Include Him Out

There’s been much writing in the Calendar section over the last few weeks about who should be nominated for the upcoming Academy Awards, but I’d like to suggest someone who does not deserve a nomination.

Jim Carrey’s performance as the late, great Andy Kaufman in “Man on the Moon” is an imitation and nothing more. Carrey’s smug, back-patting insistence that he “became” Kaufman is an insult to the artistry of Kaufman and to every actor throughout the world who simply “acts.”

You never hear Denzel Washington jabbering to the press about how he “became” Malcolm X or Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and his work is more satisfying (and accolade-worthy) as a result. If Carrey truly did “become” this man whom he never even met, he shouldn’t be given awards, he should be studied by science.

That Kaufman will now be remembered as “the guy Jim Carrey played in a movie” is the final, sad joke of his career.

JOHN BURNS

Los Angeles