Is Jennifer Aniston trying to block Angelina Jolie from an Oscar nom for ‘Maria’?

Pablo Larrain’s latest “iconic woman” bio-pic is Maria, where Angelina Jolie plays the opera singer Maria Callas. Many critics loved the film in Venice, Telluride and the New York Film Festival. The festival circuit isn’t over, and Angelina will likely still be hustling and promoting this film for the next three months. Larrain’s previous leading ladies – Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart – both received Best Actress Oscar nominations for their respective films (Jackie and Spencer). It’s widely believed that Angelina will, at the very least, also get nominated. That would be a win: a Best Actress nomination. But does Angelina have that kind of support in Hollywood these days?

Jolie’s last Oscar nomination came in 2008-09, for The Changeling. I would argue that Jolie’s profile was more “controversial” back then, although she had the backing of Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood (and that went a long way). That being said, in 2013, the Academy gave Angelina the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar. She also already won an Oscar for supporting actress. My point is that Angelina is already really accepted and well-liked within Hollywood and the Academy voting blocs, no matter what’s going on with her personal life. Well, according to In Touch Weekly, the Uncool Bermuda Triangle is about to rear its ugly head once again during the Oscar season.

Jennifer Aniston is pouring cold water on Angelina Jolie’s Oscar chances in any way she can and a source exclusively tells In Touch she’s enlisted close friend Sandra Bullock to further twist the knife.

“Sandra definitely has a history with Angie and there are certainly people in Angie’s camp who think Sandra’s signature role in Gravity should have gone to Angelina, since that was a project Angelina was very interested in starring in herself before Sandra landed the part,” the source says.

“And of course, in the years since Angelina and Brad Pitt broke up, Sandra has formed a powerful alliance with Brad on two hit movies: The Lost City and Bullet Train.”

Angelina, 49, is in the midst of a messy, decade-long divorce from Brad, 60, which has forced many in the industry to pick a side as battle lines are drawn.

“It’s not really a mystery where Sandra’s loyalty is and her friendship with Jen plugs both of them into a powerful network of awards voters – this is the same crew that got Andrea Riseborough an Oscar nomination out of nowhere, and it’s a lot easier for them to make sure somebody doesn’t get nominated.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

True story: Jennifer Aniston is legitimately powerful and well-connected within a certain elite Hollywood set… and it still didn’t get her an Oscar nomination. Aniston rather boldly tried to buy her way into an Oscar nom for Cake and it didn’t work. But now she’s so powerful that she can convince her friends (like Sandra Bullock??) to block Jolie? And that stale, false tea about Gravity – back in the day, a dozen different actresses were attached to that role, and if I remember correctly, Jolie passed on it… which ensured that Sandra got the part and got nominated for an Oscar. I remember that there were zero hard feelings too. Anyway, the larger story is that Angelina is probably going to play the game a bit and call on some of her friends to host events and screenings. She actually knows how to play the game, even if she rarely does so.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.