The fact that many times when they were showing the footage to accompany the nominees (such as costume design, etc), the camera’s kept showing us the screen the audience saw (and usually at wacky angles) rather than cutting to a feed of what was displayed. Yeah, side angles of a glorified TV screen are a great way to show off those detailed drawings.
Brittney Spears talking about Pretty Woman. Of course she liked it–she identified with Julia Roberts’ character–they’re both whores!
Okay, I’m letting my dislike of all the “celebrities” I mentioned color my post. This isn’t the pit, and I’m sorry.
Nash made those comments when he was first hospitalized with schizophrenia - I think he should be given a little latitude since he wasn’t of sound mind at the time.
I’m upset because Ben Kingsley didn’t win for “Sexy Beast”. He was incredible in that!
I thought I was watching a parody. I hit deep, deep, new lows. Self-serving and indulgent was the prime directive.
Easy E had a good point about the camera celebrating the crowd rather than the clips. Similarly, the orchestra and John Williams were the camera highlights when they ran that clip about 75 years of film music (and JW had no shame in featuring 3 of his films!)
Bring back Billy Crystal, Whoopi’s smirking in-jokes are really tiresome. And what a cheap shot she gave Hugh Grant! (well, he might have deserved it but at some point bu I think he’s done his time in purgatory for that indiscretion)
The crowd stayed in their seats for humanitarian Arthur Hiller and gave child molester Woody Allen a standing O.
On the plus side, Halle Berry and Whoopi were balanced by the dignity of Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier.
Cirque du Soleil was incredible!
And Cameron Diaz’s hair made me fall out my sofa in hysterics!
Nope, she definitely meant it as a barb with the Moulin Rouge director getting nominated. I’d have thought it funny if every other Oscar host didn’t use the same joke everytime a Best Picture nominee doesn’t have a corresponding Best Director nominee.
Why were we stuck with Whoopie again? She’s not very funny IMHO. I’m sure others enjoy her, but I can’t think of where I ever laughed at any of her jokes. Much as I hate to say it, I think Billy Crystal is the best host Oscar has had and I’d like to see him come back. Of course I thought Dave Letterman ranked number two so take my opinion FWIW.
But that’s “history”, do African American’s have a hard time in this biz now?
I don’t know… I have idea’s for both arguments
To be honest I can’t make judgment because I didn’t see the speech. But I know she’s a Dick. I only said the “faceless” thing because I thought by the post that she was speaking of herself.
Someone I knew, (not well, so I didn’t have a big connection with her), died by a hit and run. I could NEVER imagine me doing that.
Did Woopie do political jokes this time… all she talked about last time was Republicans, and not thinking Clinton deserved what he was getting…
I swear, it seemed inappropriate. I think she forgets that not everyone who’s watching is a liberal. I don’t want award shows to be just for one type of person… in anyway, not if it were the other way around.
How many honorary Oscars can they give away in one night?
Cirque de Soliel (sp?) kicked ass.
I didn’t expect Halle Berry to win, but I’m glad she did. At first I was touched by her emotion in accepting, then I was praying she’d shut up. She thanked her lawyer, ferchrisakes.
It seems to me that Denzel’s award was a “body of work” thing, and not for that particular performance. I think he may have realized that too; he didn’t seem too excited to win.
Russell Crow’s performance in A Beautiful Mind was a thousand times better than his performance in Gladiator. I think he should have won this year.
There were a lot more upsets this year than ever before, it seems.
I thought Lord of the Rings would get Best Picture after A Beautiful Mind won Best Screenplay. I’m glad that didn’t happen. A Beautiful Mind was the best film I’ve seen in a loooooong time.
It was a lot funner watching The Academy Awards on the west coast because you can still get to bed before 1:00 in the friggin’ morning.
No question that Halle Berry’s conduct was reprehensible, but that’s not relevant to the discussion at hand. People in this thread have said
and
**First[p/b]. Getting dignified film roles has, even in 2002, been difficult for black men, let alone for black women. Until the 1950s, the ONLY roles available for black people were maids, butlers, runaway slaves, or clowns. Black actors like Bill Robinson, Oscar Polk, and Stepin Fetchit had to shuffle, tapdance, and act like slow-witted clowns to be employed. When a strong black man like Paul Robeson tried to buck the system and stand up for his dignity and that of African Americans in general, he was hounded out of the movie business.
Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to play leading roles, and he was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for a leading role (Hattie McDaniels was the first African American to win an Oscar in a supporting role). He was the ONLY leading black actor until the 1970s, when the film business became more open to awarding film roles to blacks.
it’s sad that it has taken 74 years for a black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar. the next step will be when good film roles for blacks are so common that a black actor recieiving an Academy Award is no longer news.
For further reading:
Bogle, Donald. Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks : an interpretive history of Blacks in American films.
Leab, Daniel J. From Sambo to Superspade : the black experience in motion pictures.
Rent Robert Townsend’s satiric look at racism in film, Hollywood Shuffle
For those unfortunate to stay up long enough to hear Babs drone on and on and on and on before introducing Redford, how many survived? Luckily, I was holding the razor blades at too sharp an angle to do any major damage to my wrists. But if she had held out another two or three minutes, I might have had the time to correct my mistake. The problem was that sharp shooters they had for security were aiming in the wrong direction!
The Tom Cruise opener looks to be setting a stage to interfere with ex-Nicole’s career. Cruise is a heavyweight in TinselTown and if any of the stories and rumors are accurate, Cruise’s ego will not let his ex-wife have a better career.
Anyone catch Whoppi’s slight against Robert Redford? We all saw a deserved honorary Oscar for Sidney Poitier, complete with kudos from all black actors and others, and scenes from many of Sidney Poitier’s films. Good stuff. But Redford only has scenes from his work shown, and no actors, black or white, offering kudos. Whoppi makes some offhand crap comment slighting Redford, which to me did no go over well.
Anyone notice when any statement about minorities was made, the camera went to only black actors? Should we only focus on Oceania actors (Kidman, Crowe, etc.) when we talk about another group of minorities?
In the same vein, did you notice the extra-long cuts to the audience watching the awards? Looks like the director was either inexperienced or an idiot. The entire program was way too long and the poor director’s editing made a crappy program worse.
Finally, Will Smith “disappeared” fro the program. He was there, with his family, at the start of the program. There were several shots of him early on, then nothing. He disappeared. When his category came up, they had to put up a still shot of him. The latest rumor is he got into a fight with Ethan Hawke (sporting a very visible bruise on his right cheek) and got thrown out.
I was disappointed that the hugely overrated Shrek won over Monsters Inc, but then again I’m not sure how much of an honor winning that category is in the first place. "Ah yes, what a fine little film you have there. Good enough for what it is, but of course it’s not a REAL movie. Can we now have a specialized category for Overwrought Triumph of the Human Spirit Shit and get those movies out of the running for Best Picture as well? I’m reminded of when they made a separate category of Best Sellers for Children’s Books so that Tom Clancy and Stephen King didn’t have to have their tripe-of-the-month bumped out by -gasp- a book that kids enjoy.
I notice Smith’s dissappearance too. I was figuring he was back stage doing something or another. Then after all the big awards were given out, and Smith hadn’t presented any of them … I guess I just forgot about it.
And I did notice that mouse under Hawke’s eye too.
Isn’t that odd.
Ooh, allow me to start a new rumor ala the “Jack Palance read the wrong name giving Tomei the award” line. …
Will Smith had actually been named Best Actor, but after the shameful scene he made, they couldn’t very well give him the award. So in a move of Political Correctness, they hastily changed the envelope, and awared the only other African American nominee – Denzel Washington.
Think it’ll fly?
Various news reports, including CNN, reported that Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett left early because their youngest child had to be taken to the hospital with a high fever because of an ear infection.
He probably knew he wasn’t going to win anyway, but he likely felt that it was more important to check on his child’s health.
It would be better if you replaced Denzel with …say…Chris Rock.
I posted my rant on this years borefest in another thread…which I’m to lazy to think it out again…so here it is c&p’d and added to as I’ve thought of things.
**Random rants for your edification **
I am a little tired of the Oscar for Best Actress going to women who just break down and blather on and on and on during their acceptance speeches.(Julia Roberts, Gyweth Paltrow and now, the nonactress, Halle Berry.)
Frankly, with the very heavy campaigning going on for Halle-this and Halle-that and all the money spent by the studio to Halle for Best Actress - Breaking the Barrier Tour ™, I was really hoping for an upset and that she didn’t win.
It is not like they didn’t think they had a chance to win. One in Five ladies are your chances. And you go up on stage and just blather. I can only hope and pray that Halle will just disappear into obscurity for about 20 years. She couldn’t act her way out of a speeding ticket…oh wait…she tried that ( the accident that she left) and got slapped on the wrist. See.
