The Annual Academy Awards - General Discussion

[cooksdelight]

Why would someone have a speech in hand before the winner is announced?  And given that Redmayne had already won the SAG award, why would Keaton think he was a sure thing?  It all feels odd to me.

It almost feels like Keaton has syncophants who tell him what he wants to hear, therefore he thought this was his time. Who knows? I know someone who has worked with him and she couldn't wait to get off the set, said he was a real ass.

[Umbelina]

Or maybe Keaton was getting nervous and was reviewing the speech before the announcement?

[biakbiak]

Yeah as "sad" as that Vine is, it is a little arrogant for Michael to have already had his speech out in his hand. 

 

Speaking of Vine's, for the people who wonder why we include the few tech Oscars in the ceremony checkout TJ Miller's hilarious/heartwarming Vine when his team won the Oscar.  Someone posted it in the early pages of this thread.  I'll take that moment and hold it up to any of the "big" wins of the night.

That wasn't a tech award it was for best animated film.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

At least Brody looked like a man in his; Hart, otoh, looked like he was going to a wedding in Sough Central Lilliput.

 

Have you seen Hart with his shirt off?  The guy has guns.

[Inquisitionist]

Are Jennifer Lopez's eyebrows drawn on?

http://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Jennifer-Lopez-Instagram-Pictures-From-2015-Oscars-36932935#photo-36932935

[Ohwell]

Have you seen Hart with his shirt off?  The guy has guns.

I'd call 'em pistols.

[Crs97]

I am going against the grain on this one, but I thought Lady Gaga did not sound good.  I tried to listen to her whole performance, but finally had to turn it off.  Her voice sounded so affected and strained to my ears.  I would rather they show highlights from the film with Julie Andrews' voice from the soundtrack than have someone else try to sing the medley.

[ennui]

I guess the ratings were poor, but ABC still made boatloads of money. They blamed the nominated films. As usual.

Silly question, but will The Hobbit trilogy be nominated at some point?

[cpcathy]

I think most people who watch the awards are diehard watchers, my friends who were going to watch it were watching it no matter what--some had seen all or most of the movies and others had only seen a couple and were rooting hard for those films. I won't say it's the fault of the films, I don't think that's fair. The show was just poorly done.

[Inquisitionist]

I thought Lady Gaga did not sound good.

 

She was leagues ahead of Pink's performance of Over the Rainbow last year.  Pink couldn't get through 4 consecutive notes without drawing an inopportune breath.  Blerg.

[ruby24]

The ratings always depend on how popular the movies (and the actors nominated) are. Over the last few years they'd been steadily increasing to above 40 million, but they actually benefited from having some popular films in there for those years. This year the only big hit was American Sniper and it wasn't in the running to win anything, so there was less interest.

[Milburn Stone]

Unpopular opinion, but I'm not putting this on the audience. I think Neil is just not funny. Many of his "jokes" have been incredibly average and others are just awful which is exactly why I think the audience has had nothing more than polite laughter and applause...

 

Thank you.

[Gemma Violet]

I saw a photo today of Lady Gaga backstage after her performance, breaking down in tears of joy.  I thought that was sweet.  She certainly looked overwhelmed when she got that standing ovation.

[anonymiss]

I am going against the grain on this one, but I thought Lady Gaga did not sound good.  I tried to listen to her whole performance, but finally had to turn it off.  Her voice sounded so affected and strained to my ears.  I would rather they show highlights from the film with Julie Andrews' voice from the soundtrack than have someone else try to sing the medley.

Preach, Crs97! 

 

The general public are acting like she was Britney and now they've discovered she's Whitney. I always knew she could sing but not remarkably. She has a nice tone but limited range. I also agree with those who point out the last note was especially strained.

Edited February 25, 2015 by anonymiss

[superdeluxe]

By doing what....giving birth all by himself? :)

 

If it means another Oscar, I'm sure he'd try.

 

I don't think anyone is arguing that Eddie didn't campaign hard but the notion that his getting married was part of that just seems a bit of a stretch. This is Hollywood, land of affairs, inappropriate relationships, multiple divorces, etc. In other words, I highly doubt voters give a shit about any nominee's marital status or lack thereof. It's not a political campaign where things like this matter. Added to that, it's not like Eddie married some fellow celebrity/actor so there was the added celebrity factor like you get with couples like Brad/Angelina. I'm pretty sure his wife isn't even the entertainment industry at all. 

