Oscar Snubs High, Mighty

Forget the envelope. Tell Billy Crystal he won’t have to include them in his monologue.

Once again, the Oscar nominations are in and along with those who made it are those who didn’t.

Leonardo DiCaprio may be the current heartthrob among girls around the world, but his critically acclaimed performance as a doomed lover in “Titanic” failed to receive a best actor nomination this year.

Rupert Everett may have won widespread praise for his portrayal as the gay best friend and confidant of Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” turning the actor into an instant celebrity, but he also came up empty-handed Tuesday when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for best supporting actor.

Djimon Hounsou may have received critical acclaim for his role as the leader of a shipboard slave rebellion in “Amistad.” Yet, the African-born actor, who, like DiCaprio and Everett received Golden Globe nominations, also struck out in the Oscar balloting.

And don’t even talk about James L. Brooks (“As Good as It Gets”) and Steven Spielberg (“Amistad”), two directors who over the years have known both the agony and the ecstasy of Oscar time. Brooks won for “Terms of Endearment” but got aced out for best director in “Broadcast News,” while Spielberg won best director for “Schindler’s List” but never was nominated for “The Color Purple,” even though he won the top award from the Directors Guild of America that year.

Actress Gloria Stuart, who at 87 received a best supporting actress nomination Tuesday for her role in “Titanic,” said she has been going to the Academy Awards off and on since the 1930s and the one constant she has found is that there are no guarantees.

Noting that DiCaprio was overlooked while his co-star, Kate Winslet, received a best actress nomination in “Titanic,” Stuart said:

“I don’t understand it. I think their performances together were beautiful. But you see, it’s so iffy. That’s why I was so happy [to be nominated] this morning. It’s so iffy.”

On Brooks’ omission by the academy, Greg Kinnear, who was nominated for best supporting actor in “As Good as It Gets” said: “. . . I think it was a huge omission, but it’s his movie and his movie that was nominated, so I think that’s the greatest outcome.”

Even in cyberspace, people were expressing outrage and puzzlement over why their favorite Oscar candidates were snubbed.

“Leo wasn’t nominated????!!!!! GASP,” wrote Kathy on one “Titanic” Web site. “How could this be?? He was fabulous in ‘Titanic!’ Talk about unfair!! I’m going to have to write a strongly worded letter to the Academy about this!!”

“Fourteen nominations, how about that?!?” said Dru L. “I am very surprised that: Leonardo was overlooked, the [“Titanic”] screenplay was overlooked, James L. Brooks wasn’t nominated for best director for ‘As Good as It Gets,’ and you can barely tell that Spielberg did a movie this year.”

One of this year’s omissions--and long a sore point with critics of the academy balloting--was the dearth of black nominees.

An exception was Spike Lee’s “4 Little Girls,” a film about the bombing of an Alabama church during the American civil rights struggle that received a best feature-length documentary nomination.

Yet just as Hounsou was overlooked for “Amistad,” actress Pam Grier was similarly overlooked for her performance in director Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.”

Also snubbed by the academy was “Eve’s Bayou,” which was nominated for best first feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and received seven NAACP Image Award nominations, including best motion picture.

Some other notable snubs:

* Daniel Day-Lewis. The actor received a Golden Globe nomination for his gritty portrayal as a former Irish Republican Army terrorist released from prison in “The Boxer.” In fact, the entire film, including the film’s director, Jim Sheridan, was overlooked.

* Sigourney Weaver. The actress was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role as a cold-hearted housewife in “The Ice Storm.”

* Al Pacino. The veteran actor and former Oscar winner won the Boston Film Critics award for his role as a small-time mobster in “Donnie Brasco.”

* Kevin Spacey. The actor received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in “L.A. Confidential.”

* Paul Thomas Anderson. The director became one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood in 1997 after his critically acclaimed film, “Boogie Nights,” which explored the adult movie scene in Los Angeles during the 1970s.

* Jodie Foster. Jessica Lange. Kevin Kline. All three are former Oscar winners who turned in performances that prompted talk of Oscar nominations: Foster as a determined radio astronomer in “Contact,” Lange as a woman with a dark family secret in “A Thousand Acres” and Kline as a small-town teacher who denies he is gay in “In & Out.”

When asked about “Boogie Nights” director Anderson failing to get a nomination, Julianne Moore, who was nominated for best supporting actress in the film, said:

“That’s the thing. On the one hand, it’s so lovely and thrilling to be recognized in this way. On the other hand, people who are wonderful at making films . . . [sometimes] aren’t acknowledged. So, you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

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AWARDS ALERT

If you need an awards fix before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its Oscars on March 23, the Grammy Awards may do the trick. They will be presented on Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. on CBS.