has done it all, raunchy to stodgy..hail to this year's Queen.

Posted by Alex K. at February 26, 2007 11:52 AM