With the nominations for this year's Academy Awards, there came more satisfaction: not only was "The Cider House Rules" nominated in seven categories, including best film, best director and best adapted screenplay (by Mr. Irving), but Mr. Caine -- who turns 67 on Tuesday -- also won his fifth Oscar nomination in a long career that embraces more than 80 films.
The report included an evaluation of 316 rules nominated for reform by members of the public who sent in comments.
It is not only the delegate selection rules that nominated an authoritarian, racist, misogynist, anti-immigrant demagogue as the Republican presidential nominee.
The Academy almost got it right for 2007 (almost), unlike 1999, the year they snubbed Magnolia and Fight Club for Best Picture noms (um...The Cider House Rules was nominated over both of these modern classics...it's a nice movie but...what the hell?).
"It is in my view the most important committee at the D.N.C. because of its role in shaping the nomination process," he said, adding a bit mischievously, "The goal is to design rules to nominate the strongest candidate for the general election".
It also created an awkward political situation for the Labor Party, which now has 28 days under party rules to nominate a new candidate for first minister at a time when the party's fortunes are at their lowest ebb in more than three years.
As recently as last week, the president had even said that he hadn't ruled out nominating her to a second term as chair.
It used to be a fairly strict rule that only shows nominated in the top categories got a chance to strut their stuff live.
He won his second best-supporting-actor Oscar for The Cider House Rules (1999) and was nominated as best actor for his performance as a conflicted British journalist in Vietnam in The Quiet American (2002).
But even for those of us who have never been Oscar nominated, the rules of engagement/combat in the modern extended-family parenting arena are so insanely complicated that it's handy to be offered an insight into how other civilians, or indeed Slebs, are, like the rest of us, effectively making it all up as they go along.
