<p>Most of those people who did not thank their siginificant others splitted up after the winning the Oscar. It was not a slipped up.</p>
<p>Yes, “forgetting” to thank your wife is probably significant. She deserves better. I imagine he isn’t an easy guy to be married to. </p>
<p>As for whose role was more challenging, that seems like an irrelevant measure of the quality of acting, but that does seem to be the academy’s measure, hence, it’s always the 'actor-ish" roles that get the prize. Not to take away from Sean Penn’s performance, but sometimes it’s the almost invisible (non-emotive) roles that are the most challenging. But that isn’t going to win at the Oscars.</p>
<p>Sean Penn said this in an interview with Oprah on Monday morning:</p>
<p>One thing that Sean did not mention in his speech was his family, but he says that his gratitude toward his wife, actress Robin Wright Penn, goes without saying. “[Robin’s] implicit. I wanted to keep things focused on the professional team around this movie,” Sean says. “Because with Robin comes my mother and my son and my daughter, and half of them will punish me if I mention them.” He then laughed and said, “Now I’m in for punishment for those I just mentioned!”</p>