Oscars 2013

Oscar’s six degrees of separation

Kevin Bacon has a new TV series (Fox’s “The Following”), so what better time to dust off his namesake “Six Degrees of Separation” parlor game? Our goal: Connect each of Oscar’s lead actor contenders with one of his actress counterparts, and each supporting actress with one of her supporting brethren. (Sorry, Kev, no Oscar nod, no play.)

On the surface, this year’s crop of nominees would seem a disparate lot. A now 9-year-old kid (Quvenzhané Wallis) from the Louisiana bayou? An octogenarian French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) who’s never made an English-language film? But this being the small, incestuous fishbowl that is Hollywood, hook-ups — of the professional sort — are inevitable. SAG-AFTRA (the new union of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) may number more than 165,000 members, but only two links distance the towering Daniel Day-Lewis from newcomer Wallis. Who knew? On that note, let’s go fishing for six (or fewer) degrees of separation among the school of 2013.

Oscars 2013: Defining scenes | Oscar Watch | Play-at-Home Ballot | Snubs & surprises | Reactions | Trivia | Timeline

Daniel Day-Lewis and Quvenzhané Wallis

Lincoln’ and ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’

Denzel Washington and Jennifer Lawrence

Flight’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

Joaquin Phoenix and Emmanuelle Riva

The Master’ and ‘Amour’

Hugh Jackman and Jessica Chastain

Les Misérables’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Bradley Cooper and Naomi Watts

Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘The Impossible’

SUPPORTING ACTORACTRESS
Jacki Weaver and Alan Arkin

Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘Argo’

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz

The Master’ and ‘Django Unchained’

Helen Hunt and Tommy Lee Jones

The Sessions’ and ‘Lincoln’

Sally Field and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Lincoln’ and ‘The Master’

Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro

Les Misérables’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

ACTORACTRESS

Daniel Day-Lewis and Quvenzhané Wallis

Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (2007) with Paul Dano; Dano will be in this year’s “Twelve Years a Slave” with Wallis.

Denzel Washington and Jennifer Lawrence

Washington in “Inside Man” (2006) with Jodie Foster; Foster in “The Beaver” (2011) with Lawrence.

Joaquin Phoenix and Emmanuelle Riva

Phoenix in “We Own the Night” (2007) with Robert Duvall; Duvall in “The Godfather” (1972) with Marlon Brando; Brando in “The Ugly American” (1963) with Eiji Okada; Okada in “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959) with Riva.

Hugh Jackman and Jessica Chastain

Jackman in “Les Misérables” with Anne Hathaway; Hathaway in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) with Meryl Streep; Streep in “Doubt” (2008) with Viola Davis; Davis in “The Help” (2011) with Chastain.

Bradley Cooper and Naomi Watts

Cooper in “Limitless” (2011) with Robert De Niro (also a “Silver Linings” costar); De Niro in “We’re No Angels” (1989) with Sean Penn; Penn in “21 Grams” (2003) with Watts.

SUPPORTING ACTORACTRESS

Jacki Weaver and Alan Arkin

Weaver in “The Five-Year Engagement” (2012) with Emily Blunt; Blunt in “Sunshine Cleaning” (2009) with Arkin.

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz

Adams in “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby” (2006) with John C. Reilly; Reilly in “Carnage” (2011) with Waltz.

Helen Hunt and Tommy Lee Jones

Hunt in “The Sessions” with John Hawkes; Hawkes in “Lincoln” with Jones.

Sally Field and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Field in “Forrest Gump” (1994) with Tom Hanks; Hanks in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007) with Hoffman.

Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro

Hathaway in director Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” (2010); Marshall directed De Niro in “New Year’s Eve” (2011).