Tom Hanks has been too popular for too long. Or so think the masterminds behind the "Stop Tom Hanks" campaign underway on E! Online's Interactive Guide to the Academy Awards. Hanks has already won two (back-to-back) best actor Oscars, for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump." He's up for the same award again this year, for "Saving Private Ryan." E!'s "Stop Tom Hanks" game allows players to throw old tomatoes, rotten eggs and overripe bananas at a figure of Hanks in a tuxedo. But the virtual Hanks doesn't just stand there and take it. He ducks behind limos, paparazzi and fans as he tries to get into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the Academy Awards ceremonies.

  • Current thinking has Nick Nolte ("Affliction") and Ian McKellen ("Gods and Monsters") as the strongest contenders for this top actor award and Gwyneth Paltrow ("Shakespeare in Love") a shoo-in as best actress, though the public, in a Reuters/Zogby poll, said it would vote for Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep ("One True Thing").

  • In this same poll, the greatest actors of the century, as decided by the public, are John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. Runners-up are Jimmy Stewart (No. 2) and Paul Newman, Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford (all tied for No. 3) and Meryl Streep (No. 2) and Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor (tied for No. 3).