By Nadine Jolson

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/8/10 — With a standing ovation, Mo’Nique wearing an electrifying royal blue gown, humbly accepted the award for Best Supporting Actress Award and stated, “First, I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance than the politics. She went on and thanked her husband, “thank you for showing me that sometimes you have to forego doing what’s popular in order to do what is right and baby you were so right.”

This is a category that everyone believed was a shoe in for Mo’Nique to take home the coveted golden statue. She played Mary Jones, who viciously abuses her daughter Precious, an illiterate teenager who is raped by her father, with Mary’s knowledge. Her competition in this category has two surprise first timers from the same film, Up in The Air, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kenrick.  A very deserved nomination for Maggie Maggie Gyllenhaal whose role in Crazy Heart was as touching and as a real as they get.   And the stunning Penelope Cruz delighted us a steamy, yet fragile seductress in Nine.

So which actress should have won?  The one whose won all the other awards up to tonight and wants the big one? Or someone understated like Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Previous favorites include Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls and Penelope Cruz for Vicki Christina Barcelona all of which walked away with the little golden man.

Maggie Gyllenhaal got some early screen breaks thanks to roles in her father’s films such as Waterland (1992) and Homegrown (1998). Soon graduating from Columbia University with an English degree, Gyllenhaal continued to refine her acting skills on the stages of New York and London theaters in such productions as The Tempest and The Butterfly Project.

Her ascent into the collective film conscience continued with a humorous turn in director John Waters’ anarchic Cecil B. Demented and alongside younger brother Jake in the surreal teen fantasy Donnie Darko (2001). Soon she gained more prominent roles alongside such hot Hollywood actors as Drew Barrymore (Riding in Cars with Boys (2001]) and Josh Hartnett in 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002
Of all Gyllenhall’s brilliant offbeat performances, it was her appearance in the 2009 in the low-key drama Crazy Heart opposite Jeff Bridges that earned her some of the best reviews of her career, as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Academy. Now Gyllenhall takes home the gold for Best Supporting Actress in “Crazy Heart.”

The career of funny-girl Mo’nique began in her early 20s, when she took to the improv comedy stage on a dare from her brother. The impulsive decision met with success, and she began to pursue a career in stand-up comedy, eventually performing on such renowned shows as Def Comedy Jam, Showtime at the Apollo, and Snaps.

Never shying away from her status as a full-figured woman, Mo’nique has used her notoriety and her famously sarcastic wit in order to advocate for voluptuous women everywhere. Her funny and empowering book Skinny Women are Evil became a best seller in 2003, and she soon afterward began working with the Oxygen network on a beauty pageant for full-figured women called F.A.T. Chance-an acronym for Fabulous and Thick.

It was her blistering portrayal that won her the Best Supporting Actress award from a great many critics groups, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press, and a nomination for Best Supporting Actress by the Academy. Now Mo’nique takes home the gold.

Anita Talbert contributed to this report