And the Academy Award goes to...

...Curtis Jackson. Okay, those are probably words we'll never hear but it's as good a place as any to start talking about the acting virtues of Curtis, or 50 Cent as he's more widely known.

I saw him yesterday in the new De Niro/Pacino cop movie, Righteous Kill (above). It's a poor, poor movie with little to recommend it. But in 50's defence, if you were an aspiring empire builder and one of the places you wanted to conquer was Planet Hollywood (sorry, that was terrible), then a movie where your name appeared third on the bill only behind two of Hollywood's most revered actors then you'd probably say yes.

I'll say right now that I'm a long time supporter of 50, at least in general, if not specifically in his acting. I can claim legitimately to have heard of him before any of yous, having worked with him on his UK record releases before he even had a record out. So perhaps it's blind loyalty that's talking. But all I really wanted to say here is that he's really not that bad an actor. In Righteous Kill he plays the part of Spider, nightclub owner and all-round badass, pretty well. And in his first acting foray, the much maligned pseudo-biopic Get Rich Or Die Tryin', he held his own, playing the stoic wannabe rapper with a certain amount of grace and humility that you wouldn't necessarily expect. I'm not claiming it was a masterclass, but it definitely wasn't as bad as everyone said.

If you don't go and see Righteous Kill I wouldn't argue with you. It's not great. It's probably not even a DVD movie - wait for it to be on Channel 4 in six years. But don't let Curtis put you off, because at least his reputation, poor as it is, wasn't tarnished by this terrible movie.