 

But I believe she is in PR.  So, it was probably her idea to get married.

 

I doubt getting married was part of the campaign, unless Eddie invited all the Academy voters to the reception. Benedict Cumberbatch got married, too, and apparently has a baby on the way.

 

So, we've have to compare wedding dates to voting dates. Add in conception dates. 

 

Yeah, it was a little late for him since by that point it was a two man race.

 

Why would someone have a speech in hand before the winner is announced?  And given that Redmayne had already won the SAG award, why would Keaton think he was a sure thing?  It all feels odd to me.

 

Yeah as "sad" as that Vine is, it is a little arrogant for Michael to have already had his speech out in his hand.

 

After seeing the video, who says that was his speech?  That could've been a tissue or something.  If it was his speech, so what?  Most of those people have speeches prepared just in case.  And after seeing Birdman take Screenplay and Director, he probably thought the tide had turned and there was a chance that he could win.

[pennben]

 

Or maybe, he just participated in the general awards season like 90% of other nominated people and actually may have given a performance that people thought was better than Keaton's.  Maybe just maybe.

 

Yep.

[Crs97]

Or maybe, he just participated in the general awards season like 90% of other nominated people and actually may have given a performance that people thought was better than Keaton's.  Maybe just maybe.

 

 

I am a little tired of all the Oscar campaigning conspiracy theories.  People fall in love, get married, get pregnant, and have children all the time.  To decide these few actors do so only to enhance their chances of winning one award becomes more ridiculous the more it's stated as fact.

[truthaboutluv]

Honestly, as I noted, the whole "getting married as part of the campaign" thing just baffles me because again this is Hollywood. It's like the term campaign seems to make some treat this like political campaigns where sure, who you marry, being married, having the 2.5 kids is all considered important in getting voters to vote for you. But in an industry where divorce is a constant, affairs, drugs, etc. all which people bounce back from, the notion that someone got married as a ploy to get voters to vote for them for Best Actor just seems a bit ludicrous to me. I honestly do not believe these voters gave a damn about Eddie's relationship/love life, if many of them even knew he got married. 

[cpcathy]

I think he got married because he wanted to get married. Case closed. I think if you asked him, he'd probably choose the wife over the Oscar.

[Kromm]

The general public are acting like she was Britney and now they've discovered she's Whitney. I always knew she could sing but not remarkably. She has a nice tone but limited range. I also agree with those who point out the last note was especially strained.

Perhaps, but we're also getting people (especially celebrity know it alls) saying that Idina could have done those notes.  Which is kind of ludicrous.  Just genetically singers have vocal ranges and with practice they can stretch them somewhat, but not that much.  I gotta roll my eyes at the idea that Idina--an artist who sings totally in a different range and with would have sung a song totally in the wrong vocal range better than someone who's at least in the right neighborhood, even if as you say, she had to push a bit.  That said, sure.. there are plenty of legit non-pop singers they could have gotten who could have done the song.  I think the whole point of Gaga doing it was to surprise people a bit (well, as much as you can surprise people with her spending the last year or so touring with Tony Bennett) and make it a spectacle for the show, since Gaga is probably a bigger star (even with a failure with her last solo album) than most of the choices who could have sung it even better.

[topanga]

I missed several celebrities that I'm used to seeing, but I also wasn't glued to the TV for the entire broadcast. Please tell me if the following people actually were there:

 

• Denzel Washington
• Jack Nicholson
• Julia Roberts
• Jamie Foxx
• Halle Berry
• Matt Damon
• Morgan Freeman
• Tim Robbins
• Susan Sarandon
• Jane Fonda
• Jennifer Lawrence
• Uma Thurman-- I don't know if she always comes, but I would have loved to hear another "Uma--Oprah" joke. Maybe she wasn't there because the ex was nominated.

 

 

So, all in all, lackluster Oscars. Ellen really did an outstanding job and I think NPH is not fit for the Oscars.

I'm hearing that a lot. But I seem to remember a lot of people hating her performance last year--memebers of the media and posters on TWOP. Does distance bring perspective? Or are people merely comparing Ellen to NPH?

[Quickbeam]

Late to the party but : Loved Gaga and am not a fan. Thought she brought a gravitas to the show and committed 100%. Tim McGraw was excellent and again, I am not a fan. Thought Boyhood was hosed but it remains my favorite movie of the year so I've got that. NPH follows a long list of people who have tried to host this show and not quite succeed (the lockbox and underwear bits were complete duds). Thank you to Patricia Arquette for the performance and the speech. 

