Ugly=Talent
It's been kind of a unsaid thing around Hollywood for a while, but really it's getting to be a pattern. There have been a helluva lot of actors who go ugly to get Oscar lately. Some of the actors are generally considered to be good anyway, but the theory is that if you forget to look at them as eye candy for a moment, then maybe you can see that they really are good actors or at least can try really really hard.

I say, pfft. And that is a dismissive 'pfft'. What these excellent-looking actors are saying is that they gave it that something a little extra by self-mutilating for a role. That they took a courageous leap and adopted a sedentary lifestyle and at cheeseburgers and whiskey (and loved it) to become a gluttonous heap that would make critics go "Hmm, he really does embody the spirit of a starkly overweight hairdresser!". How brave it was for them to forgo their $200 haircut and chop it themselves, or go forbid get it done at Hair Cuttery! What acting chops!

I wonder what kind of message does this send to the plain-looking actor? That it takes gore makeup, a skillful performance and courage for pretty actors to pretend to be like them in the morning? Should plain actors be lauded by the Academy for donning a Brad Pitt mask and playing a romantic lead? And what of the okay-looking actors who could go either way? Are they doomed to be ignored and passed over for those who can so egregiously transform their looks? [I suspect society and the Academy might only embrace the females who go both ways.]

I'll go get that first cup of coffee now.