Jude's Thursday Dish

I've had a full plate today, so I'm going to have to give you a skimpy serving of dish this week. Here you go:

1. Award season for me is like football or baseball season to other people. And the Academy Awards is like my Super Bowl. So, I've been very excited that several nominations have already come in. The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning and all I can say is "Boo! Hollywood Foreign Press!" I don't know much about the movie nominations, because I haven't seen any of those movies yet. I am very irritated by the "The Dark Knight" snubs. Yes, it totally disturbed me, but I recognize it was a terrific film. The TV nominations have a LOT of snubs. Why can't they show "Lost" some love? Last season was awesome with such a fabulous twist that you HAVE to award that kind of creativity. And there's some excellent acting going on. I get sick of all the cable shows getting the love (which is probably because I don't HAVE cable, so I'm out of the loop). And Tony Shaloub...again? He's been nominated for "Monk" SOOO many times. I'd love to see someone else get the chance. At least there were no nominations for James Spader or William Shatner in "Boston Legal" because I can't stand either of them. Anyway, the Golden Globes need to step it up. Remember how terrible last year's "awards" ceremony was? With all those entertainment reporters giving out the awards in a press conference venue? UGH!

2. Speaking of awards season, I was listening to 101.9 The End the other day and Tony Toscano brought up a very good point that I've been thinking about. Why is it in Hollywood they feel like they have to give someone award just because they didn't get it before? Just because someone hasn't won for the upteenth time they've been nominated, they shouldn't be given a "pity" win. There's several examples I can name, but one I'm thinking of is when Al Pacino got the Oscar for Best Actor for "A Scent of a Woman." There's no way that was his best role, but it was his 5th nom and the Academy must've felt he deserved it for his body of work. That's stupid. If you want to give an award for a body of work, that's what Lifetime Achievement awards are for. And when people like Alfred Hitchcock or Cary Grant never won an Oscar, let's not just hand-over the Oscar to Denzel Washington for "Training Day" when he had much better performances other years. If someone never wins, then wait and give them a Lifetime Achievement award instead of playing silly Hollwood politic games. Like Tony Toscano said, these actors aren't children. You don't just give them something so they don't feel bad. I'll take that even further. You don't award a sports team, an Olympian or even a Reflections entrant an award just because they've done good work in the past. You reward them for THAT year's performance. If that was the case, the Red Sox would've "won" the World Series years before 2004 because people felt sorry for them. That being said, I TRIPLE HEART Kate Winslet (for some reason, she's the only actress that doesn't bug me when she does nudity -- weird, I know), but I REALLY hope they don't just hand her the Oscar for either of her two films just because she's been nominated 5 times before. If she's the best this year, THEN reward her. And the same goes for Heath Ledger. He was awesome in "The Dark Knight" but if he's not truly the best supporting actor in his category, don't vote for him out of sympathy just because he's passed on. So, there's my rant... I'll be interested to see what happens in February.

Sorry so brief... that's it for this week!