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Saturday, November 12, 2011

"Jeopardy" contestant never heard of Joan Fontaine

Last week on the popular TV quiz show "Jeopardy", there was a question about Olivia and Joan, under the category "Hollywood History". I didn't watch the program, but apparently the question had something to do with naming the first sisters to be nominated for Oscars in the same year.

Contestant Kara Spak, a Chicago Sun Times writer with a history of embarrassing gaffes on the show,  failed to answer the Olivia-Joan question correctly. According to her own admission, she never even heard of Joan Fontaine:

I knew it would take a minor miracle for me to advance into the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions two-day final. I thought that minor miracle might occur during Final Jeopardy, with the “Hollywood History” category.

It did not. I was within striking distance, but in the end, victory eluded me, along with the names of the first two sisters who had been nominated for Oscars in the same category, the Final Jeopardy question.

Joan Fontaine? I had never heard of her until Alex Trebek said her name. The sister of Olivia de Havilland? Also news to me.

Read the full text of Spak's humorous report here:
Final Final Jeopardy for Sun-Times reporter
(Chicago Sun-Times, Nov 10 2011)

At the 1941 Oscars, Joan Fontaine was nominated for Suspicion (and won), and Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Hold Back the Dawn.

This was the first time a pair of sisters were nominated in the same category. I think the last time was in 1966 when Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave were both nominated for Best Actress (and lost to Elizabeth Taylor)

A complete list of winners can be found here:

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Someone needs to brush up on their cinema history!

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