  Mickey Rourke is nominated as best actor for his work in The Wrestler. (AP file photo)
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Hollywood operates just like a big old high school, and the Oscars are the equivalent of prom night in Tinseltown.
It's prince and princess night. Limousines. Tuxedos. Who's having the best after-party? They probably draw the line at corsages. Or maybe not.
The cool kids, aka A-list actors, are the prettiest and the most popular, but as with any high school, there's room for jocks, nerds, artists, emos, regular guys and cheerleaders.
And scapegoats. Every year at the Oscars, somebody gets punished. There are always snubs and oversights in the list of nominees, but there are also people who do get nominated and are then ostracized for some wrong-doing, real or imagined. Feelings are tender in the moviemaking world, and memories are long. Just like high school.
Eddie Murphy, for example, got the Oscar cold shoulder two year ago when his supporting-actor Oscar for Dreamgirls looked like a lock -- and then wasn't.
Murphy won a Golden Globe and many other prizes for playing soul singer James (Thunder) Early in the film, and there was no reason to think he wouldn't win an Academy Award, too.
But as soon as Norbit hit theatres, Murphy's Oscar cause was lost. Many predicted that the racist, sexist comedy would offend Oscar voters, or perhaps remind them that Murphy has some history with the Academy Awards -- he pointed out at the 1988 event that whole thing is racist.
That's true, but who wants to hear the truth?
There are other such examples of being sent to Oscar coventry. It took Martin Scorsese forever to win an Oscar, perhaps because he's not part of the West Coast establishment.
Julianne Moore has never won an Oscar, despite four nominations and endless talent. Of course, she's both smart
and politically outspoken, and that's anathema to Hollywood. (Not so smart and politically outspoken are an okay combo, as Sean Penn has proved. Intelligence is the real buzzkill in Tinseltown.)
This year's scapegoat at the Oscars is shaping up to be Mickey Rourke, a guy whose comeback in The Wrestler has won him every conceivable award. Rourke was doing fine on the circuit, waxing modest and grateful for The Wrestler, but things have changed in the past few weeks. The Oscar competition involves the same kind of jockeying for position, jealous gossiping and infighting that mar every popularity contest in high school, and Rourke's success seems to be getting up some noses.
There are reports that he's feuding with Sean Penn and annoying his co-star, Evan Rachel Wood. Why are we even hearing these stories?
Maybe the renegade outsider just can't win at Hollywood High, a place where guys such as Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt are BMOC. Guess we'll find out tonight.