[merylinkid]

Cracked has an article on the Oscars that pretty much covers a lot of things we brought up here -- including the campaigning and what is a nominated film.

 

The part of the article that gets me is the MPAA is building a museum to themselves but CLOSED their fricking care home for elderly members.   Yeah, that's a good trade off.   Nothing says "self-centered" so well as kicking old folks to the curb so you can use the money to build yourself a museum.

[cpcathy]

Topanga, none of those celebs you mentioned were there. Kind of pathetic.

[topanga]

Topanga, none of those celebs you mentioned were there. Kind of pathetic.

Aww, that stinks.

[Kromm]

I missed several celebrities that I'm used to seeing, but I also wasn't glued to the TV for the entire broadcast. Please tell me if the following people actually were there:

 

• Denzel Washington
• Jack Nicholson
• Julia Roberts
• Jamie Foxx
• Halle Berry
• Matt Damon
• Morgan Freeman
• Tim Robbins
• Susan Sarandon
• Jane Fonda
• Jennifer Lawrence
• Uma Thurman-- I don't know if she always comes, but I would have loved to hear another "Uma--Oprah" joke. Maybe she wasn't there because the ex was nominated.

 

Why would Jane Fonda be there?  She hasn't made a movie in decades.

 

EDIT - and yet, apparently for some damn reason she was.

http://www.justjared.com/2015/02/23/jane-fonda-looks-amazing-at-age-77-see-her-oscars-2015-look/

 

Edited February 25, 2015 by Kromm

[topanga]

Why would Jane Fonda be there?  She hasn't made a movie in decades.

Aren't the Fondas still considered Hollywood Royalty?

[Kromm]

Hee.

 

Uber-creepy John Revolta is the gift that just keeps giving.

 

http://www.digitalspy.com/fun/news/a631152/john-travoltas-scarlett-johansson-oscar-kiss-just-got-creepier.html#~p5lcFIUMljtTdO

[Rick Kitchen]

Jane Fonda is a member of the Academy, why wouldn't she be there?  Plus, she was in The Butler in 2013.

[UsernameFatigue]

Jane Fonda is a member of the Academy, why wouldn't she be there?  Plus, she was in The Butler in 2013.

 

She also was one of the stars of last year's ensemble movie This Is Where I Leave You. I am not always a fan of her movies but I quite liked her it this one.

 

Benedict Cumberbatch got married, too, and apparently has a baby on the way.

 

Yeah, it was a little late for him since by that point it was a two man race.

 

Ah, too bad. A new wife and a baby on the way for no reason, apparently. Cumberbatch must be so upset.

Edited February 25, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[truthaboutluv]

I'm hearing that a lot. But I seem to remember a lot of people hating her performance last year--memebers of the media and posters on TWOP. Does distance bring perspective? Or are people merely comparing Ellen to NPH?

 

 

While I'm sure there was some snark on TWOP last year because you can't please everyone, if I recall correctly, the reviews for Ellen were actually quite favorable and many of the celebrities at the show raved about her performance. And of course the selfie that killed twitter was talked about for weeks. 

 

Also, with regards to list of celebrities above, maybe it's just me, but I didn't feel like the show lost anything by any of these people not being there. Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence were both at the show last year as nominees. And that's one of the things I've liked about Jennifer Lawrence - for as famous and successful as she is, she's rarely seen unless she's promoting a film or nominated for anything. So she was virtually absent this awards season.

 

Jamie Foxx was also at the show last year and I don't know about anyone esle but I feel like I see too much of Jaime Foxx.  As for some of the other names, have these people even been in anything particularly noteworthy in years?

[Kromm]

Revolta Oscar Snark Meme #2:

 

http://www.popsugar.com.au/celebrity/John-Travolta-Benedict-Cumberbatch-Meme-From-2015-Oscars-36933240#photo-36933233

[topanga]

 

Jamie Foxx was also at the show last year and I don't know about anyone esle but I feel like I see too much of Jaime Foxx.  As for some of the other names, have these people even been in anything particularly noteworthy in years?

So are the award shows only for nominees and last year's winners?  And the presenters? Maybe that's true, and I just never noticed. And if so, then maybe the floor seats are by invitation only. But I can't imagine Academy not inviting Denzel or Will Smith or Halle Berry to the Oscars. And J. Lo is there every year, with a great seat, whether she has a movie out or not.

