UPDATED: Now with answers at the bottom of the postThe following quiz is a random assortment of questions inspired by onscreen romances of the Best Actress nominees this year. Though not all of the questions are romantic in nature (murder, abuse and general movie questions also appear) we tried to start there. How many can you answer? The first person to answer each person gets credit when we update with the answers on Monday.
Bullock
Sandra Bullock plays adoptive mother and football fan Leanne Tuohy in The Blind Side. She's happily married to country star Tim McGraw in the film. In her other big hit this year, The Proposal her marriage with employee Ryan Reynolds is a business transaction.
- Which of Sandra's former co-stars is actually married to a country star. And which movie did they star in together?
- Which two-time co-star of Sandra's was romantically involved with the actress she was constantly compared to? Who am I talking about and what are their films together?
- The Proposal isn't Sandra's first romantic comedy with an inappropriate work-place relationship. Name another.
MirrenPerpetually randy screen goddess Dame Helen Mirren tempts her would-be celibate husband with goofy bedroom games in The Last Station.
- Mirren has played a temptress many times. What's her most infamous film?
- In which film did she bear the child of her half brother?
- On which film did Mirren meet her husband?
Mulligan
Carey Mulligan plays Jenny, a 16 year old girl in An Education romanced by a much older man. Though most people are hearing about Carey now, she's been in the movies since 2005.
- In Mulligan's debut film her onscreen sister was illicitly romanced by an older man. Name the movie.
- Mulligan has only made 6 films but she's already co-starred with several Oscar nominees. Which of her former co-stars was also nominated for an Oscar this year?
SidibeGabby Sidibe made a stellar debut in Precious. Since it's her first film she's only had two screen romances and both of them were imaginary, one with her 'light skinned boyfriend with real nice hair' and one with the math teacher she fantasizes about. Otherwise her character's sex life has been horrific. Sweet Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse is the first man to show her (chaste) affection.
- Her imaginary boyfriend's name in the credits to Precious is "Tom Cruise". Has the actual Tom Cruise ever co-starred with any of this year's Best Actress nominees. If so, name the film.
- In a sad coincidence, the actor who plays Precious's beloved math teacher has also played a child abuser. Can you name the film? His onscreen victim in that film was Golden Globe nominated just this year.
- Lenny Kravitz has had plenty of sexy time in videos if not on film. Which two famous 90s actresses, neither of whom had Sidibe's success with awards show voters, have sexed it up in his music videos?
StreepMeryl Streep jokes about being "a bit of a slut" in It's Complicated but two lovers in one movie is hardly slutty. It's the norm since many romantic movies have love triangles. In her Oscar nominated role in Julie & Julia she's even less of a harlot. For decades she has only had eyes for Stanley Tucci.
- In which two films was Streep actually a bit of a slut? (i.e. more than two lovers)
- One of Streep's most passionate onscreen romances was with a very famous actor who has also played the husband of one of Streep's fellow Actress nominees. Which actor and which two films am I referring to?
- Which of these nominees first tasted real fame by playing a role that had already taken another actress to a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars?
- Which of these nominees played a role that another actress received a supporting actress nomination for playing?
- Which two of these Actress nominees have been directed by the same man? [There's at least two correct answers]
- Which of these Best Actress nominees has been killed by one of this year's Best Actor nominees in another movie?
- Which two of these actresses both did voice work for the same animated film?
THE ANSWERS
Bullock
- Nicole Kidman (Practical Magic) is married to Keith Urban
- Benjamin Bratt (Miss Congeniality, Demolition Man) was once Julia Roberts's man
- Two Weeks Notice with Hugh Grant
- the X-Rated Caligula (1979)
- Excalibur. She plays the wicked Morgana, mother to King Arthur's bastard son Mordred
- White Nights with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Her husband is Taylor Hackford, who directed that film. He also directed her in the forthcoming whorehouse drama Love Ranch (2010)
- Pride and Prejudice (1995)
- Colin Firth (And When Did You Last See Your Father?)
- Tom Cruise co-starred with Meryl Streep in Lions for Lambs
- That'd be Mysterious Skin wherein the fine actor Bill Sage, who played Precious's math teacher, played the coach who abused Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his youth.
- Gina Gershon ("Again") and Heather Graham ("American Woman") starred in his music videos -- the first one is curious. Gershon isn't sexy enough for someone? IMPOSSIBLE!
Streep
- Mamma Mia! Three guys in one week? Who is Amanda Seyfried's babydaddy?
- Plenty. Meryl is a bonkers gal who is continually lovin and leavin' em in this post war drama. Super hot (by which I mean ice cold) sex scene with Sting. (review)
- Pre-Speed, Sandra Bullock starred in the television series adaptation of Working Girl, playing Melanie Griffith's role.
- Sandra Bullock again playing Truman Capote's fellow author friend Harper Lee in Infamous. Catherine Keener was Oscar nominated for that same role in the similar Capote (2005).
- Barbet Schroeder directed both Bullock (Murder By Numbers) and Streep (Before and After)
Lee Daniels directed both Mirren (Shadowboxer) and Sidibe (Precious)
Robert Altman directed both Mirren (Gosford Park) and Streep (A Prairie Home Companion) - Jeff Bridges buried Sandra Bullock in The Vanishing (1993). He wasn't a nice guy.
- Mirren and Bullock were part of the massively star heavy voice cast list for the animated Biblical epic The Prince of Egypt (1998).
