Marisa Tomei controversial ‘Best Supporting Actress’ win at the 1993 Oscars
The Oscars are no stranger to controversy. From Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 edition to the hilarious mix-up between La La Land and Moonlight for ‘Best Picture’ in 2017, the Oscars have seen many memorable gaffes, mix-ups and madness play out in front of the cameras over the years. One of the most interesting tales is the controversy centred around Marisa Tomei after she won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ at the 1993 Academy Awards for My Cousin Vinny.
For her performance as the petrol-head Mona Lisa Vito in the 1992 comedy, Tomei beat established stars such as Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave and Judy Davis to the prize, which did not go down well as she was a relative newcomer.
After this upset, a rumour continued to abound for years, speculating that the young Tomei didn’t actually win and that it was a mistake by the speaker, Jack Palance, which caused her to take home the award. The rumour states that Palance was unable to read the teleprompter and card properly because he was either too drunk or stoned. This led those who bought into the conspiracy to allege that he repeated the last name on the teleprompter, ‘Tomei’.
A 2015 Gawker piece traces the rumour back to one in The Hollywood Reporter that broke the theory, which was then picked up and popularised by Entertainment Weekly. Watching the clip of the event, it’s easy to understand how people would put two and two together to make five. Palance seems like he’s had a drink, but that might have just been his character and age.
The allegation has since been repeatedly disproved, with the Academy even forced to deny it. Later, an accountant from Price Waterhouse explained that if a mistake had occurred, they would have rectified it at the time. They said: “We have an agreement with the Academy that one of us would step on stage, introduce ourselves, and say the presenter misspoke.”
The theory became so prominent that Tomei joked about it when hosting Saturday Night Live and has continued to address it over her career. She admitted, “That was really hurtful at first,” in 2001 after being nominated for her second Oscar for her work in Todd Field’s In the Bedroom.
“I remember speaking with her manager, and we both thought she was going to win,” Dale Launer, the screenwriter of My Cousin Vinny, told The Wrap in 2017. “One, her performance is more satisfying, more emotionally satisfying, and two, everybody saw ‘Vinny.’ And she popped in ‘Vinny.'”
“Everyone I spoke to said, ‘Who is this woman? She’s wonderful,'” the film’s director Johnathan Lynn told the same publication.
