March 19, 2003

I’m a little exhausted at the moment…

Yesterday’s impromptu MCN column about postponing the Academy Awards became the beginning of a long day focused on just that subject.  Between the letters and the last minute Academy press conference, the issue took over the day.

I wrote the column because I was disturbed with myself.  And the press conference did nothing to quell that discomfort.  It was even more disturbing once I got some distance from it. 

My first reaction to the press conference was disgust that I was in a room of reporters whose response to the Academy’s decision to cut back on the red carpet activities was to worry about whether they would get their photographs, their interviews and their post-game one-on-ones.  I am not proud to have been the only reporter in the room to ask a question about the moral significance of the issue. 

But it’s worse…

The reason why they are shutting down the red carpet, as they explained it, is not because they are taking a moral stand.  They are shutting down the red carpet because the actors out there (and their reps) have called up and asked to skip the red carpet and come in the back door. 

Think I am being unkind after Frank Pierson and Gil Cates soberly stated, “Keeping in mind the world situation, the Academy has elected to prepare a more sober pre-show and a scaled-back arrivals sequence”?

Soon after, it said, “The Academy's decision is meant to address the concerns of these celebrities, and to reflect the circumstances under which we are now producing this show.”

It makes me want to vomit. 

Most of the mail I got about yesterday’s column was in agreement with the idea of delaying – not canceling… I never said canceling - the awards.  But I got a number of e-mails in disagreement from people for whom I have a great deal of respect and even affection.  Most of the arguments were of the “We had the Oscars after Pearl Harbor… We had the Oscars during every war… We should have the Oscars now” variety.  And my response, which was not likely very convincing, was that Pearl Harbor was 10 weeks before Oscar.  And the other wars were underway when Oscar turned up.  There is one other major difference… television.

The first national broadcast of the awards was in 1953.  NBC paid $100,000 for the rights.  Sixteen years later, the event went global.  In 1996, E! started their Joan Rivers fashion coverage, which expanded the pre-show further, then further, then further again.  This year, they have a 6-hour pre-show scheduled and 2 hours of post-show coverage.  That led, a few years ago, to a 30-minute pre-show produced by ABC, squeezing another chunk of cash out of the event.  In 1999, the Oscars moved to Sunday in order to make the event even more lucrative for television advertisers.

What that means to Sunday’s broadcast is well over $50 million in advertising income to ABC.  How much the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences gets paid is not publicly known.  But it’s a lot.

It is unlikely that ABC will lose any less than $10 million in expected revenues because of the war’s effect on this one show.  But if the Academy delivers their show, which Gil Cates pointedly confirmed would include ABC’s 30-minute pre-show, they will get paid and ABC takes the bath on its own.  If the Academy postpones for something other than an act of God, it might well change the economics of the deal.  I don’t know.  I got enough sneers asking my one question about whether the Academy has consider the moral implications of not postponing (“We wouldn’t want to do anything that would make us look self-serving…”) and my follow-up about who would make the final decision about any changes to the show, including postponement (The answer, which acknowledged the contributions of hundreds of people, was that it basically came down to Pierson, Cates and Bruce Davis).  I never got to probe the details of the ABC/AMPAS contract.

In any case, the Academy Awards is no longer just the industry’s opportunity to show its appreciation of its own.  It is a major business.  It is also a symbol.  A celebration of decadence.  All the fashions, all the diamonds, all the limos…

For whatever reason, I don’t see this as the same as the NCAA Tournament or Major League Baseball’s opening day or even releasing Boat Trip.  In the argument that I will print in ROTD today (sorry, reel change problems will have to wait until tomorrow), there is a theme that I consider double edged.  The Oscars are a kind of holiday.  A treat that comes but once a year.  Nevermind that they cancelled the opening day game scheduled for Tokyo.  Sports are an ongoing thing, like mail being delivered or banks staying open.  Different.

