Three years after their rancorous divorce, the Cruise-Kidman breakup is about to get even uglier. As the two have spent years vying to prove who’s more “totally fine” with the end of their relationship, who’s more speedily “moving on” with their lives, now the former husband-and-wife team has arrived at the Christmas movie season with two competing performances that are all but begging for Oscar consideration: Tom in The Last Samurai, Nicole in Cold Mountain. (The pair had once planned to star in the latter film together, with Tom in the Jude Law role, which only adds to the tension.) In this new on-screen one-upsmanship, each performer is pulling out all the Oscar-worthy stops, as detailed below. In each category, we award Tom and Nicole 1 to 5 points for how assiduously their performances cater to the tastes, predilections, and predictability of Academy members. (And, no, their dueling Leno appearances don’t count.) The result? Nicole, who already has one Oscar, is again looking like the favorite.
