In 1978, Smith played opposite Michael Caine in Neil Simon's "California Suite", playing an Oscar loser, for which she received the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is, to date, the only person to win an Oscar for portraying a fictional Oscar nominee. For this role, she also won her first Golden Globe Award. Afterward, upon hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on the film "The Missionary" (1982) with Smith, her co-star Michael Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film.