TORONTO — Matthew McConaughey is this year’s first Oscar winner — and the nominations haven’t even been announced.
Singer-actress Liza Minnelli promised McConaughey on Monday he’ll get a golden statuette for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.
“Honey, if you don’t win the Academy Award, I’m giving you mine,” said Minnelli, who won Best Actress in 1973 for playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
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The 67-year-old was hosting an Academy luncheon in New York when she heaped praise Dallas Buyers Club, which was directed by Canada’s Jean-Marc Vallée.
McConaughey plays a homophobic rodeo cowboy who is diagnosed with AIDS and devises a system of selling an antiviral drug imported from Mexico.
“It drew you in, whether you wanted it to or not, and that’s magic,” Minnelli gushed. “That’s magic. I haven’t seen a movie like that in so long, and I’m so proud to be able to tell everybody.”
McConaughey will find out Sunday night if he won a Golden Globe.
Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 16.
In 1998, actor Ving Rhames won a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV miniseries and immediately handed it over to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon. “I feel that being an artist is about giving, and I’d like to give this to you,” Rhames told Lemmon.
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