Post-Oscar Career Suicide Syndrome

Chronicle: Oscar winners turn on-screen success into mediocrity. "It applies to actors who've never before been highly regarded for their thespian abilities yet who win an Oscar, converting a nation of naysayers in the process. POCSS is the tendency for them to dash, lemminglike, into the worst dreck imaginable.

Every once in a while Lauren Bacall, who's never been shy about speaking her mind, grouses publicly about how today's stars lack stature. It's hard to have stature when you're flouncing about in skin-tight elastic duds spouting inanities. Indeed, it's hard to imagine Katharine Hepburn or Bette Davis following up Oscar-winning performances with the kind of roles some of today's top actresses take.

For women especially, winning an Oscar simply is no guarantee of a healthy career... Of course, some actresses take roles that some might consider undignified not because they have no choice but for the money." I think their logic goes, trade money for the good role in the other. It's hard to support your million-dollar life style with low-budget, meaningful, laden with great characters movies.