Oscar odds favor Robert's gritty woman

03/09/2001

By Jane Sumner / The Dallas Morning News

This year's best-actress run for the Oscar fields a formidable slate. Only Juliette Binoche, propelled by media-savvy Miramax, seems out of place. Her hedonistic chocolatier is a lovely creation but hardly worthy of nomination.The odds-on favorite is Julia Roberts, winner of a bellwether Golden Globe, for the title role of a sexy, smart-mouthed single mother turned legal eagle in Erin Brockovich.

Or as her Hollywood Boulevard hooker assured Richard Gere in an ad-libbed line in Pretty Woman: "Let me give you a tip ­ I'm a sure thing."

Before agreeing to the Erin role, the actress had never heard of real-life legal assistant Erin Brockovich or the class-action law suit that she helped wage against Pacific Gas and Electric for knowingly poisoning the water.

In a way, the part is not unlike the down-on-her-luck, determined woman on the game, who charms her dour boss and makes it worth everybody's while in the enormously successful Pretty Woman.

Erin Brockovich isn't a hooker, of course. She just dresses like one. Her clients are ordinary exploited folk, not wealthy tricks. Like the actress, who went to New York instead of college after high school, the crusader is funny, smart, charming and unsinkable.

Hers is a grittier tale, but so was Three Thousand (the original title of Pretty Woman) before it was transformed into a Cinderella fantasy with a rags-to-Rodeo Drive ending.

After director Steven Soderbergh convinced Hollywood's top female earner that the Brockovich tale was more than a TV movie, she threw herself into the role, creating a passionate, appealing human and earning the respect of the woman she played.

Like Texan Matthew McConaughey, the 33-year-old Georgian has weathered a media firestorm. Like him, she's survived her share of clinkers, including Dying Young, I Love Trouble, Mary Reilly and now probably The Mexican with Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini.

And one British critic unkindly noted that she looked more like a horsefly than the fairy Tinkerbell in Peter Pan.

After media-scrutinized relationships with co-stars Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott, Kiefer Sutherland and a less-than-two-year marriage to Texas country singer Lyle Lovett, she seems to have reached a happy, less-publicized plateau with former Law and Order star Benjamin Bratt.

If Ms. Roberts, who gave a sparkling acceptance speech at the Globes, wins, you can bet he'll get another verbal thank-you from the podium.

The nominees

Julia Roberts
Erin Brockovich
Oscar Quotient: 9.0
Born: Smyrna, Ga., Oct. 28, 1967
Nominated: Bright, brassy legal aide and single mom engineers a multimilliion-dollar lawsuit against public utility.
Career highlights: The year after Eric Roberts' younger sister flashed that smile in Mystic Pizza, she won a supporting Oscar nom for dying young in Steel Magnolias. Her smart, kooky hooker in Pretty Woman earned a pretty bankable best-actress nom.
What Oscar would mean: Proves Hollywood's top-earning female can act as well as sell tickets.

Laura Linney
You Can Count on Me
Oscar Quotient: 5.0
Born: New York City, Feb. 5, 1964
Nominated: Single mom with son rocks along with a petty boss and noncommittal boyfriend until endearing, dead-beat brother hits town.
Career highlights: Nom caps Juilliard graduate's solid work as Jim Carrey's wife in The Truman Show, tough prosecuting attorney in Primal Fear and treacherous Belle Epoque vamp in The House of Mirth.
What Oscar would mean: A versatile, emerging talent gets rare pat on the back for small, independent film.

Ellen Burstyn
Requiem for a Dream
Oscar Quotient: 4.0
Born: Detroit, Dec. 7, 1932
Nominated: Lonely widow, addicted to diet pills, watches TV and spirals down into madness, even imagining a carnivorous refrigerator.
Career highlights: Starting with supporting role as Cybill Shepherd's free-spirited mom in The Last Picture Show, she grabbed six noms, winning for her spunky waitress-mom in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese.
What Oscar would mean: Deserved salute for compelling, brave veteran who's left mark on more than 80 films, TV shows and movies.

Juliette Binoche
Chocolat
Oscar Quotient: 2.5
Born: Paris, March 9, 1964
Nominated: Mysterious chocolatier blows into staid French village, sets up a sweet shop and stirs up repressed citizenry.
Career highlights: The Unbearable Lightness of Being displayed her delicate beauty, but Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue showcased her acting ability. Her glowing nurse in The English Patient brightened that epic drag and won an Oscar.
What Oscar would mean: Miramax is a mean, green, gold-getting machine.

Joan Allen
The Contender
Oscar Quotient: 1.5
Born: Rochelle, Ill., Aug. 20, 1956
Nominated: Veep nominee, victim of a vicious political smear, refuses to deny youthful sex scandal. Role written for her.
Career highlights: Founding member of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Nominated for consecutive supporting roles as Daniel Day-Lewis' saintly wife in The Crucible and truth-telling president's wife in Nixon.
What Oscar would mean: Proves the dignified, commanding actress is really lead material.