Ex Burt Reynolds was jealous of my Oscar nod

Publish date: 2024-04-13

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Jealous Burt Reynolds refused to attend the 1980 Oscars with Sally Field — because he was “not happy” with the attention she was getting for her breakout performance in “Norma Rae.”

“He really was not a nice guy around me then,” Field, 77, says in Dave Karger’s new book, “50 Oscar Nights,” according to People.

Hollywood hunk Reynolds and Field, who met on the set of 1977’s blockbuster movie “Smokey and the Bandit,” dated for five years in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

They were one of the era’s power couples and made four movies together before splitting in 1982.

Sally Field and Burt Reynolds dated for five years. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Still, Reynolds, who shot to fame in the 1972 movie “Deliverance” and was a major sex symbol, was jealous of Field’s career.

According to “50 Oscar Nights Out,” he told Field he would not accompany her to the 52nd Academy Awards ceremony in LA — and didn’t want her to go to the Cannes Film Festival, where the movie was being screened.

“He said, ‘You don’t think you’re going to win anything, do you?’ ” Field claims in the book.

“When the Oscars came around, he really was not a nice guy around me then and was not going to go with me,” Field adds.

Field and Reynolds met on the set of “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977). Getty Images

She was at her wits’ end about not having a date to the highest-profile showbiz night of the year, she said, when her pal, comedian David Steinberg, came to the rescue.

“Then David said, ‘Well, for God’s sake, we’ll take you,’ ” she says. “He and [his wife] Judy made it a big celebration. They picked me up in a limousine and had Champagne in the car.”

She recalls: “They made it just wonderful fun.”

Field won the Oscar that night for “Norma Rae.”

Field after winning the Oscar in 1980 for “Norma Rae.” Getty Images

In her acceptance speech, she thanked her mother, her sister and her kids — but did not mention Reynolds.

After her speech, the cameras cut to Steinberg and his wife, who were seated with her, both with broad smiles on their faces.

Field won her second Oscar five years later for “Places in the Heart,” which spawned her famous line, directed at her industry colleagues: “You like me! Right now! You like me!”

Field wrote about her relationship with Reynolds in her memoir, “In Pieces,” which was published shortly after he died in 2018 at 82.

Field and Reynolds made four movies together, including “Smokey and the Bandit.” Courtesy Everett Collection

She noted that he “was a hugely important part of my life but for a very short period of my life” — but that she didn’t speak to him “for the last 30 years of his life.”

She also told People that Reynolds was not a good on-screen kisser, adding that it involved “a lot of drooling.”

Reynolds was married to Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1994.

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