If you think about it, the people in the audience are the ones voting for the nominees. The people in the audience are the ones creating the jobs/roles and sending out the message that racism is bad and can’t we all get along . But it is the people in that audience that “have supressed” the black man and black woman for 75 years. (Ok, for the first 65 years we/they/whatever are guilty. but things have really changed in the last 10 years. Jews, I am told, are allow to direct their own films now.) Hollywood, is full of hypocrites and last night was no exception.
By the way, I just love another hypocrital underlying message of
“We are Americans and we are proud of our freedoms and have become stronger since 9/11. But by the way, we oppress the black man/woman in Hollywood.” Did anyone else notice that?
Maybe, just maybe, Hollywood hasn’t had any really decent black actresses. Gosh, there is a thought. Like the way us white folk haven’t had any really decent white wimmen who can act and hold their own in a few years. ( Meryl Streep/Kathy Bates/Sally Fields/Sissy Spacek and a boat load of British woman like Judi Dench and Maggie Smith who are nominated every year since menopause, it seems.)
Where in the hell are the asians and latinos saying they have been discriminated against for not winning Best Actress/Actor. John Leguizamo is one of my favorite actors, you don’t see him getting all puckered up.
Jennifer Lopez, what was up with your poodle hairdo?
Sandra Bullock, did I see your nipples?
God, if I won an Oscar next year I would say in my acceptance speech, “I have opened the door for all mid western housewives…they have been shut out of Hollywoods elite crowd for too long…”
(Oh, and you can sure as hell bet that I would have something funny to say in my speech too, like Frances McDormand who won for Fargo and whose husband directed her in that flick and said " I want to thank my husband for giving me the big one every night" or something like that.)
The Oscars are not about acting any more, it is all about popularity. What? Did I say anything that wasn’t new? Halle won, not on the strength of her acting, but a) she is black (can I say black here?) and b) she is spectularly beautiful. It should never be about color/race, but about (gasp) talent.
There are ,what, a handful of black actresses out there of standard acting talent: Viveca Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah (who is not half bad) Whitney Houston, and, uh…help me out, I’ve drawn a blank because they are just that pedestrian. They are nearly always in the same type of movie about the same he-done me wrong crap over and over again. Gee, little wonder why they never get nominated.
What, *Bootie Call * wasn’t nominated for best african american film? I am *shocked *
Now, Denzel is another story. He is an outstanding classy actor and can always hold his own and has a great deal of class. I was glad to see him get it, but it would have been loads of fun to see Ian McKellen win.
{brain farts}
I was sad to see my next husband Mr. Shirley Ujest, Russell Crowe not win. Apparently he was wearing last years Tux.
Cirque de Soliel was outstanding and the highlight of the show.
Uma Thurman’s Tits were really huge…they looked like two pools of Boob Lakes next to her husband, Mr. I can’t comb my hair Hawke.
Whoopi was fine, i thought, esp. with the joke with Will & Jada Smith and Maggie Smith sitting together as a family. I missed most of her stuff though because I was toggling between the Oscars and E’s best dressed people stuff. I am so shallow.
The Donald Sutherland/Glenn Close thing was very odd. It threw off the pace of everything. Disjointed. Roberto Benigni would have been better
**This concludes my rant. You may return to a more normal post **
Well, it’s an awkward situation no matter what they do. On the one hand, you can’t just give the same award to the same work three years in a row. On the other hand, you can’t really give it to part of the work without giving it to the rest, as well. At least, that had better be the reason that FotR didn’t win.
The Oscars just aren’t really set up to handle a nine-hour movie released over the course of three years.
Shirley, if you don’t think that Halle Berry can act, I would wager a guess that you haven’t seen Monster’s Ball. And if you did, I think that maybe you went into the wrong theatre. Calling her a “nonactress” is ignorance. I can’t possibly imagine how even the harshest of critics could call that performance anything less than “average,” least of done by a “nonactress.”
And the debate is not one of “blacks are being oppressed because they haven’t won the Best Actress Award,” but one of “blacks are being oppressed because they are not being given any good lead roles.” All sorts of arguments can be made for or against this, but that’s the root of the current argument - the Oscar debate merely stems as evidence of that.
Did anyone think that this year’s and last year’s Best Actor wins should be swapped? Russell Crowe was a hell of a lot better in “A Beautiful Mind” than in “Gladiator,” and Denzel was a whole lot better in “The Hurricane” than in “Training Day.”
