The Triangle

Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: MCT Campus Cate Blanchett, an academy favorite, is praised for her role as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed film Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

At first I was going to boycott the Oscars because I supported the Writer's Guild of America in the writer's strike. Then I woke up on a Tuesday morning to hear that Keira Knightly had been snubbed for best actress. Bleary-eyed, and irritated over being woken up, I looked at the nominee list to be unpleasantly un-surprised by the generic picks. My sole surprise was the exclusion of the most talked about female performance of 2007.

Knightly's snub is one I can only explain with the Academy's penchant for an older crowd. Favorites like Nicole Kidman,Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts all presented flat performances in hyped movies this year. The usual pool of contenders is bleak; the academy acknowledged women playing women of experience. Ruby Dee, 83, and Hal Holbrook (best supporting male), 83, were in the company of a slew of 40-somethings.

The shining exception to the dingy rule was the widely-praised Ellen Page of Juno. Her role as a pregnant teen with quick wit may score a win, but I feel that playing a sassy young girl when you are a sassy young girl doesn't take much effort. I am pulling for double-nominee Cate Blanchett, recognized for Elizabeth: The Golden Age as well as the fantastic, underrated and unseen biopic of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There. Usually big-name actors pull a gender switch for a tacky comedy; Blanchett really depicted a man on screen. Bob Dylan and Queen Elizabeth are two diametric opposites, both extreme personalities who are difficult to impersonate. She pulls off her male persona with such ease and believability, which is a momentous achievement considering the debacle of Norbit earlier this year. Blanchett is able, and will most likely take home the win for best supporting actress, but will probably lose to Page for best actress because of the somewhat shoddy script of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Shifting to male nominees, the ageist discrimination continues as the only actor under 30 in both best male and supporting male performances is Casey Affleck.

The Academy has such favoritism for older actors and actresses because it is so hierarchical. They like to nominate actors multiple times before rewarding them (take Meryl Streep's 14 nominations and merely two wins).

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