A Write-In Campaign For Ben Affleck? It's Happened Before

After winning the Golden Globe for Best Director on ARGO, Ben Affleck's absence from the Oscar nominations list is proving even more baffling in H'wood. I was talking with a friend during the Globes and we joked that maybe he could mount a write-in campaign. Today there is a think piece in the Hollywood Reporter on just that idea and how that could be possible, if highly improbable.

The big shock to me was that it's possible at all and, actually, had been done two times before. There was a campaign for Bette Davis's performance in OF HUMAN BONDAGE which was unsuccessful as she came in third. Even more shocking is the fact they used to release the voting tally!  The second campaign was a cinematographer of MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, Hal Mohr, who actually won an Oscar based on his write-in effort.

However, since then, the Academy has banned write-in votes so it would involve a huge revision of Academy rules to make it happen. Also, the simple fact that voting is online for the first time this year makes a write-in on an electronic ballot kind of impossible. So Ben might have to settle with his Globe win and maybe hope to slay the ZERO DARK THIRTY & LINCOLN dragons for Best Picture.