Curse of the Oscars

Meryl Streep

The embarrassing gaffe at the Oscars last Feb. 26 involving “La La Land” as best picture winner instead of “Moonlight” has traumatized some Hollywoodites—and “resurrected” ghoulish whispers about a so-called “Oscars curse” that has hounded some winners of the prized cinematic award. Is there any truth to the revived rumors?

Superstitious believers point to the “evidence”: Stellar victors whose careers have crashed and burned, instead of flying higher, after clinching a golden trophy.

They include Geena Davis, Adrien Brody, Halle Berry, Roberto Benigni, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Marlee Matlin, winners-turned-losers whose cautionary tales give other thespic hopefuls the heebie-jeebies.

In particular, Halle Berry is cited as a dire example of how Oscar gold can turn to dismal dross, when harsh reality catches up with amazing victory.

Tremendous effort

She found herself at the top of the film world in 2002, when “Monster’s Ball” rewarded her tremendous thespic efforts with a best actress trophy.

Everyone expected her to soar to her personal career zenith after that, but her subsequent starrers, like “Gothika,” “Catwoman” and “Cloud Atlas,” dismally failed to live up to expectations.

The unkindest cut of all was when the Oscar best actress winner just a few years later ended up being sneeringly given the “Golden Raspberry Award,” for worst female performance on the slivered, not silver screen!

Why do some Oscar winners end up as big-time losers? Part of the problem is seen to be the onus of success turning into excess, with Oscar awardees inordinately raising their talent fees just because they’ve officially “arrived” as major acting finds.

Producers are willing to pay the extra big bucks to secure the services of the latest prized and anointed thespic sensation. But, bigger bucks mean higher expectations of profitable return on investment.

When the new sensation fails to deliver at the box office, the word quickly gets around, and other producers are just as swiftly scared off!
Another downer is the new winner’s wrong choice of proffered role to accept next. If the size and heft of the beefed-up talent fee are the main consideration, that’s a formula for disaster, because money definitely doesn’t mean quality and artistry in the film biz.

Sure, the new star-awardee gets rich and derided just as fast!

The “curse” of the Oscars is seen to apply to the personal lives and loves of some winners, as well.

This is “proven” by many cited examples of Oscar best actress awardees’ marriages subsequently ending up in divorce court, as early as Claudette Colbert in 1935.

She was followed by Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Joan Fontaine, Jennifer Jones, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, etc.—all the way to Sandra Bullock in 2010!

Happily, there are some noteworthy exceptions—like Joanne Woodward, who married Paul Newman and remained his wife till his death did them part in 2008.

Ditto for Susan Hayward and her husband—plus Simone Signoret, Sophia Loren, Anne Bancroft, Geraldine Page, Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren—and the most consistent Oscar nominee and winner of them all, Meryl Streep!