BONNETS OFF FOR MERYL!

By Graham Young on Feb 20, 09 07:58 PM

SOMETHING has got to give at the 81st Academy Awards on Sunday night.
Kate Winslet is up for her sixth Oscar nomination, this time for The Reader.
It's her fourth best actress nod (after Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Little Children) to add to her two best supporting actress nominations (Sense and Sensibility / Iris).
But Meryl Streep is up for her 15th nomination thanks to Doubt, the film with more Oscar nods (four) than any other 2009 contender.
Although she has two Oscar wins, if she loses this time, that will be 11 ducks in a row.
And, in a year in which Meryl has given us the single most entertaining film - Mamma Mia! - she doesn't deserve to go home empty handed again.

Miss Winslet might have been higher up my list of preferences this time, but for the fact that she ruins The Reader by playing the older version of her character.
True, it doesn't destroy the film in the way that Demi Moore's wrinkly bookends completely train-wrecked Flawless, her recent release with Michael Caine.
But it was totally unnecessary and only served to make you conscious of the make-up and not Kate's performance.
The Reader is a well-made film of course, but a bit long and episodic, too, not to mention far-fetched for the central subject matter in a way that The Pianist and Schindler's List weren't.
Miss Streep, on the other hand, wears the most unflattering clothes in Doubt and keeps her performance raw, honest and simple.
Anne Hathaway did well in Rachel Getting Married, but the film isn't good enough to merit a win and her body of work isn't up to Kate or Meryl's level yet.
So it's Meryl for me, especially as she's at an age when most women have given up the ghost. Just think of her contemporaries...

Glenn Close, another regular Oscar loser, is now on TV; Susan Sarandon (Enchanted) isn't on screen much these days and as for her Thelma & Louise co-star Geena Davis, the only time we've seen her since The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996 is in Stuart Little (1999) and Stuart Little 2 (2002).
Meanwhile, gravel-throated Kathleen Turner is reduced to a cameo training dogs for Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in the excellent forthcoming comedy Marley & Me.
So, go for it Meryl... and Kate, come back stronger next time and win.