Is Ironman's Gwyneth Paltrow a Victim of the "Oscar Curse"? 36 Year-Old Thespian is Now a Has-Been

The Oscar Winners: Best Actress 1998 -- "Shakespeare in Love"

The over-hyped The Dark Knight is now upon us, and late May's Ironman is a relic of the past. The slob media has been primed by a carefully mastered P.R. campaign by the movie's producers, which includes spreading the meme that the late Heath Ledger will win an Academy Award for his portrayal of The Joker. This meme has caught on Big Time with the Internet community of fanboys and is even being parroted by some mainstream critics. The fact that Ledger's death essentially is being used to market a popcorn movie isn't broached, nor how his death touches on the death wish(es) of the adolescent and perpetually adolescent fanboys who will make this film a huge money-spinner. What their mothers and girlfriends don't undersand is that in the emotionally immature but sexually mature adolescen male, violence is linked to the gonads: The adolescen male gets a sexual kick out of violence. Cinematic depictions of violence and death is sexually thrilling and gets these boys close to "off." Sadism is paricularly potent in this conext. That The Dark Knightis linked to a real death only heightens the psycho-sexual kick as it deepens the connection of the masturbatory, homoeroticism of the fanboy to Thanatos.

One thing is certain other than he likelihood that The Dark Knight will generate a half-a-billion dollars at the world-wide box office, minimum: Should Heath Ledger win a posthumous Oscar, he won't be able to be afflicted by he fabled "Oscar Curse." He's dead.

Our discussion now moves on to a consideration of Life in Death, i.e., the dilemma of a collapsed star whose career has died while the human being behind said star persona is still breathing and warm (in a sense).

Sweet Bird of Youth

"Failure is a highly contagious disease."
--Tennessee Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth