He took over for British-born Tony Hayward, whose public performance during the spill was not a PR masterpiece.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Bob Dudley: Three Years After the Spill, BP Gets Bullish

That's because his strongest rival in the race is, irony of ironies, the most steadfastly conventional filmmaker of this year's nominees, Clint Eastwood, whose "Million Dollar Baby" is being hailed in some quarters as, amazingly enough, a masterpiece.

WSJ: Fighting Irish