Claim:   Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1992 because Oscar presenter Jack Palance read the wrong name by mistake.

Status:   False.

Origins:   Sometime after the 1993 Academy Awards ceremony, a rumor began making the rounds that the award for 1992's Best Supporting Actress had been mistakenly given to Marisa Tomei rather than the "real" winner, Vanessa Redgrave, because presenter Jack Palance called out the wrong name. (Different versions of the rumor claim that Palance was unable to read the printing on the card, became confused, or was too "drunk" or "stoned" to call out the right name. He then either arbitrarily announced Tomei as the winner or called out her name because it fell last in the list of nominees and thus had not yet scrolled off the teleprompter screen.)

As the Academy has explained many times, two officials from the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse (the official tabulators of the Academy Award ballots) have been stationed in the wings at every Academy Awards ceremony since 1953 just in case such a situation should arise. If a wrong name were ever read, one of the officials would immediately step up to the podium and announce the correct winner. Additionally, Palance simply could not have read the wrong name from the teleprompter screen, because the winners' names are never displayed there — at every "And the winner is . . ." point in the ceremony, the teleprompter displays only the stage directions of (ENVELOPE) and (ANNOUNCE WINNER) to the presenters in order to maintain secrecy (a reporter who managed to sneak a look at the teleprompter script in advance would learn nothing about the winners' identities) and to force presenters to look down and actually examine the contents of the envelopes.

In early 1994 this rumor was being spread, according to The Hollywood Reporter, by the "former son-in-law of a distinguished Academy Award winner." By 1997 film critic Rex Reed (promulgator of the theory that Palance was "drunk" or "stoned") was espousing on television his claim that a "massive cover-up" was underway to prevent the public from finding out about the mistake. However the rumor started, it was undoubtedly inspired by Palance's rather strange behavior at the previous year's ceremonies and fueled by the belief that Tomei and her role (as Mona Lisa in the comedy My Cousin Vinny) were too slight to merit her winning an Academy Award over the other established actresses (Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Judy Davis, all of whom appeared in "serious" films) who were also nominated for the award.

Last updated:   11 August 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/tomei.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  

---

  Sources:

    Ebert, Roger.   "Answer Man."

    Chicago Sun-Times.   15 June 1997   (p. 5).

    Sheehan, David.   "For Outstanding Achievement in the Art of Oscar Rumors . . ."

    The Orange County Register.   29 March 1994   (p. F2).

    The Hollywood Reporter.   "And the Loser Is: Bad Oscar Rumor."

    22 March 1994.

    [Worcester] Telegram & Gazette.   "Maybe Some Oscars Should Be Conditional."

    1 May 1997   (p. C2).