We don't know about you, but we're in a sort of post-Celebrity Big Brother betting lull. We want to bet on stuff, but what? Dancing On Ice? That's OK in small doses, but if you read about that every day you'd be down the noose shop faster than you can say "I still have so much to live for."
So we've struck upon a giant worldwide betting market to keep you busy for the next few weeks – The Oscars. The Oscars have a many long and proud traditions – like the one of awarding prizes to all sorts of depressing films that you only go and see because you feel you have to and the one of the ceremony lasting for so long that the majority of the audience starts crying about two-thirds in. And now you can bet on the Oscars too because, let's face it, you probably wouldn't watch otherwise.
This week we'll be looking at the Oscars betting odds for the Best Actor category, so here's part one – for Ryan Gosling, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio – with help from Paddy Power…
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson – Ryan Gosling is easily the outsider for the Best Actor Oscar this year, primarily because nobody has the faintest clue who he is. You may know Ryan Gosling as the lanky crying boy from that Notebook film that made your girlfriend cry even though the only tears it made you want to shed came when you realised The Notebook effectively made your life two hours shorter. Ryan Gosling picked up his Best Actor Oscar nomination for Half Nelson, a film that nobody has actually seen about a drug-taking teacher. On Ryan Gosling's side is the Broken Social Scene soundtrack for Half Nelson, the Swedish acting award he won for the role and Kevin Smith saying that Half Nelson was one of the best films of the last decade. He probably thought that about Clerks 2, though. Current Best Actor Oscar betting odds – 40/1
Will Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness – The Pursuit Of Happyness is a film with a title so nauseatingly cutesy that we want to stab it. Fortunately, though, The Pursuit Of Happyness also stars Will Smith, so even if it was about a man playing with a sheet of bubblewrap for two hours it would still do well at the box office. Our main problem about Will Smith being nominated for a Best Actor Oscar is that in any film he ever makes Will Smith always plays Will Smith. That means that, although he's got an Oscar nomination for The Pursuit Of Happyness, to maintain scientific Oscar fairness he has to get a Best Actor nomination for every single film he's ever in, and be given backdated retrospective Oscar nominations for all the films he's been in. That's right, even Wild Wild West. If that thought doesn't deter the Academy, nothing will. Current Best Actor Oscar betting odds – 25/1
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond – Funny choice this. Leonardo DiCaprio was magnificent in The Departed, where you could feel his character's pent-up anger and frustration burn through his skin, but the Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination eluded him. And then Leonardo DiCaprio made Blood Diamond, where he had to run around in a vest and speak in a South African accent that sounds like he based it on a foggy, decade-old recollection of Patsy Kensit's voice in Lethal Weapon 2, and he gets a Best Actor Oscar for it. Very strange. Our gut says that Leonardo DiCaprio won't be winning the Oscar for Best actor this year, but that's because our gut has never seen the Blood Diamond trailer without hearing a handful of titters every time Leo opens his mouth. Current Best Actor Oscar betting odds – 9/1
Tomorrow – the Oscars betting odds for Peter O'Toole and Forest Whitaker. But if that's too long to wait – or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with – head right over to the Paddy Power Oscars betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.
Yohan says
I think that Will Smith should only play characters called ‘Will Smith’ in his films to save time. Example – in The Pursuit Of Happyness Will Smith should be called ‘Will Smith With Big Hair And An Annoying Son’
Anthonette says
I think Leos accent in Blood Diamond is naural and magnificent.