# Has an Oscar ever been revoked??
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 27, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431 "2003-04-27T02:05:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/42 "2003-04-30T03:29:35Z")
**BrotherCadfael, swanky, Mangetout:**
Drag ain’t nothing to the Oscars. (as noted earier,) Hilary Swank won Best Actress in 1999 for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (working title: Take It Like a Man).
In 1998, Gwyneth Paltrow played a male actor in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and won Best Actress.
It gets REALLY twisted in 1982.
Jessica Lange was NOMINATED as Best Actress for ‘Frances,’ but lost to Meryl Streep for ‘Sophie’s Choice.’
Jessica Lange WON Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie.
Dustin Hoffman was NOMINATED as Best Actor for Tootsie (as Doris Roberts, a cross-dresser by circumstance). He lost.
‘Tootsie’s’ Teri Garr was ALSO NOMINATED for Best Supporting Actress in that film.
TOOTSIE was also nominated as Best Picture.
All that aside (and I realize half of it doesn’t address the OP), Linda Hunt was incredible.
Didn’t that guy from The Crying Game (Jaye Davidson?) and Cate Blanchette (Orlando) do some gender-switching and win some awards?
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### Author:  [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/43 "2003-04-30T05:21:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cervaise \*
> \*\*Those who want Michael Moore’s Oscar revoked are living in a fantasy world.
> \*\*
Now that’s a little dismissive, isn’t it? A couple websites I’ve read make a pretty convincing case that he did stage some scenes, making up a couple scenes with supposed protesters, to cover for the fact that he blatantly lied and twisted the facts and dates to make it appear that Charlton Heston was deliberately following around acts of school violence to give local NRA pep rallies after them.
I mean, isn’t cheating the rules of documentary-making good enough to invalidate an award for best _documentary_?? I don’t think this is a “fantasy world.” Nor is it necessarily agenda-driven. I have no problem with his ultimate thesis (that it isn’t the presence of guns that causes violence but rather some other factor), and I found his use of the Oscars as a political platform only mildly annoying, but I would certainly say that if he broke the rules of documentary-making to manipulate the appearance of events in the film, that it’s not that ridiculous to suggest he lose his award.
As for your other example, I wonder why somebody won an Oscar in the first place for lens technology that, from it’s description, sounds pretty much like old news. I mean, weren’t they doing pretty much that exact thing filming _Citizen Kane_ 60 years ago, with lenses and techniques invented by the cinematographer for that film? Ebert makes a big deal about the technique in the audio commentary, I assumed that keeping foreground and background objects both in focus was pretty much mastered with that film. Reporter in the phone booth, Mrs. Kane at the table, both in focus, technology perfected.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/44 "2003-04-30T11:45:30Z")
Since the topic has drifted a bit toward actors/actresses being nominated for roles playing the opposite gender, I’ll toss out a question that just popped into my head.
Since the situation is bound to come up someday, does the Academy have a stated policy recognizing (or not recognizing) transsexuals? If someone underwent a male-to-female sex change operation, then put forth an Oscar-worthy movie performance, would the Academy list her as an actor or an actress?
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/45 "2003-04-30T13:13:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Dustin Hoffman was NOMINATED as Best Actor for Tootsie (as Doris Roberts, a cross-dresser by circumstance).
To nitpick…Hoffman’s character’s name was Michael Dorsey. When he cross-dressed to audition he used the name “Dorothy Michaels.”
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### Author:  [@SRB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SRB)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/46 "2003-05-01T01:09:12Z")
I am endlessly fascinate with how you all can discuss things here!! It is so great to see!! Thank you all!!
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/47 "2003-05-01T02:39:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Nor is it necessarily agenda-driven.
No, it’s not _necessarily_ agenda-driven, but in this case it is.
> [@](#):
>
> if he broke the rules of documentary-making to manipulate the appearance of events in the film, that it’s not that ridiculous to suggest he lose his award.
As was noted earlier, an _entirely_ staged documentary has won the award, so I doubt he’s violated any rules. Actually, I just re-read the Academy rules, and they settle this quite concretely. I quote:
“An eligible documentary film is defined as a theatrically released non-fiction motion picture dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects. It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or **may employ partial re-enactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact and not on fiction**.”
Emphasis mine, duh. But even if some of the scenes were staged, he didn’t break a rule anyway.
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### Author:  [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/48 "2003-05-01T02:50:03Z")
…and a big YEP to \*\*Otto[b/], I don’t know where the hell I got THAT name from.
It was Dorothy Michaels. The rest of my post is pure gold.🙂
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/49 "2003-05-01T05:22:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by psiekier \*
> How can [Homer] “hand the Oscar back” if it’s been flushed?
Well, if you’ll recall, “Somebody broke the toilet!” so the success of the attempted Oscar-flushing has not been established.
Regarding Linda Hunt’s Oscar, I suppose in the future someone might win an acting award for portraying an alien with no defined gender at all. It seems clear that you go by the gender of the actor, not the character.
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### Author:  [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/50 "2003-05-01T15:43:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally **quoted** by Max Torque \*
> What is the procedure for revoking an Oscar?
>
> There is none in the rules – any more than there was a procedure for revoking Milli Vanilli’s Grammy award, when that was done in 1990, or Michael Bellesiles’ Bancroft Prize , when that was done in 2001.
[Ignorance]
What is the **Bancroft Prize**? 😕
[/Ignorance]
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/51 "2003-05-02T04:10:51Z")
Here’s a webpage on the Bancroft Prize:
[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/amerihist/bancroft.html](http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/amerihist/bancroft.html)
This was easy enough to find. All you have to do is run Google on “Bancroft Prize” and it’s the first website to come up.
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### Author:  [@pezwookiee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezwookiee)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2003, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-oscar-ever-been-revoked/171431/52 "2003-05-03T11:05:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RexDart \*
> **I have no problem with his ultimate thesis (that it isn’t the presence of guns that causes violence but rather some other factor)**
Sorry to nitpick, but I think an oversimplification like this really does the film a disservice. It’s a much more tangled web than that.
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