Finally...something to look forward to at the Oscars

The highlight of this year’s Oscar show is sure to be an honorary award for the amazing Lauren Bacall.

The former Betty Joan Perske burst onto the screen at 19 with a spectacular performance opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have And Have Not after director Howard Hawks’ wife discovered her on a 1943 Harper’s Bazaar cover. Bogart and Bacall, who sizzled together onscreen, fell in love during the making of To Have, married in 1945, and went on to appear in The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. Unfortunately, Lauren’s career and acting abilities were often ignored due to the intense public scrutiny that accompanied her marriage...

...Kind of like Brad and Angelina, except that Bogie and Bacall were more glamorous and both of them had talent.

Bacall remained Bogart’s wife until his 1957 death from cancer. During the years, she impressed many with her great wit and style and even managed to steal How To Marry A Millionaire from an overaged and frumpy Bette Grable and a myopic Marilyn Monroe. There was also a will-they-or-won’t-they romance with Frank Sinatra that ended badly—she called him a “shit” in her autobiography—before Lauren left Hollywood in the late ’50s and took her two children to New York to kick off a stage career.

Unfortunately, her first vehicle—Goodbye Charlie, in which she played a womanizing heel who’s reincarnated as a woman and has to fend off horny men—bombed despite her good notices. (The fact that Debbie Reynolds inherited the role in the subsequent film version was a good indication of how bad the material was.) Despite the fact that Ms. Bacall could not really sing or dance (and there are YouTube clips to prove it), she finally triumphed on Broadway in two musicals, winning Tony Awards for both Applause and Woman of the Year. She also married again, this time to Jason Robards Jr. The union was ultimately doomed due to Robards’ drinking problems, but she did have a child with him, the hunky Sam Robards, who went into films and played the father in Steven Spielberg’s A.I.

Lauren was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn as Barbra’s Streisand’s horribly lit and photographed mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces (also known as Barbra Has Two Filters). Heavily favored to win, she was upset by Juliet Bincoche that year, and the look on Bacall’s face at that moment was priceless. There was no false, “isn’t-she-great?” fakeness, just genuine hurt and annoyance.

But after 65 years in show business, Lauren Bacall will finally get her Oscar. At 85, she remains as feisty as ever and will forever be remembered for her contribution to American film. (And for her fantastic High Point Coffee ads from twenty years ago: “You know what makes High Point taste so good? Deep brewed flavah…You’re gonna love it!”)