Oscar bait Reader" (2008). In the film "Tropic Thunder" (2008), characters Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) discuss the concept regarding Speedman's former role in the fictional film "Simple Jack", in which Lazarus notes that "you never go full retard", contrasting the Oscar successes of Dustin Hoffman ("Rain Man", 1988) and Tom Hanks ("Forrest Gump", 1994) with Sean Penn's failure to win an award for his role in "I Am Sam" (2001). "Tropic Thunder" received protests from disability rights organisations due to its constant use of the word "retard"; Stiller defended the scene as being intended to lampoon
Miracle in the Rain Ferrer's Oscar-winning portrayal of "Cyrano de Bergerac", and then devoted his career primarily to television and theater. Likewise, Phyllis Thaxter, at the start of a long TV career, after playing a couple of minor leads and several second and third leads in seventeen films produced between 1944 and 1952, made her first small-screen appearance in this twenty-six-minute miniaturization of "Miracle in the Rain", which also included Una Merkel as Ruth's mother and Mildred Dunnock as Grace. Miracle in the Rain Miracle in the Rain is a United States home front during World War II-themed novella by veteran screenwriter Ben Hecht,