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Oscar_bestsupportingactress.sPubDate = "2/12/2007 5:59:23 PM GMT";
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Oscar_bestsupportingactress.appFooter = "Patrick Enright is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in MSNBC.com, Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Movies.com and Seattle Weekly.";
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Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Intro","","http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/070212_oscar_hmed_10a.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "AP", "115", "298", "", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = "There aren’t a whole lot of sure things in this year’s Academy Awards race, but picking the winner in the best supporting actress category is a breeze. Here’s a hint: think Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson. Think the two non-Diana Ross Supremes. Yep, it’s former “American Idol” finalist Jennifer Hudson, who will only lose if she does something completely unforgivable, like devouring a live puppy on camera or bad-mouthing Harvey Weinstein. Also noteworthy about the category is that the international flavor of this year’s awards is reflected here as well, with three non-Americans (Barraza, Blanchett and Kikuchi) nominated. Sadly, that will only further cement Hudson’s victory; like the mob, the Academy protects its own.";
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Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Jennifer Hudson","","http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/jenniferhudson_big.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Dreamworks", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “Dreamgirls”
Only a few days after sitting through the endless and teeth-gnashingly hackneyed “Dreamgirls,” I made a wager with a friend that Jennifer Hudson would not win an Oscar. There was simply no way the girl deserved to be in the company of Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and Maggie Smith. I was both right and wrong: Though Hudson delivers a decent performance, especially for a newbie, it’s not as though it’s really Academy Award worthy (or even the best performance in the category). But she’ll win the Oscar anyway. People are heaping accolades on her; she’s snagged awards from at least seven critics’ groups, and she’s busy fretting about whether to show off her Golden Globe or her SAG award on the mantel. Not to mention that the Academy loves cheesy musicals (see “Chicago” and, to a lesser degree, “Moulin Rouge”). I’m not sure how I misread this one, but I did. Hudson’s a lock. In my defense, at the time, I was still punch-drunk from having insipid grade-school lyrics like “We are a family, like a giant tree branching out towards the sky” pounded into my skull.";
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Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Adriana Barraza","","http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/barraza_big.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "AP", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “Babel”
In a fairer world, Barraza would be neck and neck with Rinko Kikuchi in the race toward the finish line. In this world, the odds against her winning are 10:1. And no, that’s not a figure of speech — the actual odds being given by online bookies at the time of this writing were 10:1. Which, while a travesty, seems about right. Barraza plays a sweet, frumpy Mexican housekeeper who makes a few understandable bad decisions and winds up with her entire life pretty much ruined, and all because she wants to go to her son’s wedding. Watching the terror in her eyes bloom as a bad situation becomes a worse one is crushing; let’s hope that watching Barraza watch Hudson win isn’t similarly heartbreaking.";
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Cate Blanchett","","http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/blanchette_big.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Fox Searchlight", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “Notes on a Scandal”
Blanchett is a gifted actress and a luminous presence on-screen, even when canoodling with a 14-year-old, but let’s be honest: “Notes on a Scandal” is all about Judi Dench. Dench takes this movie and wraps it around her gnarled little finger like a reminder of what evil lurks in the heart of old, bitter spinsters with dark secrets. It’s one of the sad twists of this year’s Oscars that neither Dench nor Blanchett will take home a golden guy — Blanchett will be overshadowed by Dench’s chilling performance, and Dench will be thwarted in the best actress category by the deserving juggernaut that is Helen Mirren. At least Blanchett wasn’t nominated for her “Babel” turn; pretty much all she had to do in that film was bleed evocatively.";
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Abigail Breslin","","http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/breslin_big.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Fox Searchlight", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “Little Miss Sunshine”
It’d be nice to think that Breslin has a shot at tying Tatum O’Neal’s record as the youngest Oscar winner ever. That ain’t gonna happen. Breslin was cute and all in “Sunshine,” and her final dance routine made Greg Kinnear’s irritating positive thinking seem not quite as grating, but remember, the Academy has no love for comedies, even quirky, Sundance-adored ones. If the movie wins any Oscars, it’ll be in the best supporting actor category, in which the now thrice-nominated and never-honored Alan Arkin has a very slight chance of edging out favorite Eddie Murphy. But Breslin? She’ll be going home empty-handed. It’s all right, though; she’s got a bright future ahead of her. ";
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Rinko Kikuchi","","http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/_Ent/Oscar_nominations_2007/best_supporting_actress/Kikuchi_big.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Paramount Vantage", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “Babel”
This is definitely the saddest and most understated performance in the category, and that alone ensures that Kikuchi won’t win — we Americans don’t like sad unless there’s a happy Hollywood ending later. But Kikuchi is one of the two nominees who really should win. She’s phenomenal in Alejandro González Inárritu’s drama as a young deaf-mute Japanese girl floundering about in the wake of her mother’s suicide, screaming desperately (and silently) for affection. As you watch her throw herself more and more recklessly at any chance of love, going underwear-less like Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” or popping pills and drinking with bad boys, you keep expecting the worst kind of violence to befall her. It’s a testament to Inárritu’s filmmaking that he leaves those expectations unfulfilled ... and that her story is more tragic for it. And it speaks to her brilliant acting that Kikuchi’s scenes in “Babel” are the ones least directly connected to the main plot line and yet still the most compelling. ";
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Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i++] = new Array("","Catherine O’Hara","","http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070205/070205_OHARA_hmed_10A.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Warner Independent Pictures", "194", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Oscar_bestsupportingactress[i-1].body = ", “For Your Consideration”
The Academy needs to get over itself and stop ignoring comedies. And what better place to start than with the great O’Hara, who appears as the brilliantly named Marilyn Hack in Christopher Guest’s latest flick, “For Your Consideration”? For decades, O’Hara has been toiling away in the comedy mines, emerging occasionally to present us with a “Beetlejuice” or a “Waiting for Guffman” before returning to the netherworld of voice-overs and “Tales From the Crypt.” It’s high time someone gave her an award for being as truly hilarious as she is, and “For Your Consideration” is the movie that should have done it. Plus, considering that her character in the film is a similarly underappreciated actress who receives surprise Oscar buzz, it would have been the perfect case of life imitating art imitating life.";
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