If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
It's 3 a.m. The lights come up. The magic is over. The waiters are cleaning up, and Ang Lee and I are the last ones eating sliders and still chatting.
This week brought the annual post-Oscars debate about whether the show was offensive, boring, edgy, too long, or all of the above. The reviews for DC's mishandling of the sequester were less divided, with pretty much everyone agreeing that it's a self-inflicted disaster -- one President Obama called "dumb," "arbitrary," "unnecessary," and "inexcusable." Alternatives from both sides of the aisle were voted down, but the right solution -- repealing the jobs-and-growth-killing budget cuts -- wasn't even considered. Meanwhile, at least one new job opening was created this week, as ex-Pope Benedict spent the first night of his retirement watching TV reports about his departure. Hopefully he skipped over Bob Woodward's pathetic media appearances, in which he turned a polite email exchange between friends into a threat, or stories about Justice Scalia calling the Voting Rights Act a "racial entitlement" -- a statement far more offensive than anything said during the Oscars. Talk about "seeing a boob."
The Oscars are a ship without a sail. Year after year, they keep trying new hosts, new approaches, but it's been a long time since they hit it out of the park. In fact I can't remember when... the '90s?
I was offended last week. As an Academy member, as the child of former Academy members and as a woman, I expected more from the best that the movie business has to offer. The Oscars are about honoring art and artists. It is not supposed to be a cheesy vaudeville show.
Forget Harvey Weinstein (after all, Jennifer Lawrence did); the real kingmaker at the Academy Awards is John Goodman. The 60-year-old actor has become a regular at the Oscars over the last two years, this despite not being nominated himself. Goodman was a co-star in "The Artist," which won Best Picture last year, and "Argo," which won Best Picture this year. As Blackbook's Tyler Coates wrote earlier this week, Goodman is "the biggest ticket to getting an Oscar for Best Picture." That's good news for the five films Goodman is scheduled to appear in this year. Which John Goodman movie will win Best Picture in 2014?
Searching for Sugar Man won the Academy Award for best documentary. In South Africa there is significant debate about whether or not the documentary overstates the role of Sixto Rodriguez in liberating the minds of South Africans. What truths did he help to surface?
Why did anyone think that on a night that is supposed to honor the best of Hollywood, a town that has broken so many barriers and moved us forward in so many ways, banal sexist, racist and anti-Semitic jokes would be funny and appropriate?
If you watched the 85th Annual Academy Awards, you'd know that they took the 2012 season out with a bang. Here, I'll reminisce on my top 10 favorite moments of the Oscars. Let the countdown begin!
Here are two punch lines that remind us of Lincoln's death. One worked for most, the other only for a minority. It had nothing to do with sensitivity about Lincoln's passing, rather it was the approach.
If you've ever seen Family Guy than you knew it was almost guaranteed that Seth MacFarlane was poised to offend lots of people. After all, isn't that why Family Guy is so wildly popular?
Ben so brilliantly reminded us all that life is a dead end when you hold grudges, and although it is difficult, in order to succeed you cannot be stubborn.
After the Oscar winners accept their awards and deal with the TV people, they come to the Press Room and answer questions from the written press, radio and international media. Here are my five favorite backstage comments of the night.
Seth MacFarlane's Oscars performance failed less because of racism, sexism, and homophobia than because he forgot what satire is and how it works. The satiric genius of late-night icons like Johnny Carson and beloved fictional curmudgeons like Archie Bunker has been lost in a sea of mindless snark.
Quvenzhané Wallis is a lot of things. She is smart. She is sassy. She is talented. She is beautiful. And she is a child.
Well, Mike, Oscar season -- which started when "Argo" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last August -- is finally, mercifully over.
Sunday evening was a fantastic night if you're a fan of Argo, Seth MacFarlane, James Bond or movie musicals. But it was an equally great night if you're a fan of movie math.
