Well that wasn’t particularly British of the people what do them Oscars awards, was it? No, look you see, under the English way of doing things, they should have just remained calm despite the obvious error, pretended nothing untoward had happened and carried on with celebrating La La Land as the Best Picture of the last year. Even, and I want to make this clear, even if it patently was not.
It is also, don’t you think, a little late in the day to be taking awards away from films that patently, if not clearly, did not deserve them? Quite a dangerous precedent was sent with that action. Many a winner of Best Picture awards will be getting a little jumpy when the phone rings or there’s a knock at the door, for they shall suspect a wrong will be righted with the correct re-awarding of their shiny statue.
No, I’ve not seen La La Land or Moonlight, or any of the other films that were nominated for awards. I have very little interest in seeing any of them, and to be honest I have a similarly low level of interest in who does what with any awards. In truth I had assumed that this was the case for many, hence the events all now being hosted by low-level, not particularly well known or blessed with talent types rather than Grade A celebrities. This is none truer than with that Globes one.
That said, I have had two pretty interesting reviews of La La Land. My Dad considers it a masterpiece, and I am sure he would applaud any award it was given. Even if that award was just for a minute or so. Mum, however, had a slightly different take on this particular motion picture, with the phrase “pile of sh!t” frequently peppering her critical appraisal of its shortcomings.
My take on it was that it was simply a mistake, or if you like an error. These happen. Yes, fingers are pointed at the auditors. From experience I know, however, that auditors are human and can make mistakes. Whether accidentally in terms of human nature or quite deliberately due to influence is a different matter. That said, I would not for one moment want to stop the flow of conspiracy theories doing the rounds about this Best Picture mishap
There are two key, if not crucial, pieces of evidence for these conspiracy theories. The first is that as Emma Stone had the card with her name on it for Best Actress it was impossible for it to have been put in another envelope and handed over. Secondly, the orchestra started playing the music off of La La Land straight away, which is to say that they were told in advance to be ready. I would say in respect of the former there was maybe a printing mishap or for some reason they make more copies in case the one gets damaged, in terms of the latter I would be pretty sure an orchestra picked to play such a high profile event could start playing any song you gave them the music for in a few seconds.
Also, La La Land was listed – albeit briefly – as the Best Picture Oscar winner on Wikipedia. As we know, Wikipedia recently took all sorts of actions to make it loud and clear that they only (ahem) credit truthful and reliable sources for the information they relate. Thus, if I read it on the internet then it must be true.
Conspiracy theories doing the rounds? Sure.
* It was the work of pro-Trump activists, done to make sure the news focus was on this error and not the inevitable anti-Trump speeches that film industry types would make on winning an award
* Nicola Sturgeon did it, so in order for Scotland’s voice to be heard on the subject, and to remind all that Scotland must be heard in a way that is equal to all others, yet also louder and superior
* It was the work of anti-Trump activists, fully aware that the Oscars were losing viewers and so making such an incident happen would put the ceremony on the front pages, the follow on effect being that anti-Trump speeches were highlighted
* Warren Beatty is no Jack Nicholson, and those who believe the Oscars are worthless without Jack Nicholson being present set out to deliberately humiliate Warren Beatty for him not being Jack Nicholson
* Some pro-White activists did it as they were quite upset that a predominantly black film was winning the award
* Fanboys did it, as they are still angry about the Star Wars prequels / the fact that they are 40+ / 50+ virgins living in Momma’s basement in places like, for a random example, Delaware Ohio
* Some pro-Black activists did it to underline the point that they were taking the award away from what is perceived to be a predominantly white award thing
No, I don’t think any of these theories are plausible, but they are enormous fun to indulge and read about. Undoubtedly there are some out there who take such things quite seriously and thus consider the conspiracy theory they believe to be correct as being the truth. Well, whatever gets you through life, I say.
Credit, I believe, to Warren Beatty for his decency and chivalry. If you watch the footage he clearly knew something was wrong but had no means of communicating with anyone to fix it. Faye (no not that one the other one) simply did what she thought was right based on what was in front of her. That Warren stood front and centre, explained what went on and tried to deflect the whole matter away from anyone else and towards him was quite a bold move and should be applauded.
The way in which it was quickly all rectified on stage might just put to bed at least two well known myths, or if you prefer urban legends, about Oscars being incorrectly awarded. For many years it was suggested / believed that Marisa Tomei got her Oscar in error, with presenter Jack Palance apparently reading out the wrong name. Similar theories have surrounded Cuba Gooding jnr’s win, although they didn’t involve Jack Palance so far as I know. No, then – if neither of them were meant to win, then surely at the time we would have seen a similar correction? Or maybe conspiracy theorists will simply say we had the correction with La La Land due to new measures being put in after those incidents of “errors”.
Ultimately, Oscars and all other film awards are people who dress up and pretend to be someone else for a living congratulating others that dress up and pretend to be others for a living. And as in doing so many, if not all, of us get some wonderful entertainment. Have fun, however, with whatever theories and conspiracies you find to be interesting with all of this.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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