Bryan Bedder/Getty ImagesQuiz time: According to Julia Roberts, she "cannot absorb living in a world where [she has] an Oscar for Best Actress, and [which male star] doesn't have one for Best Actor?"
If you said Javier Bardem, then congrats for being well-informed, and knowing that Roberts hosted a screening this past week to drum up Oscar support for Bardem's performance in Biutiful.
But you're wrong.
The correct answer is Denzel Washington.
If you'll recall, Roberts issued that quote as she stumped for Washington back in 2002. And her endorsement was as good as Oscar gold, as Washington won for Training Day. Not only that, Roberts literally handed the man his statuette. (Roberts, who'd been the previous year's Best Actress winner for Erin Brockovich, was the presenter in Washington's category.)
And now Roberts is at it again, this time for Bardem, her Eat Pray Love costar, who won Best Actor for Biutiful at last spring's Cannes, but has been absent from the awards-shows scene ever since.
Based on Roberts' track record as the benevolent Oprah of the Academy, Bardem should reserve a tux for Oscar night.
Or then again, maybe he shouldn't.
For one thing, Bardem and wife Penélope Cruz are presently very, very pregnant. So diaper duty may present a scheduling conflict.
For another thing, Biutiful is apparently a lot harder to watch than Training Day was.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Biutiful, which is about a dad (Bardem) dying of cancer, is bumming out Academy members—at least one voter, writer Dave Karger reported, had to turn the film off after only 30 minutes.
Think that's enough to make Roberts give up? Think again.
"I hope that person is haunted until the end of time wanting to know what happened," Roberts told EW.
So, yeah, if you're heading into an Oscar fight, you definitely want Roberts on your side.