Oscars Grab

Plenty of highlights come out of the Academy Awards that I always read about the next day. I don’t watch award shows. Why would I? Why does anyone?

While there is still a lot of focus on who wore what, people in my business pay attention to how the movie industry reflects society. We also wait for a Trump Tweet attacking any criticism he may have received at the ceremony.

This year’s awards were focused on diversity. A Mexican immigrant won the award for best director. The award for best screenplay went to a black man for the first time. Best animation went to a tale about Mexico. How nice of Tinseltown talk about diversity while it hasn’t always reflected it. This is an industry that looked the other way, and excused, for decades as women were sexually harassed by those in power.

While the Academy Awards and Hollywood is a trendsetter for American culture, it often takes decades to catch up to reality and what’s truly important.

Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra, three of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers gave a presentation highlighting diversity in films.  Does this mean the industry will start reflecting diversity with casting and pay?

I’m always amused by people who say they don’t care about the Oscars while complaining incessantly about it. But, there is something to not caring about a bunch of rich, privileged, out-of-touch people giving awards to each other. The “important” people do take care of each other, as people like Ben Affleck and Quentin Tarantino spent decades remaining silent about Weinstein. They never defended the women who were victimized, but they made sure to pick up their checks and awards from their association with Harvey.

Hollywood punished actresses who called out Weinstein years ago. Now, people like Affleck and Tarantino say how horrible it was. Like latching onto the #MeToo movement when it’s trendy, Hollywood is playing catch up.

While I do enjoy some of the political jokes, and feel good for particular winners (like Jordan Peele, Sam Rockwell, and Allison Janney), I don’t really don’t care about the industry’s viewpoints anymore than I care about who wore what.

Here’s the video.

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