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Out of all of the actors in the film, Hudson has had the best commercial career. Starting off with more diverse and dramatic roles, she soon followed the paycheck. After Almost Famous, she has had 13 major starring roles. Nine of those films were icky romantic comedies. While How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, her first major hit and foray into the genre, brought a smile to my face, the one-two-three-four punch of You, Me and Dupree (yuck!), Fool’s Gold (yikes!), My Best Friend’s Girl (what did I do to deserve this?), and Bride Wars (there’s a special ring in hell for this one) show that Hudson seems to have a certain box office clout, but it will be interesting what will become of her career once she gets too old to play these type of roles. However, with films like the fun horror The Skeleton Key and this year’s indie The Killer Inside Me, there is hope for her yet.

Fugit, while steadily getting work, has seen most of his films go straight-to-DVD. His most notable role since Almost Famous was a bit part in last year’s mega-bomb, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.

Crudup, in one of his best roles as a paranoid and wacked-out from fame guitarist, should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his performance, but was ignored in the heavily competitive year. Going the independent film and theatrical route, Crudup has sprinkled some blockbusters in his filmography, most recently as Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen. Instead of Crudup, the film's third Oscar nomination came from Frances McDormand for Best Supporting Actress. Brilliant as an over-bearing mom who you just want to hug and not listen to at the same time, McDormand steals the show whenever she is onscreen. Anytime she picks up the phone to call William you know you are going to laugh. Yet her character is far from stereotypical, playing drama as well as comedy, in a heartbreaking scene when she realizes that she cannot protect her children forever. That doesn’t mean she won’t damn well try, though.

The fourth and final Oscar nomination the film received was for best editing.

Crowe later went to direct the love it or hate it (I’m in the former) Tom Cruise starrer Vanilla Sky and the not-even-worth-renting Elizabethtown. Not heard from since that 2005 non-starter, hopefully Crowe will make a comeback next year as he is returning to his musical roots for a Pearl Jam documentary.

Critics welcomed the film quite literally with opens arms, with Roger Ebert writing, “Oh, what a lovely film. I was almost hugging myself watching it.” Earning a 90 on metacritic.com, Almost Famous received the rare “universal acclaim” tag. However, with a weak box office and a September release, the film seemed overshadowed by bigger dogs come awards season. It was released by DreamWorks in 2000, the year the studio truly became a force with hits like Road Trip, What Lies Beneath, Meet the Parents, and two of the aforementioned Oscar big dogs, Gladiator (which went on to win Best Picture) and Cast Away. The last two are what they focused most of their awards campaign money on, leaving Almost Famous as their third-wheel.

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