Bill Maher is a religious bigot. Simple as that.

You're right, George Burns did win the Supporting Oscar that year; now Dourif's loss is not so mystifying. The Academy went for sentiment that year, as it very often does. Incidentally, Gene Wilder played Billy Bibbit in the same Broadway production that starred Kirk Douglas; that would have been interesting to see. Also, Ed Ames (!) played Chief Bromden in the same production.

Ben, I think you were a little hard on Spencer Tracy. You need to see two films he made at Fox in the early 30s before he went to MGM: "Dante's Inferno" and "The Power and the Glory". He plays unsympathetic characters in both films, and he is superb. They show up on Fox Movie Channel from time to time. Also, Jack Nicholson's performance in "Easy Rider" is the best thing about the film and makes it worth watching. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper phone in their performances You may be right about Nicholson being miscast in "Cuckoo's Nest"; I have never read the book. Kirk Douglas played McMurphy on the stage, and he is not a huge red-headed Irishman either. You are absolutely right about Brad Dourif's performance as Billy Bibbit being one of the most overlooked performances in film history. Why he didn't get the Supporting Actor Oscar is mystifying.

Thanks!

I tweeted a link to this video, and here is a response I got from a #OWS supporter: "She just doesn't realize that Zionist does not =Jew. Common mistake.You're just trying to create division in #ows but will fail"

If you follow that logic, it would be OK for the woman in the video to say "Jews control the banks" as long as she didn't use the word "Zionist".