Editorial

Welcome to Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page, the most comprehensive site for Michelle Pfeiffer information, news and useless facts on the Internet. This Editorial page is really just an opportunity to talk about certain issues, clear up rumours, and answer questions that seem to come up time and time again...

It's been a long time since my last editorial, but here's the deal: Michelle Pfeiffer's latest film, White Oleander, is the actress's best shot at Oscar glory in at least the last nine years. With award season gearing up, and all the Hollywood studios beginning their campaigns to catch Academy voters' attention, I thought it was a good idea to do a little unofficial campaigning for Michelle. So here is one pfan's list of five very good reasons why Michelle Pfeiffer should finally win an Academy Award for her work in White Oleander.

Pfans know that over the past decade Michelle has turned in a string of excellent performances. However, critics' comments about White Oleander suggest that her performance as treacherous artist/mother Ingrid Magnussen is destined to become one of her signature roles. That places Ingrid alongside Batman Returns' villainous Catwoman, and lounge singer, Suzie Diamond, of The Fabulous Baker Boys. All three are roles that allow Michelle to draw on her dark, cynical side, and liberate herself from the need to appear likable. And although these turns are rare for Michelle, they prove that she is always best when embracing her darker nature.

Put simply, Michelle's work in White Oleander is amongst the best of her career. It also doesn't seem like a stretch to say that her performance is one of the best of 2002 (for a sampling of the critical praise, just click on the For Your Consideration ads below). The Academy Awards voters therefore have no reason not to finally let three-time nominee Michelle finally get her hands on the little gold man. Michelle Pfeiffer is genuinely worthy.

In 1990, Michelle went to the Academy Awards ceremony as a firm favourite to win a Best Actress Oscar for her work in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Despite Michelle having been honoured by essentially every major critics' board and at every other award show, the Academy decided to go for a 'historic' vote, and made Jessica Tandy the oldest Oscar winner ever for Driving Miss Daisy.

A year earlier, Michelle, nominated for Dangerous Liaisons, also lost out in the Best Supporting Actress category to Geena Davis.

After these injustices, the Academy proceeded to screw Michelle over a few more times in the coming years. Afraid to credit Michelle's Catwoman performance, she was nominated for the wrong film (Love Field) in 1992. The following year she was curiously ignored for her moving performance as Countess Ellen Olenska in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence. After that, nothing whatsoever.

It's pretty safe to say that Michelle is under-appreciated as an actress. Although certain critics have championed her over the years, praising her consistently excellent performances, the Academy voters have yet to acknowledge her talent and the diversity of a career spanning some 22 years. It's about time that they did. And although we pfans know the award should really be for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress will have to console us, and Michelle, for now.

The Academy owes Michelle an Oscar. Full stop. At the moment her predicted competition in the Best Supporting Actress category includes such names as Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Zeta-Jones. With the exception of Zeta-Jones, all of the other women have won Academy Awards before. Why not finally give Michelle her chance? As for Zeta-Jones, if Michelle couldn't win for her singing performance in The Fabulous Baker Boys, why should Zeta-Jones for Chicago? Besides, as the possible youngest nominee Zeta-Jones has a good few years of juicy parts before offers start drying up after forty.

Bad anti-Academy behaviour is certainly no reason to deny Michelle her Oscar. Apart from a career-long resistance to being pigeon-holed because of her looks, Michelle has apparently lived by all the unsaid rules and codes of Hollywood. If you nominate her for an Oscar she will be at the auditorium on the March night, and in the months preceding the ceremony she will be on her best behaviour, doing what decorum requires. All in all, the perfect nominee, who won't be reduced to tears or hysteria should she win.

5) Beauty is no excuse

One criticism typically leveled at Michelle, especially when playing 'ordinary' characters, is that she is too beautiful. No matter how sincere and honest her performance is, her looks are a distraction. Consider the critics who were paralytic when Michelle played a frumpy waitress in Frankie & Johnny. The 'beauty' issue will undeniably surface again with White Oleander (even Michelle has said that she probably won't get nominated because she looks too good for prison).

In the case of White Oleander, critics are actually unable to claim that Michelle's looks are unrealistic for the character. Oleander's Ingrid Magnussen is no ordinary mortal to begin with. In Janet Fitch's novel, on which the film is based, Ingrid's awesome beauty is repeatedly admired by different characters. In the case of the film, it has to be mentioned that it is told entirely from the perspective of Ingrid's adoring daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman). Filtered through such a mindset, Ingrid maintaining a glamorous appearance despite being imprisoned, is not that incredible.

White Oleander is therefore one of the few films that actually factors in, and emphasises, Michelle's looks instead of ignoring them. It also is her first real shot at Oscar gold in a very, very long time.


The first official For Your Consideration ad, released by Warner Bros.	The second official FYC ad, focused exclusively on Michelle Pfeiffer.	One of Nathaniel's homemade FYC ads. Click here for more...

