Michael Douglas Says Glenn Close Deserved Cher's Oscar. Only 38 Years Late
On Graham Norton, Douglas relitigated the 1988 Best Actress race for his Fatal Attraction co-star. Cher was not on the couch to reply.
By the Heckle Desk · · 2 min read
Michael Douglas and Glenn Close sat down together on The Graham Norton Show last week to talk about Fatal Attraction, which came out in 1987 and has been frightening married men ever since. It was a nice reunion. Douglas told the story of how the filmmakers almost didn't ask Close to audition because she already had three Oscar nominations, and how she insisted and blew them away. Then, warmed up, he decided to settle an old score on her behalf.
She should have won for Fatal Attraction, Douglas said. It was her fourth nomination. 'Cher won that year.' Norton asked if he meant for Moonstruck. 'That's what we all said,' Douglas replied, and the studio audience gasped and laughed at once, the noise people make when somebody at a wedding mentions the bride's first husband. Norton, ever the gentleman, joked that Cher had put a little gray in her hair for the part.
Moonstruck, mind you, was not some fluke. It had six nominations at the 1988 Oscars and won three, including Cher's. But Douglas isn't wrong that Close has had a rough go of it. She has eight Oscar nominations and no wins, which ties Peter O'Toole for the most acting nominations without one. In two weeks, on Nov. 15, the Academy is finally giving her an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards, which is what Hollywood gives you when it's tired of watching you clap for other people.
So the timing makes sense. Douglas is doing a little campaigning. But there's a reason nobody in show business publicly re-scores an Oscar race from the Reagan administration, and it's not good manners. It's that half the people in that room in 1988 are retired and the other half are Cher, and Cher has been on the internet for years. She is not a woman you want to give a reason. It's a little like poking a bear that also has a Twitter account and a farewell tour that never ends.
I'll grant Douglas this much. He's loyal, and loyalty at his age is a rare and fine thing; most men his age are loyal only to their cardiologist. But a man who has been married to Catherine Zeta-Jones for 25 years ought to understand better than anyone that you never, ever tell a woman another woman deserved her trophy. Not out loud. Not on British television. Old wounds are like old Oscars, and you can polish them all you like, but you can't give them back.