8. Marisa Tomei's Best Supporting Actress Win For My Cousin Vinny
It's been vehemently denied by all parties since, but there's always going to be controversy surrounding Marisa Tomei's Best Supporting Actress win for My Cousin Vinny in 1992. Tomei, a virtual unknown in a pool of prestigious talent that included Vanessa Redgrave, initially surprised everyone when she was nominated for her turn in the sleeper hit that was released over a year before the ceremony, a surprise that doubled when she actually won, beating out the perceived lock, Redgrave (nominated for her work in Howard's End), in the process. This is no mere upset, though, because it's long been rumoured that Tomei's win was actually an outright mistake. There isn't enough space here to really convey the diffuse nature of the rumour, so, in a nutshell: Presenter Jack Palance, a bona fide wild-card who the year before accepted his own Oscar by doing one-armed push-ups and who preceded Tomei's award presentation by getting fellow nominee Judy Davis' name wrong (he called her Joan), supposedly read the last nominee's name off the teleprompter, rather than the actual winner's. It was presumed he was either drunk or stoned or both. It's been the subject of debate for many years, but unlike most rumours, this one just won't seem to go away, and as a consequence it has forever lingered over the Academy, serving as perhaps the most prevalent Oscar conspiracy theory to date.
