The curse of the supporting class: Can winning a best supporting actress Oscar ruin your career?

When the Oscars are handed out at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on February 29, there’s one group of nominees who might be just as happy not to win: The five women up for best supporting actress. That’s because “Pirates of the Caribbean” isn’t the only thing with a curse attached to it. There’s a longstanding Hollywood superstition that a supporting actress win, rather than heralding that a new star has been born, means career oblivion.

Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 27, 2004. Read the complete article.

Published on msnbc.com Oct. 27, 2004. Read the complete original article.

Insert Character A into Show B: Could ‘Survivor’ characters make it on ‘Gilligan’s Island’?

Sometimes mixing things up in unexpected ways is the royal road to genius: Think of the first guy to put peanut butter next to jelly, or gin next to tonic. Sometimes it’s a really, really bad idea, like the time I ignored my mechanic’s advice and added a quart of maple syrup to my car’s engine instead of motor oil.

The same is true of TV shows. George Clooney and Noah Wyle once showed up as their “ER” characters on a particularly funny episode of “Friends.” Bob Newhart found a perfect way to end his 1980s sitcom by realizing the entire series had been just a dream of the character Newhart played in his 1970s sitcom. But there are plenty of crossovers that just shouldn’t happen, no matter how tempting they may seem. Here are seven of them.

Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 13, 2004. Read the complete article.

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