Friday, May 24, 1996Campus-wide vote heaps praise, contempt on
members of the entertainment industry By Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
What do Pamela Anderson Lee, Elizabeth Berkeley and Macaulay
Culkin have in common, besides their status as vacuous blondes that
"act"?
They’ve all won their respective negative categories in the 1996
Bruin Choice Awards  small pillars of consensus in an
otherwise fractured campus electorate.
A year ago, "Pulp Fiction" dominated the Bruin Choice awards and
propelled John Travolta and Uma Thurman to Coolest Male and Female
Alive. This year’s awards were not as centrally motivated, except
for the negatively polarizing effect of two cinematic duds called
"Showgirls" and "Barb Wire."
The low-brow classic "Rumble in the Bronx" pushed Jackie Chan to
Coolest Male Alive, while Emma Thompson won Coolest Female Alive
for the more articulate "Sense and Sensibilty."
The victory marked a stunning comeback for Thompson, who topped
out at 10 percent of the Coolest Female Alive voting in 1994.
"Babe’s" singing mice conquered as Coolest Supporting Animals,
even topping the flying cow from "Twister" and Steven Seagal’s turn
in "Executive Decision."
"Friends" caught some blowback for its massive popularity, as
the show’s theme, "I’ll Be There" by the Rembrandts, took the award
for Most Overplayed Song. David Schwimmer conquered as Worst GenX
Posterboy, joining the company of last year’s overwhelming victor
Tony Bennett and 1994’s inductee Stephen Dorff.
Speaking of Stephens, perhaps the most encouraging sign the
awards of 1996 have produced is for third string Baldwin, Stephen,
who is slowly gaining recognition for his work in "Threesome."
Whereas last year, Stephen only grabbed 50 percent of the campus
vote for appearing in the film, this year awareness was up to 55
percent. William, who earned a healthy 20 percent of the Bruin vote
last year, only garnered 10 percent this year.
A different battle raged in UCLA’s casting of the inevitable
Unabomber movie. After fierce combat with David Hasselhoff, ZZ Top
emerged as victor over everyone from Amanda Plummer to Norm
MacDonald.
Coolest Male and Female Winners
Best and Worst Performances
"Your Career Sucks and We Hate You Winners, (Losers really)
Terrible Ideas and People Who Deserve to have their human
credentials revoked
Miscellaneous