“And the Best Actor Who Overcame Career Embarrassment is…”

Office betting pools for the 2005 Oscar race are fast coming due, with the race for Best Actor seeming to pose a particularly difficult challenge for casual bettors and/or filmgoers. With that in mind, we’ve prepared this annotated list of nominees for Best Actor to help you make your picks this weekend…

	Leonardo DiCaprio Not honored for his role as Luke Brower in 1991’s Growing Pains Getting into character for this part required hours and hours of sleeping in a classroom closet. And being unbearably fucking handsome. Or is that unbearably fucking homeless? Aw, fuck it, look how goddamned cute this little street urchin is! First he stole our hearts, and then he fucked Katherine Hepburn.
	Johnny Depp Not honored for his role as Officer Tom Hanson in 1987’s 21 Jump Street Yeah, that’s stubble on my chin. I haven’t shaved in like two weeks, you know. You can totally tell. I’m thinking of growing it out. What? Huh? Yeah, that’s a fucking gun in my backpack. It goes nicely with those drugs in your pocket, punk. You, against the lockers, now!
	Clint Eastwood Not honored for his role as Philo Beddoe in 1978’s Every Which Way But Loose Because who doesn’t like to fuck monkeys? (This character was purportedly spun off to create the hit 1979 television series, B.J. and the Bear.)
	Jamie Foxx Not honored for his role as Wanda the Ugly Chick in 1990’s In Living Color Being blind is one thing. But the foulest lay imaginable?
	Don Cheadle Not honored for his role as Basher Tarr in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven Getting into character for this part required hours and hours of listening to George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh’s pitching each other various TV series and film projects. All of which seemed like good ideas at the time.