cinema

Martin Landau landed the Best Supporting Oscar but Bill Murray (right) is the authenthic joy of Ed Wood. Who else could wear snow- white foundation, a touch of mascara and a desperately discreet dab of lippy and make it seem like the height of the natural look - or, at least, natural to a wannabe transsexual who travels under the moniker of Bunny? Bill Murray and only Bill Murray - and maybe this guy I know from Belfast who does absolutely the best Shirley Bassey, big breasts and big arm gestures and everything.

Anyway, why don't we see more of Bill? He keeps turning up in bit parts, second leads and cameos - remember how he took one look at Dustin Hoffman in drag in Tootsie and opined "Slut?" or how he lured sadistic dentist Steve Martin into pulling his rotten masochistic tooth in Little Shop of Horrors? - but leads have been oddly few and far between since he became a star in 1981's Stripes. Maybe that's because Hollywood says Murray has always been a tough audience sell - that rough skin, those bad teeth, the upfront odious manner - but surely Ghostbusters I and II took care of that? l mean, he did get his leg over with Sigourney Weaver...

Or maybe it's because he keeps making good to great entertainments that, with the exception of Groundhog Day and What About Bob?, inexplicably bomb: Scrooged, Quick Change, Nothing Lasts Forever, Where the Buffalo Roam lead a long list. So maybe Hollywood is right. Or maybe Bill Murray rations himself because he knows, as all true artists do, that a little of a good thing goes a long, long way.