Courtney Thorne-Smith’s career in Hollywood has spanned twenty years and has included the three long running TV series, “Melrose Place”, “Ally McBeal” and “According to Jim” but she has never achieved the critical success she has so desperately wanted since she starred in the cult favorite “Summer School” back in 1987. She was beginning to think that her only brush with Oscar would be looking at her former “Melrose Place” co-star Andrew Shue’s sister Elizabeth Shue’s nomination certificate for 1995 “Leaving Las Vegas”.
That is until the script for “Wheelchairs are fierce, y’all!” arrived at her agents office last winter. The film is an uplifting musical bio-pic about America’s greatest President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When Courtney first read the script she assumed the producers wanted her to play Eleanor Roosevelt but no it turns out the producers wanted her to play FDR himself.
At first Thorne-Smith balked at the idea but then when she heard Academy Award winner Cate Blanchet was going to play Bob Dylan in “I’m not there” she reconsidered. Courtney told Fake Gossip News “At first I just thought it was some kind of crazy gender bending stunt casting thing but then I heard that Blanchet was playing Bob Dylan and I figured why not. After all it was the best script I had read in years. It was a chance for people to see me in a way they had never seen me before.” Indeed who would have ever pictured Courtney Thorne-Smith as a singling wheelchair bound politician.
But it looks like the risk has paid off. Focus features is set to release the film on Christmas day just in time for Oscar consideration. And the Oscar buzz is there. Three time Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson told Fake Gossip News “I’ve seen ‘Wheelchairs are fierce, y’all!’ and Courtney Thorne-Smith is a revelation.” Steven Spielberg said “In the last ten years there have been three amazing transformative performance where you wonder where the actress just disappears into the role and you wonder where they went. Hillary Swank in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, Charlize Theron in ‘Monster’ and Felicity Huffman in ‘Transamerica’. I'm pleased to report that another performance will join those three and it is Courtney Thorne-Smith in ‘Wheelchairs are fierce, y’all.” Even the woman who many consider the greatest living screen actress is jumping on the Thorne-Smith bandwagon. Fourteen time Academy Award nominee Meryl Streep exclaimed “I wish I could give a performance like that!”
Ironically, Courtney’s biggest competition for the 2007 Best Actress Oscar looks to be the woman who inspired her to take the FDR role in the first place. At this point the two front runners for the Oscar are Courtney, of course, and Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”. When Fake Gossip News asked Courtney about her inspiration turned Oscar rival she fiercely stated, “Watch out Blanchet. That Oscar’s MINE!”
It seems Cate Blanchet will have some intense Oscar competition this year and not just from Courtney Thorne-Smith in the FDR bio-pic “Wheelchairs are fierce, y’all”. When hearing that Cate was reprising the role of Elizabeth the four women she competed against for the 1998 Best Actress Oscar decided to also continue the stories of the characters they created almost a decade ago.
in the next two and a half months are. Gwyneth Paltrow in “Shakespeare is Heartbroken and Alone”, in which Viola returns to England to be reunited with William only to find him heartbroken and living alone in a plague infested Pub. 
And last but certainly not least Fernando Montenego in “Grand Central Station” win which Dora moves to New York city and opens a knish stand in Grand Central Station.
