An Oscar Strategist Spilled the Beans on Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar Desperation

An informal Oscar strategist named Peggy Siegal dropped some hot goss in a Vanity Fair interview that makes Leonardo DiCaprio seem thirstier for an Academy Award than a 41-year-old man is thirsty for validation on a private island of 22-year-old models.

The interview really clarifies that the whole Oscar campaigning stuff is completely bizarre, unwieldy, and disconnected from real accomplishment in the field of acting. It makes you wonder why someone like DiCaprio, who is not hurting for roles, wants one. Apparently he has been hurting for giving a speech over swelling music, for years. Siegal says:

A year ago I saw him at a party in St. Barth’s at Christmas, and he said, “Siegal, who’s going to win the Oscars? I have to call my bookie.” Well, Julianne Moore is going to win for her fourth nomination. And he said, “When am I going to win? I’ve had four nominations.” And I said, “When you’re in a wheelchair you’ll get the Irving Thalberg award.” He was not happy about that. A year later, I said, “It’s your year, you’re winning. You’ve got to do the campaigning, you’ve got to go to the mats because you’re going to win.” I’m not the only one who said this to him. He did it with grace and class and he wrote all of his own speeches, and he was perfect.

Siegal’s description of all the machinations and “tells” she uses to predict winners makes it pretty clear that, yeah, DiCaprio will be winning this year. Look, he’s even working on his public image as womanizer who dates ladies half his age by kissing Dame Maggie Smith at the BAFTA awards: