Speaking out to power at Oscars
Perhaps the biggest question heading into the Oscars is not who will win but who will say something against our new administration.
At the annual early February Oscar lunch, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs addressed head-on President Trump’s travel ban.
In this highly politicized awards season — beginning with the Golden Globes, where Meryl Streep lectured Trump on civility, and continuing to the SAGs, where multiple award winners denounced the travel restrictions — it’s no surprise that some artists at the Grammy Awards had a few things to say.
A Tribe Called Quest ended its thunderous performance of “We the People” in a chant of “resist, resist, resist.” Earlier, Busta Rhymes, performing with the group, lashed out at Trump by christening him “President Agent Orange.”
Katy Perry didn’t bring the same rage, but she came dressed in a white pantsuit supporting Hillary Clinton and sporting a lapel pin supporting Planned Parenthood. And there was also the shiny white armband emblazoned with pink sequins that spelled out “Persist” — an apparent invocation of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s televised clash in the Senate.
And Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, addressed Trump head-on in his annual speech: “The Recording Academy, together with America’s music makers, call on the president and Congress to help keep the music playing by updating music laws, protecting music education and renewing America’s commitment to the arts.”
Yet it was all quiet on the presidential Twitter front — perhaps a minor surprise because Trump responded to Streep and has regularly spoken out against “Saturday Night Live.”
Backstage after the ceremony, a reporter asked Portnow how he would respond if Trump went on the offensive.
“When you’re a public figure and when you’re the president of the United States, some will be happy with what you do and sing your praises and some will not,” Portnow said. “And that’s what a democracy is about.
“We just had a major election that obviously has us, in many ways, divided as a country. We don’t weigh in on the pros and cons, what we like, what we don’t like. We give the stage to artists to express themselves.”