Liam Rudden: Right royal rumpus over Oscars

I DON’T watch the Oscars; haven’t for years Somewhere down the line I realised they are pointless.

This year’s were no different; a collection of mediocre luvvies in search of a red carpet.

Take Anne Hathaway. Awarding her the gong for Best Supporting Actress was a firm slap in the face to many far more talented actresses who will never receive the recognition they deserve.

Don’t get me wrong, Les Miserables was a good film. Not a great film, just a good, film, in which performances were, on the whole, well defined.

Ironically, Hathaway was the weak link. Look closely, you can see her act, and let’s be honest, Susan Boyle gives a far better rendition of I Dreamed A Dream.

Actually, I can remember the exact moment I stopped buying the dream of the little golden statuette. It was the year a sitcom actress walked off with an Oscar for a cameo as Queen Elizabeth I.

Best known until then for the cloyingly sweet suburban comedies A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one scratching their head, trying to work out the Academy’s rationale in awarding the 1998 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress to Judi Dench for an EIGHT- MINUTE turn as the Virgin Queen, in Shakespeare in Love.

More so, as she had been overlooked completely when she played the role of Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown the previous year.

Maybe they felt guilty about not recognising her then. More likely, it was just another example of Academy politics at play. Must have needed to keep us Brits sweet that year.