Agreed, though, to play devil's advocate, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Kate Winslet both serve as recent counter-examples -- clear leads that were wrongly campaigned, and even recognized by precursors in the Supporting category, but correctly slotted by Oscar. (And perhaps the failure of Dev Patel to be recognized at all, despite a supporting push, might be a counter-example as well.) It seems that SOME attempts at category fraud do fail, but why these cases did when so many others have succeeded is beyond me.Mister Tee wrote:I think dws makes a strong point, that something like the Philip Seymour Hoffman/Doubt nomination is an even darker sign for how corrupt the system has become. This was a part clearly considered lead at the Tonys, that had no issue with a competitor from the same film, but simply went for the fraudulent nod because it was felt it could be got. (And it's not as if Hoffman would have had no chance at the lead nod -- Richard Jenkins was hardly a juggernaut)
But I agree that Kids Are All Right will be a good test case for whether or not we've gotten to the point where anything goes.