[truthaboutluv]

I'm pretty sure it isn't a rule. Plenty of celebrities who aren't nominees that year or even in nominated films get invited as presenters. But not everyone is like J-Lo who will never pass up a chance to wear some dramatic evening gown even if she has been in a hit movie in years.

Edited February 25, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Inquisitionist]

Topanga, none of those celebs you mentioned were there. Kind of pathetic.

 

The Oscars now seem like an ordeal -- I don't blame anyone who doesn't have to be there for blowing them off.

 

I remember the days when they were lucky to have 3 of the 5 nominees in each acting category actually attend.  Often, the winner was not there to claim his/her prize in person because they were off filming something else (or didn't want to fly to LA from Europe, where they lived). 

[cpcathy]

Yes, it seemed like the Brits never showed up, you always got that black and white photo instead!

[superdeluxe]

I am a little tired of all the Oscar campaigning conspiracy theories.  People fall in love, get married, get pregnant, and have children all the time.  To decide these few actors do so only to enhance their chances of winning one award becomes more ridiculous the more it's stated as fact.

 

 

 

Honestly, as I noted, the whole "getting married as part of the campaign" thing just baffles me because again this is Hollywood. It's like the term campaign seems to make some treat this like political campaigns where sure, who you marry, being married, having the 2.5 kids is all considered important in getting voters to vote for you. But in an industry where divorce is a constant, affairs, drugs, etc. all which people bounce back from, the notion that someone got married as a ploy to get voters to vote for them for Best Actor just seems a bit ludicrous to me. I honestly do not believe these voters gave a damn about Eddie's relationship/love life, if many of them even knew he got married.

 

You can believe what you want to believe.

 

I think he got married because he wanted to get married. Case closed. I think if you asked him, he'd probably choose the wife over the Oscar.

 

If you're talking about Redmayne, did you see how he was acting after he won?  I'm surprised he didn't leave his wife for the Oscar.

[Mrs. P.]

The ratings always depend on how popular the movies (and the actors nominated) are. Over the last few years they'd been steadily increasing to above 40 million, but they actually benefited from having some popular films in there for those years. This year the only big hit was American Sniper and it wasn't in the running to win anything, so there was less interest.

I was at my hairdresser's salon today and mentioned that my husband and I were going to see

Still Alice this afternoon. I told her that we had recently seen TOE, Imitation Game, and Whiplash and enjoyed them all. She said, "I've never heard of any of those!" She was familiar with American Sniper, of course.

And for the record, I was thrilled that Redmayne won.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Mrs. P.

[Trini]

Did they seriously use real pearls for Lupita's dress??

Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 pearl Oscars dress stolen.

[SmithW6079]

If you're talking about Redmayne, did you see how he was acting after he won? I'm surprised he didn't leave his wife for the Oscar.

Right, because being honored for your work by your peers in an internationally recognized awards ceremony is just so boring. Happens every day.

You can believe what you want to believe.

Bush was behind 9/11; Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim; Castro/the Mafia/the military-industrial complex had JFK killed; the moon landing was a hoax; vaccines are a government conspiracy to control the populace.

[bosawks]

Right, because being honored for your work by your peers in an internationally recognized awards ceremony is just so boring. Happens every day.

Bush was behind 9/11; Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim; Castro/the Mafia/the military-industrial complex had JFK killed; the moon landing was a hoax; vaccines are a government conspiracy to control the populace.

 

Julia Roberts is a good actress and America's sweetheart.........

[JBC344]

Julia Roberts is a good actress and America's sweetheart.........

Also a bona fide Oscar winner. 

[Bruinsfan]

Why would Jane Fonda be there?  She hasn't made a movie in decades.

As far as I'm concerned, 9 to 5 gives her a lifetime-long reason to be there. And let's be fair, Jennifer Lopez is front and center every year and the closest she'll ever get to winning an Oscar is wearing a gold lamé dress.

