Chaos at the Oscars: Well, that’s one way to make the show memorable
12:11 a.m. on Monday and — as expected — “La La Land” has just been announced as the Best Picture winner at the 89th Academy Awards.
It’s been a long night on a longer-than-average Oscar telecast with the usual slew of technical awards putting people to sleep despite host Jimmy Kimmel’s courageous attempts to muster enthusiasm.
As La La’s producers drone on about how grateful they are to their wives and kids and grade school teachers, the tiny contingent of viewers left watching are about to turn off their TVs and stagger groggily to bed.
And then, suddenly, without warning, there’s a commotion on stage.
As the La La suits, unaware what’s going on behind them, send shout-outs to their chauffeurs and maids, you can clearly see befudIt’s dled Warren Beatty, who had just announced “La La Land” as the winner, engaged in heated conversation with anonymous men in tuxedos.
Suddenly, red envelopes are flying. People are running around. Facial expressions turn frantic.
With 22 people milling about on stage, it’s like an SCTV skit.
In the midst of this chaos, “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz races back to the microphone,
wrestles it from his colleague and blurts out: “Guys, guys ... I’m sorry, NO! There’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight’ — you guys won best picture!”
Ha, ha. Nice one, Justin, or Jordan — whatever your name is.
But we already saw this on the Grammy Awards, where Adele accepted the prestigious Album of the Year prize, then insisted — and I’m paraphrasing — “Oh no, this doesn’t belong to me. I’m a bland establishment cash cow. This should go to my edgy streetwise competitor, Beyoncé.” It’s a joke, right? False modesty.
Clap, clap. How noble of you. “This is not a joke,” responds Horowitz, visibly emotional. He holds up the winning card as the camera zooms in: Best Picture: Moonlight. And then all hell breaks loose. In this day and age, where corporate dominance and risk-free entertainment have outlawed even minor acts of televised spontaneity, it’s hard to believe the biggest awards show on the planet could somehow screw up the presentation of its biggest award.
And to be sure, social media was abuzz Monday with conspiracy theorists claiming this massive foul up was a publicity stunt, a hoax — you know, like the Apollo moon landing. Don’t believe it. If you watched this spectacular meltdown in real time, it was clearly real, the result, it was later confirmed, of pompous accountants in Armani suits getting their wires crossed and handing presenter Beatty the wrong envelope.
There have been Oscar muckups
before: a streaker running past presenter David Niven in 1974, a wrong winner announced by Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964 (for a minor category), John Travolta mispronouncing singer Idina Menzel’s name in 2014. But nothing like this. It was live TV at its best, proof that even large institutions are fallible, nothing is forever, and when people grow complacent and let their guard down, unexpected things can happen.
Not that there was irreparable damage — unlike, say, the U.S. election and Brexit.
“La La Land” had already won six awards, including Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Director (Damien Chazelle) and is a bona fide box office hit.
But in a year marked by a rightwing upsurge and a White House occupant who openly disdains Hollywood’s left-wing values, this whitesplainin’, mansplainin’ musical throwback to the days of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers seemed out of place, out of time.
If the Academy wanted to send a pointed message about diversity and inclusion, then celebrating “Moonlight” — a critically lauded coming-of-age story about a struggling gay black man — was the way to do it.
The joke, of course, is that while everyone respects this film and agrees it’s fantastic, it has the smallest box office take since “The Hurt Locker” in 2009.
So this is ultimately a good news story — not only will it get a needed box office boost, the stunned elation when the film’s cast and crew found out they won clearly made their award that much sweeter.
“I don’t know what to say,” intoned producer Adele Romanski as various cast members wandered the stage in a daze. “I’m still not sure if this is real.”
It’s real, baby — score one for the Oscars.
And while we’re on the topic, I must graciously concede — on behalf of my critical peers — that despite the usual griping about how this year’s Oscars would reward the wrong movies, bore us with hectoring political speeches and foist upon us a lame host, it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable in recent memory.
Never mind the sagging ratings, which made it the lowestrated telecast in nine years.
That’s a reflection of the Academy’s decision to target art house fare over blockbusters, not the quality of the show.
In the ways that count, the Oscars got it right.
“Moonlight” as Best Picture? Bullseye.
Casey Affleck as Best Actor? Right on.
Viola Davis as Best Supporting Actress? She deserved it.
Nothing for Denzel Washington or Mel Gibson? No complaints from me. And that’s just the awards. Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling” was one of the rare Oscar musical performances that worked, and his segue into Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” was nothing less than sublime.
Watching NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson — in frail health at 98 — wheeled onstage as part of a “Hidden Figures” presentation was heart-wrenching.
And Jimmy Kimmel, it shocks me to say, was a great host: smooth, irreverent, in tune with “the moment.”
I’ve heard grumbling that ushering in a busload of rumpled tourists to gawk at Oscar celebrities reeked of classism and poor taste, a classic example of Hollywood hubris.
But Chris Rock, you may recall, did the same thing in 2005, when he interviewed so-called “regular people” who revealed complete ignorance about that year’s award nominees and advocated for “White Chicks” as best picture.
Then, as now, they were eager to participate.
And I bet none — including the couple “married” by Denzel Washington and whoever nabbed Jennifer Aniston’s expensive sunglasses before a televised audience of millions — felt they were being exploited. Unlike, say, Donald Trump. “I want to say thank you to President Trump,” joked Kimmel, equating the Academy’s past failure to nominate actors of colour with Trump’s proposed crackdown on immigrants.
“Remember last year, when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?”
And then there was his satirical defence of Meryl Streep, the 20time Oscar nominee described by the presidential blowhard as “overrated” when she made pointed comments about equality and respect at the Golden Globes.
“From her mediocre early work in ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Out of Africa,’ to her underwhelming performances in ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ and ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ Meryl Streep has phoned it in for more than 50 films over the course of her lacklustre career,” deadpanned Kimmel as the crowd howled.
It was a brilliant show, filled with wit, wisdom and humility.
It won’t impress the naysayers and — unless they start nominating superhero films and kid flicks — will do nothing to goose the ratings.
But as live TV in an era of prefab moosh, the Oscars were second to none.