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
ACTOR / ACTRESS
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 ACTOR / ACTRESS
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’
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.
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).
