From the days of laurence olivier blacking up to play othello or, at the other end of the spectrum, bernard bresslaw playing an afghan warlord in carry on up the khyber. here s the issue with leonard bernstein, there seem to be two parts to it one is the wearing of a prosthetic nose. now, leonard bernstein, as his family said, did have a generous nose and bradley cooper has chosen to adopt a prosthetic nose. and there is backstory for that. i mean, actors do wear prostheses in order to play real life characters. we had gary oldman playing winston churchill with prostheses. daniel day lewis added extra nose and chin to play abraham lincoln. and of course, famously, nicole kidman played virginia woolf by adding a prosthetic nose and won an oscar. as her presenter said at the time, denzel washington, winning by a nose. i m not a huge fan of prosthetic