Red Carpet Memories From 2011′s Oscar Nominees

Red Carpet Memories From 2011′s Oscar Nominees

While some first-time nominees like Christian Bale have never attended the Oscars, plenty of this year’s crop have been red carpet regulars. Nicole Kidman‘s first time at the Academy Awards was just over twenty years ago, back when she was Tom Cruise‘s arm candy. “I just was like absolutely stunned,” she said recently. “It was like the biggest thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe how loud the photographers were.” Do you remember which Best Actor hopeful brought his mom the first time he was up for the trophy ten years? Or which two ladies up for a trophy in 2011 previously competed against each other in 2006? Find out all this and more—like who went with Ed Begley Jr. right before hooking up with her future husband—by checking out the gallery below.

#1. Best Actress nominee Helena Bonham Carter (whose A Room With A View was up for Best Picture) presented Best Documentary in 1987 with Ferris Bueller himself, Matthew Broderick. Carter wouldn't get her first nomination until The Wings Of The Dove ten years later---and Broderick has yet to be nominated at all.

#2. Best Actress nominee Annette Bening attended the Oscars in 1991 after getting a Supporting Actress nomination for The Grifters. Though she'd already met future husband Warren Beatty while filming Bugsy that year, they weren't a red carpet item yet...that's date Ed Begley, Jr. behind her. 

#3. Another 2011 Best Actress nominee at the 1991 show was Nicole Kidman, who first attended the year before, when her then-man Tom Cruise was up for Best Actor for Born On The Fourth Of July. Nicole would beat him to the podium, though, winning best Actress for The Hours in 2003. 

#4. Best Supporting actor nominee Geoffrey Rush is familiar to audiences now, but when he won Best Actor in 1997 for Shine, he was practically unknown.

#5. Javier Bardem took his mom to the ceremony when he was nominated for Before Night Falls ten years ago, but we're guessing he'll bring fellow Oscar owner Penelope Cruz this time.

#6. Though this is the first year he's been nominated, Mark Ruffalo was also at the 2001 Academy Awards, joined by pregnant wife Sunrise Coigney and the knowledge that he should have been nominated . 

 #7. What's that? "Baby wants Oscar?" You're gonna have to wait a decade or so, ok?

#8. Natalie Portman was nominated for Closer in 2005, giving her her first chance to rock the red carpet.

#9. Portman didn't win, but she did present Best Documentary. Will she finally make a legit podium walk this year?

#10. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were nominees in love at the 2006 Academy Awards.

 #11. Also nominated for the first time in 2006 was Amy Adams for Junebug.

#12. Like 2006, Amy Adams and Michelle Williams are once again nominated for Oscars this year, only this time in different categories. Will either finally get to win?

#13. James Franco at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in 2006. Who would have guessed the Spider-Man star would not only be nominated five years later...but hosting?