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Best Supporting Actress

By Kevin Ferguson
February 22, 2009
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Of course, the Academy Awards are just getting underway as I'm beginning to type this, and I'm going to miss it again. My girlfriend's mom is having her birthday night and—exactly as we did last year—we're going out for dinner while so many other people are at home watching the awards. It's fine, really. I like the awards but I'm not going to miss them sorely if I don't discover who the winners are real-time. We're just about to leave! Last year we went to an abysmal and practically empty Italian restaurant in Orange County that will remain mercifully nameless. The food was cold, the salmon still frozen in the center, and locals from the bar next door wandered inside and out to use the bathroom, laughing and shouting.

But I didn't come here to complain, but to say a few kind words: One of my favorite Oscar nominated films is Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying These Terrible Things About Me? Dustin Hoffman plays a Desire-era Bob Dylan type character living alone in New York City. He's completely convinced he's going crazy: he drops into his psychologist's personal office unannounced, demands impromptu-late night expense report readings from his accountant and seeks refuge in the arms of numerous women. The latter of which are all driven away after receiving calls from a total stranger named Harry Kellerman. The calls drive him to the brink of suicide once Kellerman gets to his latest love, an aging actress who never made it stunningly portrayed by Barbara Harris. The role—which included a tragic and affecting monologue about the perils of mortality—garnered her a best supporting actress nomination, making Harry Kellerman the longest-titled film in the history of the Academy Awards.

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