27 November 2001

Well, what you are looking at is one of the last updates of the year of 2001, simply because I'm working this festive season and won't be able to get to the school that hosts this site. Another thing is that the entire harddrive is being replaced these holidays. That means that, if this site isn't deleted in the process:-(, there will be some downtime during December before it resurfaces again, perhaps at a new address. But basically that is all I know for now.

However, I'm not letting this site die. I am in the process of copying things across to a somewhat smaller, tidier version of the site at: Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page (Bookmark this!). In the meanwhile, in order to safeguard the image galleries, other webmasters are welcome to copy images from the galleries and include them on their sites...

21 September 2001

I know that this is belated, but I would like to offer my condolences to anyone out there who was in any way affected by the terrorist attack on the USA on Tuesday, 11 September... It is clear that the terrorists, whoever they are, aimed to cause as much devastation as possible, and they appear to have succeeded. It really is a global catastrophe.

1 June 2001

If anyone has sent me things over the past few months, and they have either received no response, or their material has not appeared on the site, please resubmit your goodies to this address. My PC recently crashed taking with it everything that I had not yet included.

Please note: all submissions are welcome, but please try to limit file-size, and if sending images, please ensure that they are JPEGS or GIFS.

Important information, and Frequently Asked Questions:

1) I am not Michelle Pfeiffer. I am not affiliated with her, her management, or any of the film studios that produce her films. This site is simply a fansite, put together and administered for Pfans by a Pfan. It would be nice if there was some sort of official co-operation, but unfortunately I don't see that happening. Michelle Pfeiffer doesn't have a web presence. She is 'afraid' to visit her fansites because she believes we put up nude fakes of her, and have her a year older than she really is. Who knows how she got that idea?
If you are trying to contact her through this site, you'll be disappointed. However, if you feel like you just have to reach Ms Pfeiffer, included on the site are a couple of Pfanmail addresses. I've never written to them, so I wouldn't know whether any sort of reply is possible, but the opportunity is there, and you are free to try.

2) The purpose of this site is really to present Pfans with something more about their favourite leading lady, than the majority of other sites provide. There are still the usual features like news, filmography and links, but there also are plenty of unique features, and specialised galleries- just celebrating being a Pfan. there are plenty of images on this site, predominantly my favourites, but really, the emphasis is on written content. If it is hundreds of images you are looking for, there are pages listed on the Links page that are devouted only to images of Michelle. From previous experience, extensive use of images often leads to the most headaches for webmasters, as exclusive pictures are stolen and plastered across other webpages by lazy owners, and copyright seems to be more stringently applied when it comes to JPEGS and GIFS. At Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page there is plenty of information, fan writing, useless facts etc. to keep you busy, and hopefully that is enough to make you come back.

3) Why Michelle Pfeiffer? I've been a Pfan since 1992. Michelle's cinema-history making role as Catwoman in Batman Returns caught my attention, but really, it was more than that. To quote Film Review magazine, Michelle is 'quite simply one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of this or any other generation.' I don't think I can put it better than that. It's hard to believe that one person can be gifted with such a combination of beauty and talent, and still be so underappreciated by the majority of cinema goers, and critics when it comes to awards season. When, in 1998, I had the opportunity to create my own webpage, I couldn't think of a better subject matter than sharing my appreciation with others of the living legend that is Michelle Pfeiffer.

4)The Michelle Pfeiffer E-zine is the perfect way for Pfans to keep up to date with the latest news concerning Michelle Pfeiffer. Every month an email is delivered directly to your mailbox filled with all the news and Michelle 'mentions' gathered over the past 4 weeks. The E-zine was launched in February 2000, when it became clear that I would not be able to update my site as often as I had in the previous two years. Over the past year, the number of subscribers to the 'zine has increased dramatically, and it will be continuing on in 2001. To join, all you have to do is enter your email address in the block below:

More information can be found on the Michelle Pfeiffer E-zine Page. Other alternative methods of receiving the latest in news, are the Michelle Pfeiffer mailing lists. On the Mailing List page, you can find out more information about just two of the lists, my quieter one, and the larger Topica list that has been running for the past few years. Both contain Pfans from around the world...

5)Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page will continue its existence in 2001. You have probably noticed the new look. That is just one of the changes that should be implemented this year, as well as the introduction of some new features, and a renovating of the old. That will take some time. However, probably the most important piece of information about this site for 2001, is the implementation of an alternate version of Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page. Some of you may recall periods in 2000 when this site could not be accessed, as well as long periods when it was not updated. Because my schedual for this year is also somewhat unclear, I've begun work on a mirror version that will always be up, and that I will be able to update, no matter where I am. There is nothing much there yet, but you may want to bookmark: Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page
for future reference.

6)Last but not least, if you for some reason feel the need to contact me with suggestions, comments or queries, please feel free to do. Especially if you think there is a question you want answered on this Editorial Page. You can do that, by clicking here...

Previous Editorial (October 1999): In response to an attack on Michelle's career: Rant # 1