Oscar material

If Kate Winslet does have the good fortune to win the Oscar for Best Actress for The Reader, she may do well to acknowledge Ricky Gervais in the acceptance speech. For it was Gervais, in his comedy series Extras, who cast her in a guest appearance (as herself) playing a nun in a World War II film, who is doing the role only for the purpose of winning an award. "Nuns, suffering, Holocaust...definite Oscar", she quips at one point.

And now unnervingly, she is winning awards left right and centre for playing a German Concentration Camp guard - during the Holocaust. The recognition won't be undeserved, as she's always worked jolly hard in her other (perhaps better) films. I particularly enjoyed her performance in the bleak Jude, she was the youthful spirit and joy of Iris, and even the trashy Titanic has its good moments.

So often, relatively inferior films win awards usually because of the subject matter or the fashion.
Uncle Oscar often has a funny way of rewarding his children.