Cheesecake for the Oscars

So tonight Hollywood slaps itself on the back, and hands out gold statuettes of a naked guy named Oscar.

I love the movies, and I love the cheesy-ness of tinsel town, so I decided to bake a cheese cake!

It was easy -- with a graham cracker crust, 2 packages of Weight Watchers Cream Cheese, eggs, sugar and imitation vanilla from the 99 Cent Only Store.

I was going to decorate it, but it turned out looking just like a full moon, so I just had to leave it alone.

But all this talk about cheesecake made me wonder when the last time some real cheesecake won an Oscar, and I immediately thought of one of the most controversial wins in Oscar history -- Judy Holliday, as best actress in "Born Yesterday". I know I'm going way back here over 60 years, but it gives me an excuse to talk about some of my favorite movies, performances, and actors and actresses.

So indulge me, if you will . . . first the trailer for "Born Yesterday"



As you can see, Judy Holliday plays the archetypical not so dumb blonde chorus girl turned mol. And she did a fine job, but consider if you will the ladies she up against for Best Actress award that year: Gloria Swanson for "Sunset Boulevard", Bette Davis for "All About Eve", Anne Baxter for "All About Eve", and Eleanor Parker for "Caged".

Personally, I think the Academy Award should have gone to Gloria Swanson, or perhaps Bette Davis, but you see I'm a little partial to "Sunset Boulevard". It is simply one of the best, if not the best, movie ever made about Hollywood.

William Holden as the beleaguered script writer, and Gloria Swanson as an aging movie star are superb. Bill Holden co-starred with Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday", and did not win his Oscar for "Sunset Boulevard," but would receive one a few years later for his role in "Stalag 17".



But "Sunset Boulevard" wasn't the only movie in which Bill Holden played a stressed screenwriter, there was also the underrated comedy "Paris When It Sizzles":



But, I digress . . . we were talking about cheesecake, weren't we? How's about we close with the ultimate cheesecake, Marilyn Monroe, who sadly never won an Oscar, but was a not so dumb blonde in the vein of Judy Holliday. Here she is in one of her first roles, Miss Caswell in "All About Eve". I see her star rising like the sun in the east.