In a column posted yesterday afternoon, the L.A. Times’ Patrick Goldstein considers this season’s crop of hilarious “For Your Consideration” ads, something the studios finance each year, however pointlessly, to appease the egos of their top talent. Among this year’s Hail Marys are Max Records’ performance in Where the Wild Things Are and Nicolas Cage’s in Bad Lieutenant. If either want into this year’s intensely competitive Best Actor category, though, they’ll have to make it past Funny People’s Adam Sandler, for whom Universal is pushing with ads highlighting his CGI’d performance in the film’s man-baby scene, for some reason.
But the studio, in the middle of a sale and reeling from a hitless 2009, isn’t footing the whole bill, says Goldstein:
In this case, my sources say that [Judd] Apatow is actually bankrolling part of the costs for the “Funny People” campaign, since he feels the movie deserves some awards-season consideration and was mishandled in its initial release. (Universal would not comment on whether Apatow was providing initial funding.)
Ever the skeptic, Goldstein says if Funny People lands a Best Picture nomination, he’ll donate $100 to the charity of Apatow’s choice. We admire his guts, since it’s at least as good as Benjamin Button was.
Here’s Sandler’s presumable Oscar clip:
Oscar silly season: ‘Funny People’ for best picture? [Big Picture/LAT]
