Oscar Voting Revealed

Scott Hardie | January 19, 2004
In a talk on Oscar ties (Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand in 1969 for example), Matt and I agreed that we both wanted to know how close some votes came. The win of "Shakespeare in Love" five years ago over the expected best picture "Saving Private Ryan" still stings to us Miramax-haters; what if we learned that it had only won by a few votes? And learning how close the votes came would shut up those people who think that Marisa Tomei did not really win her Oscar (for "My Cousin Vinny") but got it because of a misread on stage. I doubt that anybody in the Academy would listen to us, so instead I mention here a wish that the Academy would reveal the final vote counts for each awards presentation ten years after the fact.

Anna Gregoline | January 19, 2004
I never heard that misread thing - what happened, a mix-up of envelopes, possibly?

Scott Hardie | January 19, 2004
Barbara Mikkelson explains it better than I could.

Anna Gregoline | January 19, 2004
Hmm, interesting, and neat to see how it's read - directly off the card, not from the prompter at all. Thanks, Scott.