Telecast Discussion

[Big Magilla]

Here's a thought on how to handle Will Smith's win.

Have the full Academy membership revote the Best Actor award. If he wins again, he gets to keep the Oscar. If he loses, the award goes to whoever comes out on top, with an asterisk.

[HarryGoldfarb]

If they bring Smith back, it will be to present Best Actress, not Best Picture. And they usually reserve Best Picture for someone Important (TM).

Someone important like… Will Smith? Even when he wasn’t an Academy Award winning actor, he already presented BP back in 2014 (12 Years a Slave).

But I get your point; mine was/is that, considering how big news the whole affair has been so far, the cynic in me can only guess someone somewhere must be evaluating everything in order to take advantage of the situation for next year broadcast. I mean, they even brought Beatty/Dunaway back after the La La Land/Moonlight fiasco.

[Mister Tee]

It seems that with Smith’s acceptance speech, we were privileged to get a rare, naked glimpse into these people’s worship at the altar of self-delusion.

My favorite tweet of the night by far: "See what happens when you say 'Macbeth' in a theatre?"

With all due respect to Washington, on Sunday he was not the main protagonist of the Shakespearian tragedy unfolded in the Dolby Theatre.

For more than two decades Macbeth-Smith and Lady Macbeth-Smith were plotting to take over the thrown of Scotland, sorry, Hollywood - i.e. winning the Best Actor Oscar. Everything about their tightly scripted public life was in service of this one objective. Every career move was aimed at turning this likeable yet very lightweight performer into a “thespian”. Every cliché ridden, ghost-written “interview” they gave projected self-important “gravitas”. Every fashion choice - Will’s evolving into this tweedy English professor was all about manifesting “respectability”. Hell, the Lady even turned herself into a full-blown activist, recruiting 300 years of slavery, solely to get her man an Oscar.

And it finally worked. All the stars were aligned. The right Oscar friendly project was found (it even had “king” in its title!) The overly-due-narrative was heavily pumped all over the place. It was a done deal. The setting for the ultra-kitsch post Oscar photo of the self-declared Royal Family was arranged in advance. The Coronation was officially on its way as planned. And then The Fool arrived onstage. The Bard of Avon couldn’t have envisioned it better. A mere court jester utters some insignificant words and all hell let loose. Obviously, as it should be done in this kind of tragedy, the protagonist made the wrong move. And being the self-centered hero, he carried on, believing he could fix things up.

Now all is left for us to do it to wait for the third act to see what will be the body-count onstage at the final curtain.

Outstanding interpretation.

It sets up Rock's (extremely mild) Will/Jada jokes in the 2015 #oscarssowhite year as foreshadowing of the tragedy to unfold.

And the characterization of Jada as Lady Macbeth gains much currency from the unmistakable fact that Will is seen initially laughing at Rock's joke, while Jada goes ice-cold. Whatever happened in the moments just after the camera left the pair, prior to Will's fateful ascent to the stage (if anyone has video of it, they could make a fortune), seems sure to have been what prodded Will's action. It's easy to imagine a terse version of "Screw your courage to the sticking point" being the pivot of the scene.

[OscarGuy]

If they bring Smith back, it will be to present Best Actress, not Best Picture. And they usually reserve Best Picture for someone Important (TM).

[HarryGoldfarb]

The most they are likely to do is ban him from returning next year to present Best Actress unless ABC or Disney thinks it would be a good thing to have him there to boost ratings.

Smith and Rock will present Best Picture next year…

[Mister Tee]

The Academy has never, to my knowledge, revoked an awarded Oscar. They have revoked nominations, but never Oscars. That is, unless I've missed something important.

The only case that I can think of where an awarded Oscar was revoked is the case of Young Americans which won Best Documentary. The award was accepted on stage, but was later revoked for eligibility reasons.

I've been watching some old Oscar shows on YouTube and came across that race. In those days, none of us ever saw most of the docs or shorts, so, if I heard one title I remembered, it was usually the winner. In this case, there were two titles I recalled, and I quickly processed that that must have been the year the winner was revoked by disqualification (post-ceremony, so the runner-up never got the kick of accepting on stage).

[Mister Tee]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Smith even attend the Governors Ball? I know he went to the Vanity Fair one, but I'm not sure he even went to the Governors Ball. Regardless, he gets the one he was handed and will have to mail it in for engraving at a later date.

I think he didn't attend the Governors ball, nor did he join the other acting winners for the backstage photos. The statuette he was carrying at the vanity fair party was not engraved.

It's really telling that IMDB's front page has photos of the other three winners holding their Oscars, but not Smith. Two pre-season unknowns and a well-respected but hardly superstar actress, but not the guy who's a household name. If The Incident hadn't happened, it'd be his picture and no one else's.

[Reza]

Yes he skipped the news room right after winning and the Governor's ball. Later walked into the Vanity Fair bash with his family.

[mlrg]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Smith even attend the Governors Ball? I know he went to the Vanity Fair one, but I'm not sure he even went to the Governors Ball. Regardless, he gets the one he was handed and will have to mail it in for engraving at a later date.

I think he didn't attend the Governors ball, nor did he join the other acting winners for the backstage photos. The statuette he was carrying at the vanity fair party was not engraved.

[OscarGuy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Smith even attend the Governors Ball? I know he went to the Vanity Fair one, but I'm not sure he even went to the Governors Ball. Regardless, he gets the one he was handed and will have to mail it in for engraving at a later date.

[Sabin]

Salma Hayek is the only principle actor from Wild Wild West who has yet to win an Oscar.

[anonymous1980]

They haven't actually given him his Oscar yet. Those handed out on stage are props. They have to be returned for engraving so I suppose they could halt the engraving, but he would still be on the books as a winner with an asterisk.

This procedure is long gone. For several years now the engraving is done during the governor's ball. You can check dozens of photos of oscar winners watching the statuette being engraved while they are holding a glass of champagne.

Lots of videos as well. There's a very endearing one of Kobe Bryant and also, of Bong Joon-ho and Renee Zellweger.

[mlrg]

They haven't actually given him his Oscar yet. Those handed out on stage are props. They have to be returned for engraving so I suppose they could halt the engraving, but he would still be on the books as a winner with an asterisk.

This procedure is long gone. For several years now the engraving is done during the governor's ball. You can check dozens of photos of oscar winners watching the statuette being engraved while they are holding a glass of champagne.

[Big Magilla]

They haven't actually given him his Oscar yet. Those handed out on stage are props. They have to be returned for engraving so I suppose they could halt the engraving, but he would still be on the books as a winner with an asterisk.

I doubt they would do that. The most they are likely to do is ban him from returning next year to present Best Actress unless ABC or Disney thinks it would be a good thing to have him there to boost ratings.

[gunnar]

The Academy has never, to my knowledge, revoked an awarded Oscar. They have revoked nominations, but never Oscars. That is, unless I've missed something important.

The only case that I can think of where an awarded Oscar was revoked is the case of Young Americans which won Best Documentary. The award was accepted on stage, but was later revoked for eligibility reasons.