Oscar de la Hudson

I believe that nobody should be allowed to win an acting award on their first attempt.

Don't get me wrong, I think Jennifer Hudson was brilliant in Dreamgirls but to be fair, she was playing an enormously talented yet rejected overweight diva -- it's not exactly Hoffman playing Rain Man or even Whoopi Playing a fake psychic... it's more like Courtney Love playing an overdrugged oversexed worn out tired skank (repeatedly), or Eminem playing a white rapper. Sometimes a person is the part, and maybe it's great acting that makes it look like it's not acting but sometimes maybe it's just not really acting, it's just being.

Most of us can agree that Tom Hanks is a really good actor, but the fact that we first met him in Bosom Buddies makes him that much better. Ditto for Robin Williams/Mork. If Million Dollar Baby had been Hillary Swank's first flick we might have thought, "wow, tough chick," but the fact that we knew her from The Next Karate Kid and BH 90210 made it more of just a "wow."

Of course the only other supporting actress nominated film I saw was Little Miss Sunshine and as far as I know Abigail Breslin is a wanna-be pageant queen in real life as well, so it may well be that Jennifer Hudson is the best of the bunch -- I'll let you know when the rest of the nominees filter their way down to my cable lineup.

By the way, congrats to Forrest Whitaker being the (by my count) 4th Fast Times at Ridgemont High alum to win an Oscar. You're next Judge Reinhold.