[DollEyes]

 More thoughts:

 

  Re presenters, as bad as Terence Howard was, John Travolta was even worse, from the bad toupee' to his wardrobe in general/his necklace in particular. Then there was Travolta's face, which, like his film career, is a creepy, plastic shadow of its former self. Travolta's touchy-feely reunion with Idina Menzel took his creepiness to another level. Travolta was in the poor woman's face like he was Taye Diggs back in the day. At least Terence Howard didn't inflict his creepiness on others. Loved the wins for The Grand Budapest Hotel, especially costume designer Milena Canonero, who wore a black silk trench coat, a white shirt, black sequin pants and a choker and still looked better than a lot of women half her age. I'm also among those who were disgusted by the article dissing Wes Anderson's girlfriend for the cardinal sin of not being pretty by Hollywood standards. If Wes Anderson the artist and apparently the man has proven anything, it's to never judge a book by the cover. If I may be p.c. for a moment, it's attitudes like the author's that cause so many girls and woman to have self-esteem/body image issues. Wes Anderson is a talented filmmaker  who doesn't need to validate his masculinity by hooking up with bimbos every chance he gets.

 

  Congrats to J.K. Simmons. He's been great in so many things for so many years, especially Oz, Law & Order,  The Closer  and those M&Ms and Farmer's insurance commercials that seeing him get the props he deserves this awards season makes me smile. His acceptance speech was funny and sweet. His Whiplash performance has Vern Schillinger written all over it, but that's not all he's capable of, by a long shot. "Everything Is Awesome" was hilarious, Batman cameo and all, but it wasn't perfect. Not only should Chris Pratt have been involved, had the Academy had had sense enough to nominate it for Best Animated Feature, there could have been an animiated short sequence introducing the song with all kinds of LEGO figures, especially Disney-related, including Marvel and Star Wars. Seeing traditional Disney, Marvel and Star Wars interacting with LEGO-fied celebriities as audience members could have been priceless: Oprah pointing to various nominees and saying "You get an Oscar!" to everyone but Meryl Streep, who would have had a purse full of them and wouldn't have had room anyway, Batman having a brrosing contest with Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, George Clooney and Ben Affleck; the kid from  Boyhood would get bigger every minute but still look older than Eddie Redmayne while the smallest one of all is so tiny he can barely be seen-Kevin Hart. Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jared Leto could be photobombing everyone.

 

Have you seen [Kevin] Hart with his shirt off? The guy has guns.

 

I'd call 'em pistols.

 

  I'd call 'em peashooters.

[Trini]

Did they seriously use real pearls for Lupita's dress??

Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 pearl Oscars dress stolen.

 

Found, and not real pearls.

[truthaboutluv]

This. There are plenty of posts in the Awards Discussion thread with many detailing Eddie's hard campaigning. I don't think most are denying Eddie campaigned and campaigned hard for that Oscar and that yes, if one wants to use the expression, he was most definitely thirsty for the win.

 

And of course many of these wins aren't based solely on performance or merit but there are politics involved - like studio financial backing, generally disliking one person versus another like when Russell Crowe screwed himself being an asshole all award season, etc. What people are questioning is the notion that his marriage was part of this campaign because as noted, since when does being married mean anything in Hollywood?

Edited March 1, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[FormerMod-a1]

It keeps you in the news?  That's all I can come up with.

[Shannon L.]

I learned an interesting thing today that I thought I'd throw out here.  One of the women at my church works for a caterer and this year that caterer got a job working the Oscars.  They were in the theater, in the hallway outside the theater doors (I know there's a term for that, but it's not coming to me right now).  They do serve alcohol and many of the celebrities drank a lot.  That kind of makes the "The Globes are more fun because they serve alcohol" argument moot, I guess.

 

I also asked her who she thought had the prettiest dress and she said, believe it or not, Solange Knowles' red dress.  She said she was surprised at how awful it looked in pictures because, in her opinion, in real life it was stunning.  She mentioned Lupita's pearl dress, too, and said it looked incredibly heavy and uncomfortable. 

 

There wasn't much more to say because it go so busy at commercial breaks and everyone was stuck focused on their iphones, that she didn't get to interact with people as much as she hoped. 

[slensam]

The thing that I don't understand about any of this Redmayne controversy is that he gave a pretty strong solid performance. That role wasn't hackwork. I've seen much worse nominees win. And Keaton's wasn't some world-beating Brandoesque effort here. I don't get this one.

[Crs97]

Yeah, I can't imagine a judge thinking to himself/herself, "I can't decide between Michael or Eddie for best actor.  Let's see who is married."  Let's face it, if this were the case Benedict Cumberbatch would have run away with the Oscar - fabulous performance, just got married, AND a kid on the way.  If Eddie were trolling for votes for a political office, then I kinda get side-eying his marriage.  But Hollywood doesn't seem to be the place where "traditional family values" is the trump card.