The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is right, of course — Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon‘s performances in The Departed are leads and not supporting. And yet Warner Bros. marketers have tried to separate Leo’s undercover-cop performance in the Martin Scorsese drama with a proposed Best Supporting Actor nomination so it won’t compete with his South African diamond-smuggler performance in Blood Diamond, which WB has put up for Best Actor.
The Envelope’s Tom O’Neil reported the HFPA divergence fomr the Warner Bros. line earlier today.
Warner Bros. has pushed these DiCaprio perfs in their respective categories in “For Your Consideration” ads appearing in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Kudos campaigners don’t want Leo to compete against his obvious lead part in Blood Diamond and Matt to clash with his starring role in The Good Shepherd, but now a Leo vs. Leo vs. Matt vs. Matt smackdown is inevitable.” Okay, awkward too bad….but Leo for Best Actor in The Departed is correct .
“Some other eligibility decrees were also surprising,” O’Neil reports. “As is awards protocol with children regardless of the size of their role, Fox Searchlight is campaigning 10-year-old Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) in the supporting slot, but HFPA put her in lead.” What? I take it back — the HFPA-ers are morons.
“Flags of Our Fathers FYC ads cite Ryan Phillippe as lead actor and costars Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford as supporting, but the Globes salute all three soldiers as lead” — more idiocy.