A few good men, one trophy

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" ms="" sans="" serif="" font-size:="">NEW DELHI: </span>A rookie amid veterans? Well, this is the scenario in the Best Actor category at the Oscars. One of the veterans in the fray is, of course, Jack Nicholson (who is in the race for the 12th time), the most nominated actor in the history of the Oscars.Nicholson has won the golden statuette thrice — two times in the best actor category, the last occasion being As Good As It Gets. Whew!<br /><br />Then, there is Michael Caine, who has been nominated six times and has won twice — for Hannah And Her Sisters in 1987 and The Cider House Rules in 2000. Next in line is Daniel Day-Lewis, who has been up for three nominations and won once in 1989 (My Left Foot) for his portrayal of Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy. Nicolas Cage has a perfect record. Nominated once, he won the Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995.<br /><br />As for the nominations, Nicholson has got it for About Schmidt, in which he plays Warren Schmidt, a man whose retirement precipitates a personal crisis that sends him on a journey of self-examination. Caine finds himself nominated for the film Quiet American, in which he plays British journalist Thomas Fowler, a man whose personal life becomes entangled in the political upheaval of colonial Vietnam. Daniel Day-Lewis, in turn, has been nominated for The Gangs Of New York and Nicolas Cage for Adaptation.<br /><br />So, who is the rookie? Adrien Brody, who has received his maiden nomination for Pianist, in which he essays the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a talented Jewish pianist who lives through the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto in wartime Poland. Brody has for long threatened to be recognised as one of the leading actors of his generation. Has his time come? March 23 — a sealed envelope, to be precise — holds all the answers.</div> </div>