Oscars in wartime will never be easy.  But why do we need to rush it?  Why can’t anything be allowed to breathe anymore?  Of course there will still be American soldiers in harms way in a few weeks.  And maybe there is something hypocritical about allowing the time to get used to the situation.   But I don’t want to spend Sunday night tiptoeing through the bombings.  And somewhere in there, there is a line between respectful and schizophrenic. 

The truth is, had Cates & Pierson come out and said, “We believe that the show must go on because to move the event would be to capitulate to politics, which is not what The Oscars are all about,” or some such nonsense, I would roll my eyes and get on board.  But instead, what we got was, “There may not even be a war,” and we’re going to kill the red carpet, except for the part we need to televise for ABC and the comfort of the actors is penultimate because we have a TV show to produce and they make the show.  At least tell me that the Academy has considered morality beyond the level of how it reflects on them (and their future commercial prospects). 

I will also offer this.  Cates and Pierson said today that no one has said that they will not participate this Sunday if we are at the start of a war.  But I promise you now that at least one major nominee will be staying home for reasons other than a bench warrant.   Perhaps the number will be higher.  Let’s just hope that all the words of protest are not about being for or against the war, but a simple awareness of our own myopia.

I can tell you this… if Harvey Weinstein ran the Academy, we would all be begging for these awards to come and every party would have a collection for the boys overseas and we would be convinced that even cutting away to the news would be un-American.  That’s how good he is. 

Okay... you’re sick of me writing about this.  And I am a little sick of it too.   But no matter how little regard you have for The Oscars or any of this, history is occurring in front of us.  This year’s awards will be remembered for decades.  And it would be nice to see someone standing on the high ground.

Tomorrow on MCN, my final Oscar predictions.  And at THB, something about movies… no Oscar stuff… promise!

READER OF THE DAY:  THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER writes this very powerful letter regarding yesterday’s MCN column: “Whoa, David.... Let me just whisper two words to you very softly:  Sullivan's Travels.

In my opinion, this is the darkest moment in the history of America.  Never have we been more hated then right now.

I'm living in New York City.  There are soldiers everywhere. The subway was nearly empty today.  A woman sat across from me, quietly weeping.

The counter-attack will most likely come here.  New York is a potent symbol. (not to mention the biggest Gore-voting area in the country) Maybe my friends will die.  Maybe I will.

But until then, I need distraction.  Maybe you feel to safe in LA to know this.

I am proud that the cover of US magazine is all about stars and their implants.  What a great country.

I need more Joe Millionaire, not less.  And please, please, please, don't take my Oscars away.

It's hard enough to sleep as it is.

I am ashamed to my bones of being an American right now. I consider George W. Bush to be one of the worst monsters who ever lived just from his environmental work alone.  Hitler killed six million and then it was over. Bush's handiwork will go on forever. 

When I look in the mirror, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" looks back at me.  It's damn hard to shave, let me tell you.

Let the Oscars go on.  It will be worth it if only for one clip from "The Pianist."  We are about to do to Baghdad what the Nazis did to Warsaw.   Let's look long and hard at the ugliness of war.

And then....let's give the prize to Harvey and "Chicago"!

E ME:  Just for the record, I believe in the idea of entertainment as a healing event.  When 9/11 happened, I was in Toronto and suggested a 12:01 am 9/12 free screening of Amelie as a symbol of the simple joy of film.   I’m not sure that I agree with the intensity of Unknown’s politics, but I do feel his pain.  (If you feel the need to write to defend Bush, you can… but unless is it context for an opinion on something else, as it is here, I probably won’t consider printing it.) 

If Sunday night had the whatever-ith number Comic Relief scheduled, I would say, “The timing couldn’t be better.”  Comic Relief may be comic, but it is not frivolous.  It is a discussion of ideas.  The Oscars are a celebration of successful marketing, now more than ever.   If one click of the remote shows me the invasion of Baghdad on CNN while Renee Zellweger is screaming for one of her compatriots in L.A…. no… sorry… with all the love and respect I can muster… no.