THE OSCAR SHOULD GO TO…

by Hariette Surovell

This year, in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, when they say "And the Oscar for Best Actor Goes to...", it will not go to the person who deserves it for delivering a performance that was so transcendent it made history: Jim Carrey. The brilliant actor didn't even receive an Oscar nomination, prompting even Robert Rehme, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to tell reporters, "The biggest surprise for me when I read the nomination list was that Jim Carrey was shut out again." I suppose Hollywood wants to box him in as a goofy-faced money-maker, playing roles like "Ace Ventura:Pet Detective". Apparently, artists are not allowed to change; The Academy also denied him a nomination for his work in the widely-praised "The Truman Show". Carrey did, however, win Golden Globes for his role as Truman Burbank last year, and this year for playing Andy Kaufman on "Man on the Moon", proving anew that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is hipper and classier than the American Oscar Mafia.

I always liked Latka Gravas on "Taxi", but I had never realized what a comic innovator Andy Kaufman truly was until I saw "Man on the Moon" (three times and counting). Along with co-conspirator Bob Zmuda, Kaufman tweaked perceptions as originally as did Lenny Bruce. Kaufman's greatest creation was Tony Clifton, the fake Las Vegas Lounge Singer whose mission in life was to insult, not ass-kiss, his audience. But just to mess with George Shapiro's (Kaufman's manager) head, Kaufman revealed to Shapiro that he was actually Clifton, then had Zmuda play Clifton while Andy Kaufman snuck onstage and played bongo drums.

After Kaufman died, Zmuda coached another actor into impersonating Clifton at a comedy club (launching the persistent rumors that Kaufman is really alive). And he still is, in the person of Jim Carrey. Born on the same day as Andy Kaufman, and looking uncannily like him, Carrey got so deep into his role that there was talk arising during the filming that he was undergoing some kind of psychic split. Carrey insisted on having separate trailers for himself and for Clifton. Then, after the movie was completed, he collaborated with Zmuda to have yet another Clifton impersonator, barge into a press junket, with the requisite babe on his arm , wearing the standard Clifton pink tux jacket, blue ruffled shirt, bad rug and shades, and blare, "Drew Carrey should get that Oscar!" Changing his mind, he stampeded onto the stage and decreed, "Actually, it should go to Tony Clifton!"

Gullible reporters who were clearly clueless as to the essence of Kaufman/Carrey/Zmuda's humor, reported that Carrey, "looking terrified, retreated to his hotel room", at which point whoever was playing Clifton withdrew a fake rubber penis and urinated on a copy of the book, "Andy Kaufman Revealed! Best Friend Tells All". The press fled like frightened mice.

In Hollywood parlance, it's apparent that Carrey, who is obviously still in cahoots with Zmuda to keep Clifton and therfore Kaufman immortal, "shined on" the humorless "audience" to perfection.

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