Kathy Bates Appreciation Day

The NY Times suggested today that Kathy Bates's new Oscar nomination might be unjust; that spot might have belonged to Jennifer Lopez.

I haven't seen "Hustlers"--so I have no comment on Lopez--but I'd just like to say that Bates was excellent in "Richard Jewell."

We're all at war with ourselves--this is the human condition--and this is what we pay to observe in a great performance. As a woman struggling to hold it together, in "Richard Jewell," Bates was riveting. So much was happening behind her eyes. The pain was so real, you occasionally felt as if you were seeing a documentary, and not a fictionalized version of Jewell's ordeal. I won't soon forget Bates struggling to retain her undergarments (literally) in the overbearing presence of the FBI, or Bates feeling upset when she learns her living room is bugged, or Bates working hard to stay composed during a press conference. This was masterful acting.

Did Lopez deserve a nomination? Maybe. You decide. But let's not speak ill of Kathy Bates. The titan--in her seventies, now, and in possession of four (four!) wonderful Oscar nominations, and one Oscar win--deserves the glory that is coming her way. And I'm OBSESSED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSMxBLlA8qY

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