Greg Kinnear received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his sympathetic portrayal of homophobic curmudgeon Jack Nicholson’s gay artist neighbour, Simon Bishop. In reality, Kinnear’s character has been criticised as setting gay images on screen back a thousand years, as he spends most of his screen time in traction (the 90s alternative to dying of AIDS?), the result of a brutal beating by the thieving, lisping friends of a gay hustler he’s been using as a model. Perhaps the secret of Kinnear’s success in the role lies in the fact that his Simon has absolutely no sexual identity. In fact, his sole concession to homosexuality is that he is soft-spoken, sensitive and vain!