--The race card Despite heavy flak last year (including a Jesse Jackson speech), the Academy continues to snub African-American actors. Conspicuously absent from the honors were Samuel L. Jackson, who was considered a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor for A Time to Kill, and Denzel Washington, who many thought would get a Best Actor nod for Courage Under Fire. Says nominee Cuba Gooding Jr. (Maguire), a black actor who bucked the trend, "African Americans are making small strides, which is great. That's all I want to say about that."
--Waste not, want...more DreamWorks scored its first-ever Oscar nod for Dear Diary (Best Live-Action Short). And leave it to those famously creative DreamWorks execs to take the strangest path to a nomination. Diary, which stars former Cheers regular Bebe Neuwirth as a New York art director, was originally produced as a television pilot for ABC. When the network didn't pick up the sitcom, it was transferred to film, shown at a Century City theater for several days, then submitted to the Academy. The recycled project now gives the fledgling studio a good shot at its first award.
--William Who? The most bizarre nomination? Kenneth Branagh earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for his four-hour Hamlet--a script that was barely altered from the original play by that guy Shakespeare.
--The big bang Of course, not all was lost for Hollywood's major film studios. After all, they completely swept the vaunted Best Achievement in Sound Effects Editing category. The contenders: Universal's Daylight, Paramount's The Ghost and the Darkness, and Warner Bros.' Eraser. Take that, Billy Bob.
(With reporting by Gregg Kilday and Susan Spillman)
[BOX]
CLIP 'N' SAVE
TOP NOMINEES
BEST PICTURE --The English Patient --Fargo --Jerry Maguire --Secrets & Lies --Shine
BEST ACTOR --Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire --Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient --Woody Harrelson, The People vs. Larry Flynt --Geoffrey Rush, Shine --Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade
BEST ACTRESS --Brenda Blethyn, Secrets & Lies --Diane Keaton, Marvin's Room --Frances McDormand, Fargo --Kristin Scott Thomas, The English Patient --Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves
SUPPORTING ACTOR --Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Maguire --William H. Macy, Fargo --Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine --Edward Norton, Primal Fear --James Woods, Ghosts of Mississippi
SUPPORTING ACTRESS --Joan Allen, The Crucible --Lauren Bacall, The Mirror Has Two Faces --Juliette Binoche, The English Patient --Barbara Hershey, The Portrait of a Lady --Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Secrets & Lies
