Between myself and fellow Actors Studio Drama School graduate Bradley Cooper, we have nine Oscar nominations. I’m pretty appalled on Cooper’s behalf, of course, because he owns all nine of said nominations, but shouldn’t he have broken through with a win by now?
Don’t expect him to be bothered by it. Cooper knows by now the Oscars are a bunch of pomp, circumstance, subjectivity and whomever can spend the most on a hyper-aggressive marketing campaign. He understands that he poured his heart and soul into directing, writing, producing and starring in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Let the chips fall where they may when it comes to accolades.
They tell you not to be too “results-oriented” in acting. Cooper is far more concerned with the outcome of this ongoing magical Philadelphia Eagles season, or so it seems!
Yes, Netflix is positioning the film for an awards-season push with a late-year release date, but no, Cooper couldn’t care less about the golden statuettes for his passion project. Nope. The only hardware this Philly guy is interested in happens to be that silver Lombardi Trophy handed out at the Super Bowl each year.
With the great Howard Stern interviewing him, Cooper was presented with two options in a hypothetical dream scenario: 1) Maestro winning Best Director and Best Actor Oscars, along with Carey Mulligan winning Best Actress; 2) The Eagles winning Super Bowl LVIII.
Cooper chose door No. 2. With zero hesitation. That’s a true Football Guy and a real fan right there! Also, FWIW, I think Cooper has a decent shot at Best Actor for Maestro. In any other year, he might be the favorite — if not for Cillian Murphy’s instantly-iconic turn as the biographical subject of Christopher Nolan’s epic, Oppenheimer.
No but really Maestro looks lit. Life is good for Cooper; even better with the Eagles sitting on an NFL-best 10-1 record. They’re kicking aside the notion that teams who lose the Super Bowl are bad the following season. It’s like they’re allergic to losing. I just counted this up by myself: Do you realize that Jalen Hurts has gone 29-4 over his last 33 starts, including the playoffs!? WHAT.
“Wins aren’t a QB stat” is a thing for a reason. Philadelphia GM Howie Roseman has built arguably the NFL’s best roster around Hurts despite just forking over a massive contract extension for him. Nevertheless, Hurts going 29-4 is positively bonkers. Pretty good chance the Eagles come out of the NFC unless the 49ers can stop them. We’ll get a potential NFC Championship Game rematch/preview when they face off in Week 13.
B-Coops will likely be on hand to watch at Lincoln Financial Field, in that box suite with owner Jeffrey Lurie. Here’s a little more from Stern’s interview about how Cooper and Lurie became friends.
