Big Picture

Jessica Alba: Colorful Cab Plus, Victoria Beckham struts and Courteney Cox steals a smooch. Get the latest pics!

MORE PHOTOS +

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Fashion Police

Leighton's Valentine's Look Plus, Ashlee Simpson and Cate Blanchett. Rate the highs and lows!

MORE PHOTOS +

Top Galleries

MORE PHOTOS +

Our Partners

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Bad News Bear a Big Apple Winner

Mon., Dec. 11, 2006 1:24 PM PST by Joal Ryan

Kelly Leak is alive and well--and in the Oscar race.

Jackie Earle Haley, who as a teen star played the baddest Bear in the Bad News Bears movies, capped a triumphant Hollywood return Monday with a Best Supporting Actor honor from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Haley, now 45, won for his turn as a child molester in Little Children. That movie, along with a bit in All the King's Men, marked Haley's first big-screen roles in more than a decade.

Elsewhere, United 93, the feel-bad 9/11 movie, continued to blow past World Trade Center, the feel-good 9/11 movie, for year-end honors, with the former tapped Best Picture by the New York critics.

On Sunday, United 93, about the believed passenger uprising on the last of hijacked 9/11 flights, was named a Movie of the Year by the American Film Institute; its director, Paul Greengrass, was named Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

To date, the starrier World Trade Center, directed by Oliver Stone and starring Nicolas Cage, has bagged but one bragging right, a Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren, meanwhile, are winning everything. As they have been lauded by the NBR and the L.A. critics, The Last King of Scotland's Whitaker was named Best Actor by the New York scribes, with The Queen's Helen Mirren named Best Actress.

Martin Scorsese, who got no love from the L.A. writers, was back in the winner's circle as the New York critics' pick for Best Director for The Departed. Scorsese claimed the same prize from the NBR.

The supporting actor races seem wide open, with the critics' groups failing to generate consensus picks. Haley's win was his first, while Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson broke through with her first victory as Best Supporting Actress.

For once, Clint Eastwood was left out with the likes of Apocalypto. Eastwood, who has been collecting an armful of awards thanks to his twin takes on the World War II battlefield, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, collected nothing from the New York scribes.

The New York critics have been in the award-distributing business since 1935. With few recent exceptions, including 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the group's Best Picture winner loses the Oscar's Best Picture statue. Last year's unlucky winner was Brokeback Mountain, beat to the podium on Oscar night by Crash.

Next up on the awards-show docket: Nominations for the Critics' Choice Awards on Tuesday, followed by the unveiling of the Golden Globes field on Thursday.

Here's a review of the 2006 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: