Ladies & Gentlemen - The 2018 Golden Rasberry Nominees

Was Gal Gadot robbed for "Wonder Woman" by the Oscars (TM)?

Here are the nominees for Best Lead Actress

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post


Question: Should Gadot have been in that mix?

Dear Eric Church, Maren Morris, & Brothers Osborne

Your performance of "Tears in Heaven" in tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre at tonight's Grammys was a lovely thought.

...but thoughts and prayers are no longer enough.

11 school shootings in the first 23 days of 2018

4 dead at a Pennsylvania car wash today

Maryland Couple Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide Day After Wife Obtained Protective Order

One underwear bombing attempt and we get x-rayed every time we fly 16 years later. One attempted shoe bombing, and we get our shoes x-rayed everytime we fly. Dozens and hundreds AND THOUSANDS die from gun violence, and we get songs; we get thoughts and prayers; and we get Alex effing Jones saying Sandy Hook was all a conspiracy.

The militia clearly needs to be more well regulated.

Where Does American Decline End?

This is a companion piece to Airmids post on Why We're Underestimating American Collapse

Where Does American Decline End? Or, Why History’s Rule is Transgression Becomes Annihilation

Who do you think will win the very competitive Best Supporting Actress category this year?

Many categories are hard to call this year. This may be the hardest.

Best Picture: What film do you think will win?

I have a twisted sense of humor, so I hope they have Steve Harvey present the Oscar (TM) for Best Picture.

Which Best Actor/Best Actress Oscar (TM) of the past fifty years was the least deserving?

So a few days ago, I posed the question of what film was the Worst Best Picture winner of the past 50 years.

So now I pose a more complicated question: Which Best Actor/Best Actress Oscar (TM) of the past fifty years was the least deserving?

This is a tricky question. The Actor/Actress awards are political (in the sense of industry politics). Some years, the wrong actor wins. Some years, the wrong actor wins to make up for a previous year. Some years the wrong actor wins what is essentially an award for a lifetime body of work.

An example from outside the timeframe: Elizabeth Taylor was nominated for three consecutive years and lost three times. The first year, she lost to Joanne Woodward for Three Faces of Eve (no one else had a chance); however in the subsequent year, when Taylor played Maggie in Cat on Hot Tin Roof, she lost to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live; the next year, both Taylor and Katherine Hepburn were nominated in the same film - Suddenly, Last Summer. Both went on to lose to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top. So, in 1960 Taylor finally wins for Butterfield 8 - not a great film, but she was good in it -- just probably not as good as Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment.

I'm not going to do survey form this time, because it's be like doing calculus. I'll give you two from 1967-2017 that I think are good examples. John Wayne for True Grit: I like Duke Wayne, but this was essentially a lifetime achievement award. The other would be Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, which was essentially a make-up award for her not winning in 2006 (The Devil Wears Prada), 2008 (Doubt) and 2009 (Julie & Julia)

Sometimes, when I do jury duty, I want a button for "The thread is a trainwreck - lock it"

Any chance of that?

The worst Best Picture winner of the past fifty years was....

The list represents the 10 I thought most likely to get votes. Obviously, you'll let us all know what was missed.

I was hesitant about Spotlight, which I think has been widely forgotten, and I considered putting Argo on instead. In both cases, it is hard to know -- sometimes even five years out -- if a film withstands the test of time.

Crash and Dances with Wolves are on the list. These are not necessarily considered bad films; it's just that most people think Brokeback Mountain and Goodfellas were more deserving.

No films are on the list simply for the reason that they were directed by Mel Gibson or Woody Allen or produced by the Weinsteins. You are, of course, free to make that call.

Titanic is polarizing. At one level, it's schlocky melodrama. At another level, it's really meticulously filmed schlocky melodrama, with an outstanding cast.

The list cut off at 1967 (fifty years). C.B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) (which is a fun film at a certain level) is widely considered to be the least deserving Best Picture winner of all time, with Around the World in 80 Days (1956) being a close runner-up.

If you are Washington, what do you do about Kirk Cousins?