 Actresses in comedy often get a rough trot. When they're not having to play badly written stereotypes, they're given the weakest lines, or are simply there as sex objects. Thankfully, none of the nominees for this award had to play sex objects, but they sure had some weak lines to deliver. Still, a good actress is a good actress no matter how bad the script, and these three just didn't cut it.
There's a certain inevitablity to Rebel Wilson's win in this category; she's won it every year so far. There's also a certain inevitability to her coming back next year and winning it all over again. She's like the Terminator in that sense: seemingly nothing can stop her. One day, maybe, some television executive thinking of letting her loose on air again will look at her CV first and realise that everything she's appeared in has totally and utterly sucked. Of course Rebel could, perhaps, be excused for being a bit rubbish in Pizza, Monster House and even The Wedge, because the characters she played weren't entirely her vision. But with Bogan Pride's Jenny Cragg, a part written for her, by her, she could still only manage a crude and yet somehow characterless portrayal of yet another fat chick trapped in a world she couldn't eat her way out of. Felicity Ward's brief comedy acting career has basically been just a series of less than impressive performances on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. Sure, she's been on Spicks & Specks a lot this year, but that ain't acting. Neither was her wooden interaction with Simon Keck and Celia Pacquola on the appalling topical sketch show The Seven Day Itch, which aired as part of ABC local radio's Comedy Hour. She does seem to be doing a good job of acting like someone with a future in Australian comedy though. Up until this point Amanda Keller has been best known as a TV presenter and the sort of women who turns up on comedy panel shows. Her one previous acting role was as herself, refusing Mike Moore's invitation to the Logies in Frontline. This hardly qualifies her to play a hard-nosed boss in a sitcom, but Swift & Shift Couriers was no ordinary sitcom. Paul Fenech hasn't gotten where he is today by employing people with ability, and cast members like Renzo Bellato or Jim Webb will not be putting Anthony Hopkins or Geoffrey Rush out of work anytime soon. Nor will Keller be the next Judi Dench. She was, along with Ian Turpie and Melissa Tkautz, simply a celebrity stooge in a sitcom unlikely to get much attention without them. And surprisingly little attention with them.
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