Highs and lows of fame
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 26, 2007
Highs and lows of fame
Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”
Highbrow: Lauded at Sundance for his performance in 2001’s “The Believer,” he’s also a jazz guitarist and singer.
Lowbrow: He’s the first “Mickey Mouse Club” alumnus to be nominated for an Oscar.
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Highbrow: The first Spanish-born actress to be nominated earned the best reviews of her career (“witty, wry and elegant,” says Slate).
Lowbrow: At 16, she guest-starred – in varying degrees of undress – on the erotic French TV series “Serie Rose.”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Highbrow: He trained in opera at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1982, and six years later won best actor at Cannes for Clint Eastwood’s Charlie Parker biopic “Bird.”
Lowbrow: He starred in “Battlefield Earth,” deemed the “worst movie in living memory” by Time magazine.
Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”
Highbrow: The executive producer for the beloved HBO series “Entourage” was praised for his acting in “Boogie Nights” and “I Heart Huckabees.”
Lowbrow: As Marky Mark, he break-danced in a puddle-pocked warehouse in the 1991 “Good Vibrations” music video.
Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”
Highbrow: This nomination is probably the highest his brow has gotten.
Lowbrow: He’s the third alum of 1976’s “The Bad News Bears” to get a nod. The others were Tatum O’Neal (“Paper Moon”) and Walter Matthau (“The Fortune Cookie”). Both won.
Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Highbrow: It’s her second nomination for playing royalty; the other was for her Queen Charlotte in 1994’s “The Madness of King George.”
Lowbrow: She played Caesonia in “Caligula,” that blood-spattered semi-pornographic film from 1979.
Peter O’Toole, “Venus”
Highbrow: This is his eighth nomination in 44 years (the first was for 1962’s “Lawrence of Arabia.”).
Lowbrow: He played Tiberius Caesar in “Caligula,” that blood-spattered semi-pornographic film from 1979.
The Washington Post
