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With The Dark Knight set to hit the Los Angeles press junket circuit this weekend, reporters, bloggers and webmasters are just a few days away from finally getting a full look at Heath Ledger as the Joker. Those participating in the TV interview portion of the event will watch the film Thursday, June 26th (U.S.-Canada reporters) and Friday, June 27th (international folks), while print and online journalists attending the Sunday press conferences must wait until Saturday, June 28th.

What this means of course is that within a few days, the Ledger-deserves-an-Oscar-nomination buzz will burst onto the World Wide Web, along with a discussion of his chances of actually winning the statuette. Helping the Ledger cause is the fact that Johnny Depp can get nominated for a character such as Captain Jack Sparrow, as he was for 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. On the other hand, even though Jack Nicholson set the Joker standard in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, he was not nominated.

One possible scenario is that Ledger fails to get nominated for the Best Supporting Actor category but receives some sort of posthumous Honorary Award. If so, this would align the Australian actor with fellow onscreen bad guy Edward G. Robinson who, after being selected for similar 1973 recognition, died on January 26th, 2004 just two months ahead of the ceremony.

In the end, one of the most influential proponents of Ledger’s awards worthiness may turn out to be two-time Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Sir Michael Caine. From a posting on his official website shared soon after Caine completed work on The Dark Knight to no doubt more of the same post-junket (he is not scheduled to participate in this weekend’s event), the elder actor statesman of the film has been generous with superlative praise.

Then there is “Staff Writer,” the author of what as far as I can tell is the first published review of The Dark Knight. Raving this past weekend on “Europe’s largest gay news website,” UK’s Pink News, SW calls Ledger’s performance as the Joker “the best of his career” and one that allows him to “dominate the film” and “heighten the sense of a great actor lost.”

So there you have it, an anonymous author – no doubt keeping his or her byline as such to avoid the wrath of Warner Bros. for reviewing a July 18th release on June 21st - cutting the red ribbon on the Ledger fanfare though stopping short of dropping the “O” word. But have no fear; soon enough, others will be blaring out that message above Beverly Hills as radiantly as the Mayor of Gotham City has been known to beckon the Caped Crusader.

Source Film Stew