Getting an Academy Award nomination has to be one of the most satisfying experiences for anyone involved in the film industry. Getting a nomination for having one of the worst experiences in Hollywood during the year...maybe not so satisfying.
Since its inception in 1981, the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation has presented the annual "Razzies," for the films and performers who stunk up the joint of Hollywood and the box office mercilessly. Yet in the more than 30 years, there have been five instances where the best and the worst seemed to collide. These were performances and songs that were nominated for both the Oscar and the Razzie.
James Coco, Only When I Laugh (Supporting Actor, 1981)
Coco was nominated for his performance in this dramedy based on Neil Simon's play The Gingerbread Lady. While co-stars Marsha Mason and Joan Hackett only had Oscar nods on their mind, Coco had the best and worst award experience among his fellow actors. At the 2nd annual Razzies in 1982, he became the first individual to be dubiously honored as an Oscar and Razzie contender. He lost both - the Oscar to Arthur's John Gielgud, and the Razzie to Steve Forrest for his work in the scenery-chewing camp classic Mommie Dearest.
Amy Irving, Yentl (Supporting Actress, 1983)
The former Mrs. Steven Spielberg had an intriguing history with the Razzie before she found herself nominated for both as the best friend of Barbra Streisand's title character - a woman who becomes a man to better her educational life. Irving was the first recipient of the Worst Supporting Actress Razzie for her work in the 1980 road movie Honeysuckle Rose, the film that launched Willie Nelson's classic anthem "On the Road Again." Irving would lose both awards that year - the Oscar to Linda Hunt's cross-dressing turn in The Year of Living Dangerously, and the Razzie to Sybil Danning for Chained Heat and Golan-Globus' Hercules.
Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse, "Life in a Looking Glass" from That's Life! (Original Song, 1986)
How could this be possible? A song for a Jack Lemmon-Julie Andrews dramedy directed by Blake Edwards getting a nomination for the year's worst song? Surprisingly, it was possible. Despite having two top-tier Oscar winners in Mancini and Bricusse, and a celebrated singer in Tony Bennett, it still managed to get nominated for the Razzie - plus the Oscar and the Golden Globe. It lost the Oscar to Top Gun's "Take My Breath Away" and it would also be defeated at the Razzies. Even with tough competition from Thomas Dolby (Howard the Duck's title theme) and George Harrison (Shanghai Surprise), the song eventually lost to Prince's "Love or Money" from his film Under the Cherry Moon.
Diane Warren, "How Do I Live" from Con Air (1997)
The battle over whose version to include in the film - LeAnn Rimes or Trisha Yearwood - was bad enough. To have the song then nominated for both Oscar and Razzie just added to the disappointment. This romantic ballad from the legendary songwriter lost the Razzie to the song score of Kevin Costner's apocalyptic drama The Postman - and then the Oscar to Titanic's over-sappy love theme "My Heart Will Go On."
Diane Warren, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon (1998)
To have it happen once was already a dubious honor - but Warren found herself in the same Oscar-Razzie boat the following year. And she did it with an Aerosmith-performed song for a disaster thriller. The song would become a blockbuster hit for Warren and the rock legends, but it would end up with both best and worst original song nominations. At the Oscars, it was defeated by Stephen Schwartz for The Prince of Egypt ("When You Believe"). The Razzie ceremony had the song lose to the "big hit" from An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, the Joe Eszterhas co-penned "I Wanna Be Mike Ovitz!"
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