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Feb. 25th, 2013 03:52 pm
The Oscar grouch
Can you think back to the year when you became disillusioned with the Oscars? For me it was 1988, when Cher won Best Actress for Moonstruck. At the time, I hadn't even seen the film, but there was so much talk in the press about this having been the Academy's attempt to make up for having "slighted" her in Mask and Silkwood that it made me realise how naïve I'd been for thinking the Oscars were really about recognising and rewarding artistic accomplishment.
Having had parents in the industry, Nuphy was amused to find I'd ever taken the Oscars seriously. For him, they'd always had about as much respectability as the Golden Globes (at the time--it baffles me that apparently even these have come to be treated as if they mean something). He and his family thought the big self-congratulatory gala worth watching for its pompous excess and nothing more. That seems to be the spirit most people I know watch the ceremony with nowadays and, honestly, I'd think I'd find it tedious even if I'd gotten around to seeing the nominated films, which nowadays I never do. I just don't find celebrity snark amusing any more.
As long as the two of us were together, I'd still watch the awards--or, rather, I'd watch the opening monologue, then go off and play on the computer or something, wandering back into the room occasionally to see if there'd been any upsets or meltdowns. I think the last time I was in a house where it was being broadcast was when I went to Kansas City once to help my mother clean up. It was the year Peter O'Toole was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (Wikipedia tells me this was 2002) and I remember what a contrast his well-composed speech of acceptance made to the semi-coherent ramblings of the typical awardee.
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monshu tells me time and again that if I want to hear good acceptance speeches, I should tune into the Tony Awards. But I've never been much of a Broadway fan. At least the Grammys featured artists whose work I was actually familiar with, but my tastes diverged from the mainstream of popular music so early that pretty soon I no longer had any dogs in that fight.
Having had parents in the industry, Nuphy was amused to find I'd ever taken the Oscars seriously. For him, they'd always had about as much respectability as the Golden Globes (at the time--it baffles me that apparently even these have come to be treated as if they mean something). He and his family thought the big self-congratulatory gala worth watching for its pompous excess and nothing more. That seems to be the spirit most people I know watch the ceremony with nowadays and, honestly, I'd think I'd find it tedious even if I'd gotten around to seeing the nominated films, which nowadays I never do. I just don't find celebrity snark amusing any more.
As long as the two of us were together, I'd still watch the awards--or, rather, I'd watch the opening monologue, then go off and play on the computer or something, wandering back into the room occasionally to see if there'd been any upsets or meltdowns. I think the last time I was in a house where it was being broadcast was when I went to Kansas City once to help my mother clean up. It was the year Peter O'Toole was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (Wikipedia tells me this was 2002) and I remember what a contrast his well-composed speech of acceptance made to the semi-coherent ramblings of the typical awardee.
monshu tells me time and again that if I want to hear good acceptance speeches, I should tune into the Tony Awards. But I've never been much of a Broadway fan. At least the Grammys featured artists whose work I was actually familiar with, but my tastes diverged from the mainstream of popular music so early that pretty soon I no longer had any dogs in that fight.Tags: