Marisa Tomei’s My Cousin Vinny Oscar controversy, explained

“My Cousin Vinny,” the 1992 courtroom comedy, is great for many reasons, most notably Marisa Tomei. Tomei’s character, Vinny Gambini’s (Joe Pesci) foul-mouthed but very supportive fiancée Mona Lisa Vito, comes into play in the film’s final act and provides the expert testimony needed to exonerate the wrongfully arrested defendants. Even critics who didn’t like the film, like Roger Ebert, were happy to praise Tomei’s performance. “Tomei’s surprise turn as an expert witness is a highlight and made me feel like I’d like to see this couple again,” Ebert wrote in his review, “Perhaps in a more focused script.”

Still, when Tomei won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, she was met with some haters. Because she was the least established actress nominated that year, and because Vanessa Redgrave was considered the favorite for her performance in Howard’s End, rumors quickly spread that Tomei’s win was a mistake. As Snopes put it, “Vicious rumors circulated suggesting that host Jack Palance had misread the envelope and mistakenly handed the Oscar to Marisa.” Too embarrassed to correct the error, the Academy apparently decided to easy to join in.

It goes without saying that this conspiracy theory and its many variations have all been debunked. Watching it again, it’s not just clear that Palance did it not He’s too drunk to correctly interpret the winner (as some theories suggest), but we know from later Oscar controversies that the Academy won’t commit to a mistake like this. In 2017, presenters of the Best Picture Oscar accidentally announced “La La Land” as the winner, even though the actual winner was “Moonlight.” This mishap was deeply embarrassing, but the Academy nevertheless resolved it quickly and easily. The idea that a fake winner would receive one of his undeserved prizes now appears to have been completely debunked.

The rumor that Tomei had mistakenly been awarded the Oscar began spreading when Palance mentioned her name, and that same week the Academy felt the need to debunk the rumor, arguing that the eventual “La La.” Land” mishap would ultimately prove to be true. As AP reported at the time:

“Arthur Hiller, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Sunday that Price and Waterhouse’s accountants would intervene if Palance or another presenter announced the false name. ‘They would immediately storm out and say, ‘That’s not the case.’ Hiller said.

Still, the rumor persisted, not necessarily because everyone believed it, but because they wanted it to be true. This is reflected in many articles from the ’90s, such as this 1995 Flint Journal article (which describes Tomei’s win as a “blooper” and one of the “worst Oscar moments”). The author doesn’t even feel the need to elaborate on why he thinks this way, which only underlines how widespread and certain this opinion was at the time. When Tomei hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1994, the main joke in her monologue even addressed the rumor.

Reading through the 1990s coverage of Tomei’s victory, it’s hard not to feel that entertainment critics and journalists of the time fell into a similar trap to the characters in My Cousin Vinny, who don’t take Mona seriously for this reason Her accent and her appearance were ultimately surprised by her competence. Tomei doesn’t act much like Mona in real life, of course, but it’s still true that her role here – a largely comedic role in a lighthearted film – isn’t usually taken seriously at the Oscars. It’s often taken for granted that a comedic role can’t be that impressive; That may be why her win received so much ridicule, despite her impressive performance and despite the fact that My Cousin Vinny easily outlasted all of its Oscar competitors in the public consciousness.

“I was devastated,” Tomei said of the backlash in an interview later that year. “I thought the fact that I won surprisingly was a good thing, an exciting thing. I felt like I had a lot to prove because there are people out there who think I don’t deserve it.” She also spoke about the controversy in another interview, stating, “It was a difficult thing for me. But good, because I’ve made peace with it. I think it’s their problem.”