Family affair for Pitt, Jolie at Oscars

U.S. actor Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive for the 2009 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London Feb. 8, 2009.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will join an exclusive club when they step out at the Oscars on Sunday as only the seventh couple ever to be nominated for acting honors in the same year.

But while the couple should add a high-voltage jolt of old-fashioned Hollywood glamour to the Oscars red carpet, history suggests that the duo are likely to finish the night empty-handed.

Pitt, 45, is nominated in the best actor race for his performance as a man who ages in reverse in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Partner Jolie, 33, is nominated for her performance as an anguished mother trying to uncover the fate of her abducted child in period drama "Changeling."

It is believed to be the first time in 42 years that a couple have arrived at the Oscars in the running for acting awards: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were the last in 1966 for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

On that occasion, neither Burton nor Taylor was successful.

Three years earlier British duo Rex Harrison and his wife Rachel Roberts were both nominated for their respective performances in "Cleopatra" and "This Sporting Life," yet just as for Burton and Taylor, an Oscar remained elusive.

Similarly, husband and wife nominees Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton, given nods in 1958 for their performances in Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution" were both overlooked.

One of the few acting couples to have tasted success on Oscar night were Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. Sinatra won a best supporting actor statuette in 1954 for his performance in "From Here to Eternity."

While Sinatra celebrated, Gardner, nominated for "Mogambo," lost out to Audrey Hepburn, winning her first Oscar for "Roman Holiday."

In 1940, Laurence Olivier and soon-to-be second wife Vivien Leigh arrived at the Academy Awards just months before tying the knot.

Leigh was riding high from the success of "Gone With the Wind" while Olivier had came to the attention of US audiences with his performance as the brooding Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights."

Olivier would have to wait for his first Academy Award however, losing out to Robert Donat for "Goodbye Mr Chips." Leigh meanwhile won for her legendary performance as Scarlett O'Hara.

The first couple to be jointly nominated for best actor and actress Oscars were the legendary Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who both picked up nods for 1931 film "The Guardsman." Both came away empty handed.