Say my name: All best picture nominees referred to characters in titles

Here's something you can file under "Neat but Useless Information": For the first time in 44 years, the titles of all five best picture nominees this year referred to at least one character in the film's story, Tim Dirks of Filmsite.org reports.

• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" = Benjamin Button, a man inexplicably aging backward.
• "Frost/Nixon" = David Frost, British newsman and playboy, and Richard Nixon, former president of the United States.
• "Milk" = Harvey Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor and the first openly gay elected official in the U.S.
• "The Reader" = Michael Berg, who reads numerous books aloud to his older lover.
  
• "Slumdog Millionaire" = Jamal Malik, a boy from India's slums who appears on and wins the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

This phenomenon has occurred only one other time over the 81 years of the Academy Awards, in 1964, when the best picture nominees were:

• "Becket" = Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who clashed with King Henry II during the 12th century.
• "Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" = Dr. Strangelove, a mad scientist and former Nazi now working for the U.S. government.
• "Mary Poppins" = Mary Poppins, a magical nanny who brightens the lives of all around her.
• "My Fair Lady" = Eliza Doolittle, a girl from England's slums who is cultivated into a lady on a bet.
• "Zorba the Greek" = Alexis Zorba, an eternal optimist who brings out the best in others.

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Photo: Richard Burton, left, as Thomas Becket in "Becket" (Paramount), Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in "Milk" (Focus Features)

Comments

[Dennis]

Small correction: "The Reader" does not refer to Hanna Schmitz but Michael Berg. The original German title of the book is "Der Vorleser" (which is male).

[daniel]

There have been several articles lately about the film industry and the Academy being slightly sexist. Coincidentally, amongst this year's nominees, it is interesting to notice that ALL these titles refer to MALE characters.

[gorelick]

consider 1968?

Oliver!
Rachel, Rachel
Funny Girl
Romeo & Juliet

...and The Lion in Winter, which I think clearly refers to O'Toole's character.

[Adam Keller]

The really funny thing is that even if WALL•E or The Dark Knight had been nommed, this still would've applied.

Character names all down the line.