May Flowers, Kathleen Turner

May Flowers, weeknights @ 11:00


Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder. She's a hopeless... no, a hopeful romantic. What a slam dunk star turn that was. And how galling that Romancing the Stone didn't net her an Oscar nomination. It was deglam and glam in one package. Plus it was super fun and Oscar should remember to have fun more often. Fun movies sometimes have more staying power than dutiful prestige pics. Not all the time but why eliminate them because they aren't serious? Screwball comedies were as far from serious as it gets and Oscar didn't hate those.

The Oscar Nominees that year were four previous winners and one breakthrough performer (Judy Davis)

• Judy Davis, A Passage to India
• Sally Field, Places in the Heart (winner)
  
• Jessica Lange, Country
• Vanessa Redgrave, The Bostonians
  
• Sissy Spacek, The River

<-- Kathleen as "China Blue" also in 1984. She wasn't a dainty feminine thing, don't let the rose fool you.

If I had been giving out my awards back then, the Best Actress list would not have been 60% farm wives. My list might have read like so...

• Judy Davis, A Passage to India
• Mia Farrow, Broadway Danny Rose
  
• Sally Field, Places in the Heart
  
• Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone (and Crimes of Passion)
• Lesley Ann Warren, Choose Me
  
  umm... one caveat. I never saw The Bostonians... but back in 1984 when I was a wee boy I was very obsessed with Daryl Hannah in Splash and Elisabeth Shue in Karate Kid so I had no time for Vanessa Redgrave!
  

Basically, Mia Farrow excepted, no movie star had as much right to bitch about the Academy's choices as Kathleen Turner did in the 1980s. Those two just couldn't catch a break with AMPAS. I don't know who they pissed off but it was someone important and vengeful. Turner couldn't even catch a break with TONY voters after her gobsmacking "Martha" in Edward Albee's immortal Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (pictured backstage below)


In case you missed it and you are Turner-simpatico (more people should be) you should listen to my interview with Bill Irwin from last year's Rachel Getting Married. I kept making him talk about Kathleen. I couldn't help myself!

NOTE: For the next 24 hours for no particular reason whatsoever I'm going to be celebrating 1984 --an impromptu 25th anniversary celebration. Join me. Party like it's 1984. Coming up: The Top 10 of 1984 and a look back @ Terminator.

For now feel free to discuss Oscar's 1984 Best Actress choices and yours. You know you want to.
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