THE SEASON: Notes on no-show scandals, infighting and a bittersweet winter for the lion
By Pete Hammond
You can tell the Oscars are nearing. People are starting to get edgy, nervous, irritable.
Poor Laura Ziskin. The second-time Oscar show producer is admirably trying to showcase the efforts of all the craft nominees with plans that include an Errol Morris film with interviews that will be highlighted in most categories on the big night itself.
Among those in the spotlight are the costume designers with a live pageant of nominated designs donned by models. However, some in the costume community are upset and privately complaining to Ziskin, thinking the planned segment “trivializes” their achievements (bottom line is the Academy has had models parading around like this on past Oscar telecasts and never got a peep). Might we suggest Heidi Klum as a perfect fit for Helen Mirren, tiara and all?
The Academy has had to deal with all sorts of headaches though. They always do this time of year.
Some members are calling for a change next year in the rules that cap the number of PGA-vetted producers eligible for Best Picture after the likes of “The Departed’s” Brad Grey and especially “Little Miss Sunshine’s” Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger got cut from the roster this year (for different reasons not announced by the Acad producers branch). Then of course there is the ongoing never-ending lawsuit by last year’s snubbee, Bob Yari (“Crash”) and the Academy’s latest salvo last week which officially disinvited him to the Governor’s Ball for at least “the next five years.”
Meanwhile some voters on the Foreign Language film selection committee, who sat diligently through up to 50-plus subtitled films, are privately (so far) grumbling that a rule change allowing a largely different bi-coastal uber-panel of about 30 (names not released) to choose five final nominees from nine semi-finalists resulted in the unfair exclusion of movies they believe may have scored higher in the initial voting than some that actually got nominated after the “new” committee viewed them the weekend of January 19th.
The omission of Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver” drew particularly raised eyebrows but the no-show of French entry, “Avenue Mantaigne” also stunned a couple of the voters we talked to. This rule was put into effect after frequent embarrassments that saw forgettable items like “Zus and Zo” nominated over critically acclaimed, more challenging films like “City Of God.” Most would seem to agree however that the nine 2006 finalists and five eventual nominees were all worthy, so for now just file this under ‘can’t please everyone.’
Then there’s “Notes On A Scandal” best actress nominee Judi Dench, who has lost all season to Mirren, announcing publicly at the Berlin Film Festival that she plans to skip the Oscar ceremony (her sixth but first time AWOL), her excuse being a knee operation instead. Her bum knee probably wouldn’t allow her to curtsey after the show to Queen Helen anyway. With all the money poured into these campaigns, recent years have seen an almost 100% attendance rate by the nominated actors, whatever their realistic chances of winning.
The last no-show winner in one of the lead categories was Paul Newman 20 years ago. However, in terms of Oscar history, many, MANY thesps (especially English ones) have skipped the event without feeling they needed to announce their reasons. Between 1961 and 1971 no less than seven Best Actress statuettes went unclaimed by their actual winner the night of the show. After the absent Sophia Loren’s victory in 1961 for “Two Women,” M.C. Bob Hope quipped, “It must be wonderful to have so much talent you can just send for one.” Of course some people practically make a career of NOT showing. Woody Allen missed attending for all 21 of his noms and 3 wins and Katharine Hepburn famously never turned up for any of her 12 noms and 4 wins (a record for actors). We don’t believe either of them ever provided the Academy with an “excuse.”
The Academy of course now bends over backward to make sure everyone shows up. It’s key for ratings and anyway, what would it look like if someone came to the Golden Globes but skipped Oscar? You can almost hear the Academy begging reluctant nominees by using Peter O’Toole’s famous line from 1964’s ‘Becket’: “Stop dribbling while I raise you to glory.” Then again, O’Toole didn’t show when he was nominated for THAT film, did he?
Speaking of Peter The Great he was nowhere to be seen at Sunday’s BAFTA show in London (where he lost the home team advantage to Forest Whitaker) but he did make it all the way to LA for the nominees lunch on Feb 5th and plans to attend Feb 25th as well. If he fails to win Best Actor for “Venus,” he will become the biggest acting loser in Academy history (he got an honorary award in 2002). O’Toole is a perfect example of the mysterious, almost cruelly diabolical ways in which Oscar works. Each year he’s been nominated he’s had the dumb luck to be defeated by incredibly formidable, unbeatable performances. A couple of people have asked us recently how it was possible that he has never have won. Here’s the answer:
1962 Gregory Peck in “To Kill A Mockingbird”
1964 Rex Harrison in “My Fair Lady”
1969 John Wayne in “True Grit”
1972 Marlon Brando in “The Godfather”
1980 Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull”
1982 Ben Kingsley in “Gandhi”
Atticus Finch, Henry Higgins, Rooster Cogburn, Don Corleone, Jake LaMotta, Gandhi.
Each one of these iconic roles was invincible in their year. O’Toole probably could have won first time out in 1962’s big Oscar movie, “Lawrence Of Arabia” but unfortunately delivered HIS now-legendary performance as T.E. Lawrence against Gregory Peck’s 5th nomination and HIS career defining role in “Mockingbird.” The one year he appeared certain to win was 1968 for his towering return to King Henry II in “The Lion In Winter” and indeed did grab the Golden Globe over hometown favorite Cliff Robertson. But Robertson ran a brilliant personal campaign for his portrayal of the mentally retarded genius in the small indie sensation, “Charly” and in a David vs Goliath moment upset the favored O’Toole. Ironically Robertson was stuck shooting in the Phillipines on Oscar night and missed his big moment. He had an excuse.
This year it appears as if O’Toole is once again opposite “invincible” competition. Forest Whitaker in a career signature role as Idi Amin in “The Last King Of Scotland” is already the winner of more than 20 pre-awards including most critics prizes, SAG, the Globe, BFCA, and last weekend’s BAFTA honor.
O’Toole’s standing ovation at the nominees lunch has people thinking lately maybe he can pull this out in the end, but the next biggest ovation went to, you guessed it, Whitaker. Can sentiment prevail? Sure. But if Oscar is such a misty-eyed nostalgic bloke then ask Lauren Bacall to show you hers next time you visit.
For the ‘lion’ in the winter of 2007 this could be the most bittersweet SEASON of all.
