Is Conventional Wisdom Breaking Down?

While several Golden Globe winners received Academy Award nominations on Tuesday, the conventional wisdom that a Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. statuette assures an Oscar nod took some high-profile hits.

Tom Cruise, Geoffrey Rush, Edward Norton, Brenda Blethyn and Lauren Bacall all won Golden Globes last month and were nominated for Oscars. But Globe best picture/musical or comedy winner “Evita” and its star, Madonna, were two Globe winners overlooked by the academy. Also ignored were the writers of “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.

By splitting films into dramatic and musical/comedy categories, the foreign press association presents double the number of nominees and winners in the picture, actor and actress categories. Conversely, the academy has two screenplay categories, and the Globes recognize only one.

The “Evita” snub was particularly glaring. Although the film received nominations in five categories, losing a shot at best picture and best actress was particularly painful for the film’s producers, Cinergi and Disney.

“If you look at history, the actors in musicals and comedies tend to get overlooked,” said Phil Berk, head of the foreign press association. “The Globes always had . . . separate categories so that these performances and pictures don’t get overlooked.”

In other words, said one Disney executive, the Globes will give greater consideration to commercial pictures while the academy focuses on more dramatic or art-house fare.

Some executives close to the film privately speculated that “Evita” may have been hampered by perceptions that it was largely a filmed version of the Broadway musical and that Madonna did more singing than acting.

“Who knows if that really played into it? . . . I can’t really say. But I am still very happy with the five nominations we did receive. I’m proud of what we accomplished and that we did win a Globe for best picture,” said Andy Vajna, chairman and chief executive of Cinergi Pictures Entertainment. “Maybe, in time, the academy will follow [the HFPA’s format] and include categories for musical and comedy.”

Madonna wasn’t the only singer-actress ignored. Courtney Love, who was nominated for a best actress Golden Globe in the drama category for “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” also failed to get an academy nod.

“You know, it’s kind of odd both of these women who are singers were overlooked. It may just take awhile for people to recognize them as actors, which is too bad,” said Terry Curtin, senior vice president of publicity at Disney. “But really, if you step back and take a look at what was chosen, these nominations tell you this was a very dramatic year, with so many literary-based films being the favorites.”

“The People vs. Larry Flynt” received Golden Globe nominations for best picture, actor and actress in a drama, plus director and screenplay, and won the last two categories. On Tuesday, after a feminist backlash in the weeks since the Globes were handed out, the picture was cited only for director and actor.

Led predominantly by Gloria Steinem, that backlash attacked the producers, writers and director Milos Forman for radically cleaning up the porn pedaler’s image.

Mike Medavoy, whose company, Phoenix Pictures, produced “Flynt,” expressed frustration with the criticism and stressed the film’s 1st Amendment theme. “This film was called ‘The People’ vs. Larry Flynt, not the life of Larry Flynt,” he said. “But the writers weren’t the only ones forgotten. Courtney Love should have been on the list.”