THE OBENSON REPORT

On Tuesday's episode of her daytime talk show, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she had asked to audition for a role in the film "Doubt," but was turned down by the director. Winfrey told the movie's star Meryl Streep -- who appeared on the show -- that she asked to audition to play "Mrs. Miller" because she felt a connection to it and wanted to work with Streep. But she couldn't convince director John Patrick Shanley to give her a shot. The role ended up going to Viola Davis. She received a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her emotional scene in which Mrs. Miller breaks down after hearing her son may have been molested by a priest.

An amalgamation of Did You Know and Things That Made Me Go Hmm...

All 4 winners in the major performance categories (best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress) were not American - actually, they're all European.

Spain's Javier Bardem won best supporting actor for his performance in No Country For Old Men. It was the first Oscar for a Spanish performer in the 80-year history of the world's premier cinema awards. British Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor in There Will Be Blood, his second win in that category. Scotland's Tilda Swinton was named best supporting actress for her role in Michael Clayton, which was quite a surprise for me, as I had Cate Blanchett as the favorite for her riveting performance in the Bob Dylan quasi-biopic, I'm Not There. Lastly, French star Marion Cotillard beat Julie Christie as best actress with her acclaimed performance as troubled chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Cotillard was the first French woman to win the award since Simone Signoret in 1960.

But this certainly isn't the first time that non-Americans have swept the acting categories. In 1964, British Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews won for best actor and actress respectively, while Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (also Brit, although his parents were of mostly Russian and Swiss heritage) and Lila Kedrova (a Russian) won for supporting.

To quote Paul Revere, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Although, it's been suggested that those weren't his exact words.

A special "Did You Know" in honor of the upcoming Academy Award Oscar celebration on Sunday

Did You Know...

... From around 1982 until 2007, African-American actors, directors, producers and executives held a secret ceremony on the night before Oscar night, to celebrate black performers, calling the event, the Black Oscars. Every talent, from the likes of Samuel L. Jackson to Will Smith, participated in this event, which was considered a moment for black Hollywood to honor its own. In 2007, the "Friends of the Black Oscars," the secretive group that sponsored the event, decided that the Black Oscars had finally become obsolete, thanks in large part to the recent increases in the presence of black performers in the race for Oscar - Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Will Smith and Djimon Hounsou, notably.

Be sure to check out my Oscar Picks HERE.

Did you know...

... That Spike Lee's younger brother, Cinque Lee, is also a filmmaker, and has written and directed 4 feature-length films since 1995, all independently financed, produced and distributed, with no real contributions from older brother Spike?

The first was a drama called Nowhere Fast, made for just $29,000 in 1995, and is described as "a film powerfully weaved together through stories of its desperate characters and depicting the dangerous hours they face during one fateful day. Lee cast nineteen actors as a motley assortment of disenfranchised, dispossessed and downright weird characters, including junkies, prostitutes, thieves, dealers, dopers, mental patients, street people, and a failed magician, all of whom collide wildly on the hot city streets on a Friday afternoon during a scorching heat-wave in Brooklyn." Do The Right Thing Part 2 possibly?

His second feature was a sci-fi film called Windows On Your Present, made for $50,000, and co-starred his sister, Joie Lee (who has also been featured in a few of Spike's earlier films). In the film, two characters, Europe and Leber, are lost souls in a world where love and color have never existed. They stumble upon a pill that transports them to a world of color and love for a short time. After the effects of the pill ware off, they are returned to their depressing world of no color. They decide to search for the source of the pills and consume enough of them to never return. This was made in 2000. Sounds intriguing... we rarely get to see black people in sci-fi flicks, especially the more seemingly cerebral kind.

And his last outing was a film called UR4 GIVEN, made in 2004, for just $12,000. In the film, a drama, Monica, a 27-year-old woman and a victim of child abuse, is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, splintered personality, flashbacks, repressed memories, and migraines. To help combat her demons she interviews victims of child abuse on camera. Monica eventually realizes that she has to confront those demons. She returns to her small hometown to revisit the place where her rapes took place, and while there, she runs into the man who raped her as a child, but he has no idea who she is. Instead of telling him who she is, she hatches a plan to exact revenge, one that could cost her life. Hmmmm... curious.

Of course, in each of these films, given their individual budgets, don't expect to find any recognizable actors - at least on the star scale anyway. I'd love to get my hands on all of these films out of sheer curiosity. They might actually be worthwhile and in need of support. Of the 4 films, I only found one of them available for sale anywhere - Nowhere Fast. You can find it on Amazon for less than $10. CLICK HERE. I've already placed my order. I'll keep looking for the others. They have to be out there somewhere.

It's rather unfortunate that Spike doesn't talk more about his brother's independent efforts, or help him push his films. Or maybe he does, and I'm just not aware. I'm not saying that he should actively lobby for his brother, but maybe give him a "shout out" every now and then... or even some "props,"... something... anything to let us know that his brother exists and is making art. Unless Spike just doesn't think his brother's films are any good, which is possible, I suppose.

A double dose of Did You Know today.

Did you know #2

... that Norbit apparently is the only film to be nominated for both an Oscar (best makeup) and a Razzie (well, several Razzies - Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Actor, Worst Screenplay)? Did anyone actually see Norbit? I know it made almost $100 million, but I don't know anyone who saw it. I certainly haven't. But I'd like to know what those who did see it, thought of it.

Did you know #3

... that Morgan Freeman has had only ONE onscreen kiss in his entire 30+ year career? I wonder if Mr Freeman is aware of this. Someone give this man a love scene, will ya? He's way overdue! Even some tongue play would work. Something! Anything!

Did You Know...

Will Smith was the preferred choice to play the role of Neo in the 1999 blockbuster surprise, The Matrix, which went on to birth two par sequels? Apparently, Mr. Smith turned the role down, which was later offered to Keanu Reeves.

I just can't picture Big Willy as Neo - it would've been a slightly different film altogether, as I think his performance would have made it such.

For all his faults as an actor, I think Keanu was actually the better choice for the role. Obviously, my perspective is tainted somewhat because I've seen Keanu thrice already as Neo, so it would indeed be a little difficult to imagine someone else in it, regardless of who that person might be. Keanu's seemingly natural vacuous, deer-caught-in-headlights look, actually turned out to be more of a compliment to the film than a detriment, as Neo's struggle towards self-awareness practically called for that kind of a performer or performance.

Interestingly, Will turned down the role to make Wild Wild West, which ended up a critical and slightly commercial flop.

So, indulge me here for a minute folks... we can only imagine what The Matrix could have been with Will Smith (a black actor) in the lead role, flanked by Laurence Fishburne (also a black actor), and one could assume that Trinity, Neo's love interest, would have been a black woman (maybe). The original Matrix, by the way, was allegedly influenced by a manuscript called The Third Eye, created by a black woman, (Google Sophia Stewart if you have heard nothing of this), although the producers and Warner Brothers, the studio responsible for distributing the film, have done their best to minimize the propagation of this knowledge, as well as the damage that this wonderful piece of news could do to their reputations). So, again, indulge me here... with all that in mind - a starring black cast notably - imagine what The Matrix could have been, or what it could have meant to cinema (specifically black cinema), given just how influential it became. Would it have been as successful? Would we have seen 2 sequels - sequels that introduced even more black characters?

To his credit, Will Smith later stated that, if given the role at that time, he "would have messed it up." I agree :o)