Oscar Hypocrisy

Oscar Hypocrisy

Some 40 million people are expected to tune in Sunday night to watch the 86th annual AcademyAwards when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pats itself on the back for jobs well done and confers Oscars on those actors, actresses, directors, etc. who best reflect excellence in the film industry–and who are deemed most politically correct in conforming to Hollywood’s liberal-leftist standards of achievement.

True, there are rare exceptions to that unwritten rule, when the almost 6,000 Academy voting members are beset by nagging guilt over their biased choices and toss a bone to a conservative.  That conscience attack occurred in 1970 when they awarded Republican conservative John Wayne the Oscar for Best Actor in “True Grit.”

More probably, they were rewarding Wayne for being a liberal during his misguided younger days.

However, almost always, they reserve their top honors for those who obediently march in their political lock step and this year there will be no exceptions to the Academy’s cardinal PC rule.

Don’t expect writer-director Peter Berg or actor Mark Wahlberg to walk to the stage at L.A.’s Dolby Theater to accept an award for “Lone Survivor” anymore than Mel Gibson was recognized by the movie industry for his 2004 “Passion of the Christ. 

You see, Hollywood-types despise war movies that depict incredibly courageous American soldiers who sacrifice their lives out of a sense of national honor as much as they can’t stand religious movies even if they are accorded multiple other awards, attract record audiences, and earn over $600,000,000. 

Comically, . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=36050.)

Woody Allen, Hollywood's Favorite Pervert

Woody Allen, Hollywood's Favorite Old Pervert

 

No one could really know what was going through the mind of 78 year old Woody Allen when Ronan Farrow sarcastically tweeted immediately following last month’s 71st Golden Globes Awards show. 

After Allen received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, Farrow went on Twitter to tweet, “Missed the Woody Allen tribute–did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” 

As per habit, Allen didn’t show up for his umpteenth award and dispatched one his idolators, former live-in Diane Keaton of Annie Hall fame, to pick it up.

What Mr. Farrow was thinking in that tweet is pretty obvious, intense musings surely shared by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and, indeed, by all of Hollywood who knew very well what he meant and none of whom saw fit to comment–or refute.  After all, Woody Allen is a living treasure, an unparalled icon in Tinsel Town, and who would dare to be so presumptive as to cite him as a serial child molestor?

Bestowed by the Golden Globes for ”outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment,” the Cecil B. DeMille Award is clearly not based on a recipient’s character and integrity any more than character and integrity influence Oscar nominations.

Similarly, no one can really know what Allen was thinking after he read the account of the former 7 year old, Ronan’s molested woman, published in the New York Times, an open letter written by none other than Ronan’s sister Dylan Farrow, Allen’s reputed biological daughter.

Like the weather, everyone seems to talk about child sex abuse but few people ever do anything about it, least of all in Hollywood where serial pedophilia is virtually endemic.  (See “Woody Allen’s Bloodied Hands and Bloodied Children,”  http://tinyurl.com/klzee4h and “Hooray for Hollywood Pedophiles,” http://tinyurl.com/nxy7jbf.) 

Farrow’s tweet was quickly dismissed by such Allen-Twitter loyalists as Antonio Vantaggiato who wrote, ”Sorry to hear @RonanFarrow’s rage, and @thelist which fuels it, but Woody is one of the greatest film directors and deserved the tribute,” in essence saying, “So what if he’s a child predator!” . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35502.)

The Loneliness of "Lone Survivor"

The Loneliness of "Lone Survivor"

At the Broadcast Film Critics Association 19th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards last week, Mark Wahlberg, surprising winner of the CCMA’s 2013 award for best Actor in an Action Movie, courageously, patriotically, and humbly thanked the military and the real heroes of ”Lone Survivor” saying, “I wanna thank my wife and my kids for allowing me to pretend to be as important as a soldier fighting in Afghanistan.”

It was a courageous act amid an audience of America-hating, military-hating Hollywood types epitomized recently by Tom Cruise (who stupidly compared the brutality of his extended absence from daughter Suri so he could shoot a movie to soldiers fighting in Afghanistan) and Kanye West (who ignorantly said that being on stage “is like being a police officer, or like war or something” because of his “contributions to society”).

Wahlberg was lucky he wasn’t hounded off the CCMA stage for speaking with such courage, patriotism, and humility, all traits antithetical to Cruise, West, and their fellow multi-millionaire entertainers who regularly badmouth the same military that protects their lives and income despite deadly risks to their own lives.

Also surprising, the Broadcast Film Critics Association awarded “Lone Survivor” the prize for best “Action Movie.”  Both Wahlberg’s and the movie’s awards are especially noteworthy in view of the fact they have been publicly snubbed for recognition by the granddaddy of all award presentations, the Academy Award of Merit, the Oscars. 

The folks at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences typically disregard any film that depicts American bravery or success or victory as unworthy of their consideration.

And, “Lone Survivor” is a perfect example of such a film and Hollywood reacted as it usually does by panning it.  (Think “Act of Valor,” “Zero Dark 30,” “Blackhawk Down,” et al.)

The Golden Globes ignored it altogether while giving Ben Afleck, Emma Thompson, and Jacqueline Bissett plenty of drunken screen time; the Screen Actors Guild praised its stuntmen as if their amazing stunts were performed on a backyard trampoline; the Academy condescended to nominate “Lone” for its “sound editing” and “sound mixing.”

Universal’s movie was roundly criticized by leftists as just another “flyover country,” pro-war film appealing to jingoistic rednecks and militarists obsessed with racist war propaganda.

It was dissed and ridiculed by the likes of Time’s Richard Corliss as a film “pinned down by its military and political dilemma: between gung  ho and F—, no;” by David Edelstein as a celebration of sacrifice that sanctifies agony which is ”crudely written, rife with clichés, [that] leaves out anything that would transform a piece of propaganda into a work of art;” and by Canada’s Katerine Monk as a flick that “kept me on the edge of my seat, but I can’t be sure if it was the result of some buffed and beautiful performances from the brawny cast, or a latent sense of sympathetic jock itch” that requires you to “dab a tear and relieve some manly itch at the same time.”

Putting aside Ms. Monk’s odd familiarity with jockstraps and manly itches, ”Lone Survivor” beat out all the competition after its release with near-record box office receipts of  $38.5 million at North American theaters and now stands as the first smash hit of 2014.

It could be argued that “Lone Survivor” concludes neither successfully nor victoriously . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35249.)