Hollywood has a history of not being kind to aging actors, especially the women. This years Oscars has a very nice representation of older, well seasoned actors in the lineup of Oscar nominations. A total of seven artists in their 60s and 70s are up for major Oscar gold. Three of the five women up for Best Actress Oscar are over 55; Judi Dench for “Notes on a Scandal” at 72, Helen Mirren, 61 for “The Queen” and the relatively young, Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada”. The list of older gentlemen nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor is much shorter with Peter O’Toole going for gold for his role in “Venus.”

Film directors can get away with being older because they get to use their clout to get financing for the movies they want made. Three out of the five nominations for Oscar’s Best Director award that get senior discounts are; Martin Scorese 64, “The Departed” Stephen Frears, 65, “The Queen” and the old guy Clint Eastwood, 76, “Letters From Iwo Jima”. One thing is for certain, these guys know how to make a great movie. Each of them has their films up for Best Picture as well. Strangely missing from the Best Picture picks is “Dreamgirls” with a whole boatload of nominations for other categories. Martin Scorese finaly gets a win for Best Director and Best Picture.

Older men have been perceived as attractive and even sexy when it comes to public opinion. The ladies are starting to be much more proactive instead of just fading away and the public gets the benefits. Helen Mirren has gone for the full effect of being older and sexy. Her recent appearance at the Golden Globe awards in a very revealing and daring dress is just one example. Helen Mirren recently attended a tribute held in her honor ate the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where the organizers screened some of her more exciting nude scenes. She has actually appeared naked in over a dozen films. Hard to imagine her naked as you watch her in “The Queen” in her frumpy clothes and Wellington rubber boots tooling around in an old Range Rover.

“Little Miss Sunshine” nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor represent the two extremes in age. Arkin plays a heroin snorting, foul mouthed porno consuming grandfather to Abigail Breslin as a driven, sweet little beauty queen hopeful.

When film makers do not discriminate based on anything but who is best for the film, and who has the talent to turn in an exceptional performance, the audience gets much better entertainment.

Is Helen Mirren hot? How about Meryl Streep.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm and is filed under Archive, Oscars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.