[February 13, 2003]

BEVERLY HILLS — It’s Oscar’s kind of movie, “Chicago” is.

The 1920s film version of the Broadway musical about a pair of unrepentant murderesses danced away with 13 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, best director and four bids in the acting categories. That ties “Chicago” with six other movies for the second-most nominations in the 75-year history of Hollywood’s most-coveted prize, and just one behind “Titanic” and “All About Eve.”

“Gangs of New York,” Martin Scorsese’s violent epic recalling Manhattan’s early days, earned 10 nominations, including best picture, director and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

“The Hours,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” and the little-seen Holocaust drama “The Pianist” round out the competition for best picture.

All five movies were released in December, at the end of a year many critics considered to be the strongest one in awhile in terms of film quality. Often, year-end titles dominate the awards season, but this is the first time since 1988 that all five best-picture nominees arrived in theaters as Christmas approached.

Overshadowing many of the nominations was Meryl Streep, who made movie awards history with a supporting-actress nomination for the twisted Hollywood tale “Adaptation.” That gives her 13 during her career, an all-time high, one more than Katharine Hepburn.

“I am thrilled and honored to be nominated, and also aghast that anybody could imagine that I could surpass the unsurpassable Katharine Hepburn in any category whatsoever,” Streep said. “But it’s lovely to even be mentioned in the same sentence.”

Streep could have picked up another nod, for lead actress in “The Hours” — a performance that already had earned her a Golden Globe bid.

Instead, the only double nominee was Julianne Moore, for best actress playing a housewife whose marriage crumbles in “Far From Heaven” and for supporting actress as another troubled housewife in “The Hours.”

“They’re wildly diverse characters. The fact that both happened to be placed in the 1950s, I didn’t even think about that when we filmed them. Except that I didn’t want my hairdos to be the same,” said Moore, who covered her trademark red hair with a blond wig in “Far From Heaven.”

Moore, who now has four nominations on her resume, will be facing Salma Hayek as Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in “Frida,” Nicole Kidman as author Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” Diane Lane as an adulterous wife in “Unfaithful” and Renée Zellweger in “Chicago” for best actress.

Kidman and Zellweger both picked up their second nominations in as many years. Kidman was noticed last February for “Moulin Rouge” and Zellweger for “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Hayek and Lane are both Oscar rookies.

The best-actor category also fielded a double nominee of sorts: Nicolas Cage, who played both a neurotic screenwriter and his carefree twin brother in “Adaptation.” Cage already has one nomination and a win to his credit, for 1995’s “Leaving Las Vegas.”

He’s competing against three other Oscar winners: Michael Caine as a journalist in the 1950s Vietnam tale “The Quiet American,” Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthlessly charming crime boss in “Gangs of New York” and Jack Nicholson as a widower examining his dreary life in “About Schmidt.”

Adrien Brody, playing a musician hiding in Nazi-occupied Poland in “The Pianist,” is the only first-timer in the field.

“I benefited so much from this experience,” said Brody of his work on the movie. “It puts so much in perspective. It taught me about life, human suffering and loss and made me appreciate more the goodness in life.”

Like several other categories, the competition for best director includes nominees with a wide range of experience.

Scorsese and Roman Polanski each went head-to-head for the prize in 1980 with “Raging Bull” and “Tess,” respectively. This year it’s for “Gangs” and “The Pianist.” At the other end of the spectrum is Rob Marshall, who received his first nod for “Chicago.” Stephen Daldry (“The Hours”) and Pedro Almodóvar (“Talk to Her”) round out the field.

None of them have won in the category, including Scorsese, considered by many critics to be America’s greatest living filmmaker. His other Oscar-nominated credits include “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “GoodFellas” and “The Age of Innocence.”

“I’m very happy to be nominated by the members of the Academy for my work and particularly happy for my collaborators,” Scorsese said in a statement. “It was a difficult movie to make, one I have dreamed of for several decades, so this recognition means a great deal to me.”

Absent from the directors list was Peter Jackson (“The Two Towers”), who had earned a best-director nomination for the fantasy trilogy’s first chapter, “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

“Chicago’s” 13 nominations come one year after “Moulin Rouge” earned eight Oscar bids, including one for best picture and another for Kidman as best actress.

Already there’s talk that the two movies are helping to revive the genre. Should “Chicago” win, it would be the first musical in 34 years to take the top prize.

“I can’t quite imagine it happening, but I would be so honored to carry on that tradition from ‘Oliver!’...” Marshall said. “I grew up on movie musicals. They really were my world. I just think it’s an incredible American art form that can lift you in ways that non-musicals can’t.”

As is often the case, there was little correlation between the Oscar nominees and last year’s top performers at the box office. Only one of the five best-picture nominees could be found among the leading 25 movies: “The Two Towers.”

And among those same 25 hit movies, only four could manage two or more nominations: “The Two Towers” (6), “Catch Me if You Can” (2), “Road to Perdition” (2) and “Spider-Man” (2).

One of last year’s biggest sensations, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” received a single nod: original screenplay for the writer/star Nia Vardalos.

Wire services contributed to this report.
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- by Jerry Rice
Courtesy of The San Bernardino County Sun