Forget Transformers TV spots and Oscar frontrunner Jean Dujardin's racy French posters; let's talk about Best Actor nominee Gary Oldman and the Jersey Shore bump he's about to get from this dramatic reading of Snooki peeing her pants. Jimmy Kimmel put the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy star up to the stunt on his late night show -- Which is on television! That thing that Oscar voters watch!
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If you're both a movie fan and a consummate statistician, it's easy to love and appreciate the Oscars for shoehorning the majority of film history into a manageable grading rubric. I'm an Oscar apologist myself, and I still have one bone to pick with the Academy -- and all award-spewing organizations: the unnecessary reliance on gender-based categories. Is it not more thrilling to pit all actors against each other? Is there such an objective difference between Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock? Meryl Streep and Robert Downey Jr.? "Actor" is a gender-neutral term, and I think we'd all better off -- and better entertained -- without the meaningless siphoning. Thus, I'm stacking up the best performances of 2011 without categorical regard for gender or role size. It's a winner-take-all affair, and this winner definitely wants it all. Here's my top 10:
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