Uncle Scoopy's Top 20 Nude Scenes of 1996

Overview:

At the end of every year since 1999, the readers of Uncle Scoopy's Fun House and related sites have chosen their favorite nude scenes from the year that just passed.

This poll marks the third time that the poll has been extended into the past for the years prior to the "live poll" era.

1996 was an unusual year in two ways: (1) there was no clear favorite to win; (2) there were so many great scenes that some of the best nude scenes in history couldn't even make the top 20 for this single year.

Here are some of the full-frontal scenes that missed the cut entirely:

Courtney Love in The People vs Larry Flynt
Amy Madigan in Female Perversion
Tilda Swinton in Female Perversions
Molly Parker in Kissed
Kristin-Scott-Thomas in The English Patient
Katya Woywood in an episode of Tatort
Vivian Wu in The Pillow Book

In addition, these other memorable scenes and.or stars could not pass muster:

Theresa Randle in Girl 6
Anne Heche in The Juror
Natasha Henstridge in Maximum Risk
Ashley Judd in Normal Life
Alex Kingston in Moll Flanders
Robin Wright as the other Moll Flanders of 1996
Samantha Morton in an episode of Band of Gold
Theresa Russell in Proposition
Mira Sorvino in Norma Jean and Marilyn
Juliette Binoche in The English Patient
Sheryl Lee in Mother Night

And there were several other great scenes I failed to list above because either the performer or the film was more obscure. In essence, I could have expanded the list to a Top 40 for 1996, and even the ones on the bottom of that expanded list would have been excellent and/or significant scenes.

You can see the full list of 73 nominees and the voting results here.

The ultimate victory went to personality over content. It's difficult to make a case that Jennifer Connelly's nudity in Mulholland Falls was the best scene of the year, but Jennifer Connelly was the country's sweetheart at the time. I started the Fun House in 1995 and our biggest traffic year was 1996, so I'm pretty familiar with the zeitgeist of the era that informs this poll. In that era there were more downloads of Connelly from my site than all other women added together. This scene featured Connelly bending over doggie-style, with her breasts  pendulous. Her enormous breasts, coupled with her enormous popularity, were enough to give her the win.

As usual, my vote differed from the poll results. I reviewed all the major contenders just before voting, and concluded that Marion Cotillard's many nude scenes in Chloe placed her far beyond any other performance that year.