It's a nice thing for a man to feel that, and for me to feel that I can give that.Was it hard taking time off? Well, I was so happy being with Chris and we just didn't want to leave each other We just didn't want to do it. My mum said "Honey, please do yourself a favour and go be a wife for a year." Those were her exact words, and she said: "It will be the best thing that you ever do, because you can establish your relationship with your husband and when your lives do get really crazy, it's not happening right when you're first married. It's when you've already established your marriage."Do you remember the first time you were called Mrs Robinson? It's so funny, Mrs Robinson - it's from The Graduate It makes me laugh When we stay in a hotel, they call me Mrs Robinson. When I was presenting an Oscar they timed it so when I left the stage they played "Mrs Robinson" and Dustin Hoffman walked in I remember thinking, was that planned? That was brilliant 'The Four Feathers' opens this week. I was ready to stretch the calendar dates a little, so I waited for the 4 July weekend, and Terminator 3 - but now the truth has to be faced.

It's a gloomy realisation that settled in during May and June: I don't think Hollywood has released (or intended to release) a picture in the first half of 2003 that will figure among the Oscar contenders for this year. As it is, I can hardly believe in my own capacity for demented optimism, having waited for T3 which is far worse, far less in every respect (except for the cynicism of its makers), than even The Matrix Reloaded and Hulk, spring openings that had a brash first weekend followed by demoralising losses. In the elevator going down from the multiplex to the car park, a man of about 30 beat his hands on the flimsy metal panelling, furious at the betrayals in T3 - the cheesy effects, the Arnold so over-cooked and world-weary he might as well go into politics, and the abject forsaking of the narrative originality in the first two Terminator films."That sucked!" he roared in the confined space The public realises the cold-blooded trick that is afoot. There's something in our bones that can relate the pre-opening bombardment and the nearly instant "quagmire" that follows. Going to the movies in America now is part of the larger fraud of the nation.How long has this been going on? Anyone involved in the movie business has seen how in the last 20 years, January to May has become a dead zone. In the first months of the year, theatres and advertising money are given over to pictures in Oscar contention.

The new releases do as little to detract from that as possible. So, whereas, once upon a time, January to March was the fruitful season for small, off-beat, adventurous efforts that the studios had yielded to in a weak moment, now there are no weak moments. So the first quarter of the year is release-time for what the industry regards as garbage. The lavish, much-hyped ventures that we will call garbage generally fill the period from late May through until the end of the summer.For 20 years now, there has been an increasing tendency on the part of studios who may feel that they have something of quality on their hands to hold it for the autumn, for October through December, or for that narrow window that lasts from Thanksgiving (the end of November) until New Year's Day.Last year, there was just one film that opened in the first six months that edged its way into Oscar consideration - that was Unfaithful, and it only made it because people were smitten by the outrageous loveliness of Diane Lane at the age of 37.Ms Lane was nominated for best actress, and on Oscar night itself she looked even better because she was so relaxed.

She knew that in this America it was absurd to expect any group of people to retain an image or a feeling for over six months. That, in turn, has been another part of the spineless "reasoning" that herds all Oscar contenders at the end of the year: how can feeble minds remember "indelible" performances? The chronic spin of "performance of a lifetime" has simply encouraged us to remember nothing.The most damaging consequence of all this is a breach in the contract that once existed between the movie business and the public. More or less, Hollywood used to say to America: we do our best; we try to keep you stimulated, moved and entertained throughout the year - because we want you to keep coming.Today, marketing compartmentalisation asks, well, who are you? If you're in the 15-25 year-old demographic, please keep coming every summer weekend as we pile on the fatuous pressure about how astonishingly amazing this exercise in special effects is (compared with last week's), and eat shit as you realise you've been had. But if you're outside that age-range, why not pick up a hobby during the nine-month off-season (have you thought of gun skills?) and get movie-wise around mid-October when we show you how artistic we can be?And so disappointment builds into hatred and a need for retribution. Young people in America no longer trust movies to speak to them honestly.This summer, as America staggers from victory to dismay, from the alleged "ideas" of The Matrix Reloaded to the pretensions of Hulk, actual attendance is down by six per cent. If it went down another six per cent, and unemployment increased another six, you won't want to be out on the streets. Never teach your young to eat shit.d.thomson independent.co.uk.