I already brought this up in the 10 page Oscar thread, but it was probably missed, so I feel it deserves its own thread. When watching the Academy Awards on Sunday, I noticed that 2 minutes couldn’t go by the entire night without showing a shot of Jack Nicholson, often times at random moments. This wasn’t the first year I noticed this either…do they just set up a camera pointing at his seat the entire show? I realize he’s won a ton of his own oscars and was presenting best picture that year, but is the director of the Academy Awards just in love with him?
The iconism of Nicholson seemed to begin the year he won his Oscar for As Good As It Gets. He was pretty much a sure thing and everyone knew it, and the host (Billy Crystal IIRC) went to him every other joke. Every year after that Nicholson was seated in the front row and he became an easy reference and an easy cutaway for the director. I made “Gratuitous Nicholson Shots” my own private drinking game, or I would have if I’d been drinking during the Oscars this year. The references and jokes were markedly less this year compared to previous years, but the gratuitous shots seemed to hold pretty consistent.
He’s the Elder Statesman. He’s the Big Man on Campus. The Godfather.
He’s like Chairman Kaga on Iron Chef. He doesn’t actually do anything, but without him there’s no event.
The same is true of Laker Games.
Also, this year Kiera Knightley was seated right next to him, so whenever they showed her (which was a lot), they did it from an angle that also showed Jack.
What I want to know is, does he ever take the sunglasses off?
I think this was done because anyone over… let’s say 55… would have almost NO clue who most of the people in the front rows, the presenters (minus a few like Streep and Tomlin and Hanks) or the host were. Jack shots were comfort shots for people who had no clue who the new Oscar cast was. “Who is that bony cheeked girl with no breasts? Oh there’s Jack! I feel better now.”
I think this was probably Jack’s last big night. The torch was passed pretty solidly to Clooney.
Definitely; they seemed to show Clooney almost as much, everyone included him in their jokes and speeches, and even Three 6 Mafia spoke of the love he showed them when they first met.
It’s funny, I always just assumed that he wears the sunglasses so nobody can see how stoned he is. 
I remember Paula Poundstone once talking about the Oscars, complaining that everytime someone on stage made a joke, the director would cut to Nicholson to see if he was laughing; if he was, then we knew it was a good joke. Poundstone’s suggestion was to seat Nicholson permanently onstage, eliminating the need for the cutaway.
Futurama had Nicholson’s brain implanted in a gorilla (with Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars) and had the camera do a cut to Nicholson each time for the length of the scene. So it’s definitely somewhat known in pop culture.
I like it that he’s in the front row. I’m always glad to see Jack. He’s the coolest guy on the planet.
I think he’s been the Oscars icon much longer. At least since the mid-1980s circa Terms of Endearment and Prizzis Honor.
BTW- I think the jury’s still out on the torch being passed to George Clooney. It was a big year for him, but many others have had big years like Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Warren Beatty, Clint…etc.
He is indeed. He was interviewed by the Oprah crew backstage.
Lady: “Did you *bring * a special date, or are you *looking * for a special date.”
Jack: “Both, actually.”
If I got to ask Jack Nickolson one question it would probably be, “Did you order the Code Red?”
Was that Kiera Knightley on one side and Lindsay Lohan on the other? I’ll need to watch recaps or something, but it sure looked like it.
And my L.A. experience won’t be complete until I drive past Nickelson pulled over on the side of the road and beating the crap out of some motorist with a five-iron. Watching Val Kilmer berate a production assistant or Drew Barrymore shriek her little heart out just doesn’t compare.
Stranger
No. I saw on E! that Lindsay Lohan said she watched the show on TV.
I want to beat my own ass for knowing that.
Clooney has a certain charisma those guys don’t. Beatty might have pulled it off 25, 30 years ago, but not anymore. Hanks, Gibson and Eastwood are all charismatic but in different ways.
There was a New Yorker profile of him a few years ago…he really did come off as a very cool guy…not in a “you’re not cool because I am” way but in a genuine nice guy sense.
YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I DID!!1!11!!