Oscar mired
Who will keep track of the data?
DID SOMETHING happen at the Academy Awards this year? Will Smith’s slap-heard-around-the-world moment might have done the Academy of Motion Pictures a favor. At least it deflected the more unflattering news. Because the slap controversy will probably linger like a bad smell. And get the commentariat all typing away about the ceremony, the actors and the presenters/presentation/ crime scene and the future of the Oscars. And, who knows, that might even help the ratings for next year’s ceremony. As promoters might tell you, “as long as you spell my name right.”
(The ceremonies this year, it should be noted, drew a 3.2 television rating among adults 18-49. That was much better than last year. But well below past years as people have apparently decided to do something else with their time rather than listen to Hollywood types talk politics.)
How could Will Smith’s assault— and it was an assault—do the Academy a favor? Because as soon as it happened, people stopped talking about the Academy’s new diversity requirements.
Thanks to Los Angeles Magazine for bringing “Aperture 2025” to our attention. Because we hadn’t heard of it until last week.
Photographers will recognize the word aperture. In this context however, it probably means “opening,” as in giving more people an opening into the Academy Awards. Which sounds sweet. Until the details come out.
According to LA Mag, here’s what the new diversity program will mean:
“Starting in 2024, producers will be required to submit a summation of the race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of members of their movie’s cast and crew. If a particular movie does not have enough people of color or disabled people or gays or lesbians working on the set—and what is ‘enough’ will be determined by a knotty tangle of byzantine formularies—then that movie will no longer be eligible for an Oscar.”
And the woke crowd cheers. Please forgive us, however, if we’d like to follow the logic to a possible unwelcome conclusion.
Um, does Hollywood—through its most famous association—still believe in privacy of the individual? Who is going to go around asking crew members about their sexual orientation? Or if they have disabilities that might not be immediately recognizable? Or any number of other fresh questions?
Excuse me, but could you fill out this questionnaire? And don’t skip on the medical history part.
Who is going to keep the data? The same Hollywood that was hacked in 2014 by the North Koreans? Who’s going to determine who is Hispanic/ Black/Asian/native American “enough” to be considered a minority?
These aren’t just questions of editorialists in flyover country. Scott Johnson’s article in the magazine also quotes Hollywood types who have issues:
“It’s meddlesome and intrusive,” said a veteran producer. “I’ll be thinking long and hard before I fill out any paperwork. This is not the Academy’s business.”
“It’s filmmaking by affirmative action,” adds another anonymous member of the Academy. “It’s totally daft, and it can’t be done.”
Oh, it certainly can be done. Whether it should be done is another matter. And, this being America, surely the courts will have some say the first time a cast or crew member refuses to fill out the paperwork.
This effort to expand diversity (in everything but thought) might have been intended to help the industry. But the road paved with good intentions might lead to sub-3.2 television ratings.
Before the Academy is completely consumed by this nonsense, and even more Americans tune out its annual I-love-me tribute, this script needs a rewrite. Stat.