The Best Actor category at this evening's Academy Awards is said to be a two-man race between Sean Penn in "Milk" and Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler." They split the two big pre-Oscar prizes (Rourke took the Golden Globe, Penn the SAG Award), and the movie punditry is split down the middle in their predictions for this evening.
I think Penn has the edge, if only because Rourke's reputation may not sit well with Academy members. While Hollywood loves a good comeback story, the expletives that might fill the stage in the event of a Rourke win probably kept many from casting their vote for him.
Case in point...yesterday's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards:
I mean...come on. The Academy and ABC-TV have to be shitting their pants over what he might say. And while some may disagree with my reasoning, I stand by my contention that Mickey Rourke will lose votes over the bad-boy reputation. Whether he loses enough votes to lose the category is the question of the night.
We'll see what happens.
