Natalie Portman did it last year with great success. She was the Oscar winner for Best Actress. This time, we have Michelle Williams who, as soon as she arrived on stage to accept her Golden Globe, opened her speech with appreciation for her daughter, because her daughter keeps her above the dirty fray of Oscar campaigning, even though she’d just spent several days leading up to the kick off the season working Academy members in LA at every opportunity.

Don’t tell me it’s not a campaign when it happens on The Today Show.

This morning Michelle visited The Today Show to talk about her performance in My Week With Marilyn and the Oscar nomination she just received this week.

And where was she when she heard?

Oh...you know...she claims she forgot.

That she was too busy getting Matilda into her snowsuit. (I thought it was unseasonably warm in New York this week?) And that she was so focused on carpooling and mom activities that she didn’t actually know she was nominated until her friend, WITH A BABY ON HER HIP, popped her head out to tell her she was “on the television”.

Really?

Look, I have defended Michelle Williams about her thoughts on Heath Ledger - click here to revisit. On the subject of the Mommy Campaign though...

Michelle Williams? One of Harvey Weinstein’s horses in this year’s Oscar race, wasn’t aware that it was nomination morning and wouldn’t have received a phone call from any number of agents, publicists, producers, and HARVEY himself???

Of course not.

The snowsuit was a nice thought, non? As was the friend with a BABY ON HER HIP, as if to tell the members of the MiniVan who were watching that Michelle Williams is JUST LIKE THEM, pushing their strollers with a latte tucked into the cup-holder, ready to talk daycare options and whether or not “time outs” really work anymore. Not to mention Ann Curry’s sycophantic gushing about it afterwards.

“Oh boy (Michelle). You have your perspective right.”

Are you f-cking kidding me???

Does this work?

Actually...it does. Being Mommy is probably the only thing that works these days. Ask Jessica Alba.

But...

Jessica Alba can’t act.

Michelle Williams is not Jessica Alba. Michelle Williams is a wonderful talent. No other American actress since Jodie Foster has received three Oscar nominations before the age of 32. (Source) It is an impressive achievement, and one that she’s managed without shenanigans, earned almost entirely on merit. Which is why it feels so gross to see her working these cards. There’s nothing wrong with wanting it, and badly. How you get there is another matter. Why has this become the only way to get there?

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