Angst at the Oscars as awards show forced to go on without host
in New York
IT SHOULD, in theory, be one of the most exciting days in Hollywood.
On Tuesday, the nominations for the Oscars will be announced, and the flutter of anticipation will explode, for nominees, into a fully fledged frenzy.
And yet for the producers of the ceremony, to be held on Feb 24, the approaching awards is cause this year for consternation rather than celebration.
It now looks likely that there will be no host for the star-studded gala – a bizarre state of affairs caused by the unearthing of homophobic tweets from comedian Kevin Hart, forcing him to step down days after he was appointed.
Despite an energetic campaign from Ellen DeGeneres, Hart’s friend, who admitted she rang the Academy to plead for his reinstatement, the backlash from Hart’s apology – deemed to have been insufficient, and grudgingly issued under sufferance – has proved too strong. Instead of a host, this year a series of stars will introduce the various categories and presenters – something that has only happened once before, 30 years ago.
With no one to attempt to riff off Donald Trump’s government shutdown or crack jokes at the expense of Brexit Britain, it may help the producers with their goal of shortening the ceremony to under three hours. But it may also make for a leaden night.
Such is the Oscars producers’ desperation to secure megastars for their show, they have reportedly been pressuring agents to prevent their clients presenting awards at any other show this year – a tactic derided as “graceless” intimidation by the Screen Actors Guild, the US’s largest actors union.
Then there is the ratings concern, causing sleepless nights for Donna Gigliotti, the producer who was handed the reins this year with a mission to make the show shorter, snappier and more relevant.
Gigliotti, who won an Oscar as a producer of Shakespeare in Love and was nominated for producing The Reader, Silver Linings Playbook and Hidden Figures, is having to turn all her talent to reversing the downward spiral.
Last year’s show drew record low ratings; the all-time high of 55million viewers in 1998, plunged to a mere 26.5million.
Certainly there is a correlation between the ratings and the total box office of the nominees; 1998 was the year that Titanic swept the board, and Robin Williams’s turn in Good Will Hunting delighted film goers. Last year’s nominees, by contrast, failed to catch fire.
To combat that, in August the Academy announced “a new category designed around achievement in popular film.” But the outcry was immediate and, with accusations of dumbing down, it was swiftly scrapped.
Gigliotti and her team are bravely soldiering on, though, and are rumoured to be calling on superheroes to ride to her rescue.
The Hollywood Reporter said that the organisers are hoping to bring together an all-star Avengers gathering – going one better than 2013, when Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L Jackson all sh showed up together.
Black Panther, Pan now the third-highest grossing film in American history, is one to watch for on Tuesday, as is Crazy Craz Rich Asians – both films bringing a much-needed dose of diversity. Green Gr Book, Roma and Bohemian R Rhapsody are also hotly tipped.
Lady Gaga is expected to be nominated for her role in A Star is Born. While British hopes lie with Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz for The Favourite; Christian Bale for Vice; Emily Blunt for Mary Poppins Returns and
First Man. stage but we need to talk to these two as they frequented the property,” a spokesman said.
“Bob Hathaway had many female friends and we are looking at the possibility that one of their boyfriends could have killed him and set things up.”
Mr Hathaway was found naked in a bedroom with a pillow on his face.
The police spokesman said they were suspicious that the scene may have been manipulated by a killer trying to hide their tracks.
“The crime scene looks a fair bit staged from what has been seen and the pillow was placed on his face. We are trying to ascertain how it got there.”
Mr Hathaway, who lived on the island since 2001, had been married and divorced once in the UK and then met a 17-year-old woman in St Lucia named Marquena James.
The couple were together for several years and married in 2017, but later became estranged and were in the process of legally separating when Mr Hathaway was killed.
In a conversation published on Facebook after his death, Mr Hathaway referred to the women who lived in his home as “a bisexual couple of girls… like two girlfriends”, according to The Times.
“One young gf [girlfriend] living with me alone would be bored witless,” he said. “So this arrangement seems logical, and two months in seems to work. It helps that they don’t like wearing clothes.”