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A Cleaner, Friendlier Oscar Smear Campaign
Matt Sayles / AP Photo
Insidious rumors about the top films are a staple of awards season, and this year was no different—except that for all the mudslinging, no one seems to have walked away with dirty hands.
It’s paranoia season in Hollywood.
Every year when the Oscars roll around, a front-runner starts to emerge from the pack, and a nasty story follows. “Mathematician John Nash was a Jew hater!” became the sourceless rumor when A Beautiful Mind started looking strong in 2002. There are no fingerprints on such stories. Studios always suspect their rivals of planting them; their rivals always deny it. When reports circulated about Nash, the film’s backers turned with suspicion on Miramax, then Harvey Weinstein’s company, which was pushing In the Bedroom. Or it could have been Fox, hawking Moulin Rouge.
Sean Penn has hardly campaigned, while Mickey Rourke has been something of a one-man self-demolition squad.
Things are the same this year, but also different. Thanks in part—but only in part—to the economy, the paranoia is far deeper than usual. Everyone in the Oscar game is scared. That includes the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as it tries to keep the awards relevant, as well as those who make and market the kind of movies that end up in contention for golden statuettes.
This year, promotional ads ran, but they were far fewer. The parties were thrown but they were muted. And as Slumdog Millionaire emerged as the one to beat in the Best Picture category, the slanderous stories appeared on schedule: People in India were disgusted with the stereotypes in the movie, according to reports; the child actors were exploited.
“Of course those [stories] were planted,” snaps an Oscar campaign veteran. “You think the timing was coincidental?”
But the Slumdog story failed to get any traction. Playing detective in the sabotage game didn’t seem to be much fun this year. Even with the notorious Weinstein in the game trying to convince the world that The Reader had a shot—and this is the guy who convinced the Academy that Chocolat was worth nominating, and that Shakespeare in Love deserved to beat Saving Private Ryan—no one made much of an effort to accuse him.
Part of the reason for this depressed awards season is that Slumdog feels like a mortal lock for the Best Picture award. That has sucked a lot of excitement out of the proceedings. There’s also little tension in the Best Actor category. Mickey Rourke or Sean Penn? Penn has hardly campaigned, while Rourke has worked tirelessly but doesn't seem to have overcome some of the issues that required him to make his much-hyped comeback. He has been something of a one-man self-demolition squad, threatening on tape to break a "faggot" writer's legs, making off-color statements about dating Courtney Love, and threatening to appear at WrestleMania. And, as reported on The Daily Beast, someone leaked his text message bashing Penn as "average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno". Leaking the text could fit into the attempted-smear category, but, eh.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Oprah Changes Channels
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
New Moon Rises Over Hollywood
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
Meet the Movie Theater of the Future
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Nice to see Kim Masters writing on TDB--more, please. Her coverage of the industry is the best there is.
WHO cares?!?!? The Oscars are fake awards anyways!! It is just a night so these people can think they are more important than every other American. If a terrorist bombed the Oscars ceremony, I wouldn't care. Most of these people are overpaid whining pieces of shit! The USA would be better off without them!!
the quality of nominations for this year's awards is truly embarassing
I agree with queensplate. It's a weak year. What's most embarrassing though, is it was a very strong year for movies. The best movies simply weren't nominated for best picture though. Instead it's all the pictures that the studios decided were their prestige "Oscar" pictures from the moment they were conceived.
I agree with other commenters who've stated what a weak group of nominees this year has. One has the impression that the voters represent far too narrow a selection of tastes. They're much like the voters for the Grammys, nominating artists from a small, select group that is unrepresentative of the movie industry in general. For actresses, it's another year with prostitutes and nuns. For actors, it's more triumph of the human spirit gays and handicaps (Benjamin Button). Truly beautiful women can't win unless they uglify themselves, e.g. Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman in past years. Even if Rourke and Penn weren't the frontrunners, Brad Pitt wouldn't have a chance because the Academy doesn't give awards to guys who look like him. The awards seem very cliched.
I do think that for the most part, it surely is a popularity event.
Surprise. But often there are performances that are rewarded properly. (Tom Hanks, Daniel-Day Lewis, Meryl Streep etc)
My issue with the oscar event is that it is sooo overrated. They drag the thing out for almost three hours. It goes on forever. One has to wade through and endure endless "entertainment" and commercials.
I say ONE HOUR! Thats it . All nominations and winners. Let the advertisers charge two million a minute. And more people would watch.
The most interesting part of the Oscars is the acceptance speeches, because you get to see people expressing great joy without a script. Yet the producers always limit them ridiculouosly, just so they can fit in another 5 canned film packages or forgettable production numbers.Cut the number of tributes, send a half dozen of the less important awards to the technical Oscars ceremony on another night, and give the big league award winners as much time as they want to make their speeches.
I can't agree with those that feel the Oscar pool was limited this year. After seeing many of the movies nominated, I am impressed with the caliber of performances across the board. The larger problem with the Oscars is the fact that only a small fraction of movies created are even considered for nomination. This year's open ceremony took a stab at pointing this out to the academy - highlighting comedies, action/adventure and genre movies that were are ignored. When Will Smith spoke, he stated correctly, that this is where the fans flock. And this is what the television audience can root for. The quality of these movies can be quite good... this year, it was not just The Dark Knight that was buzz worthy (Iron Man, anyone). Until the Oscars/academy can step back and look at all genres with an even hand, the television audience will continue to be distanced from the ceremony.
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