Second class treatment for some Oscar winners
Lili2
By Sheigh Crabtree
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Producer Gil Cates' attempt to
streamline Oscar tradition -- by having some nominees march out onstage
before the winner was announced and asking other nominees to accept
their awards from roving presenters in the audience -- met with mixed
approval Sunday.
While host Chris Rock joked, "Next year, they're going to give out
Oscars in the parking lot. There will be a drive-through Oscar lane,"
others, particularly those in the crafts area, were not amused.
Observed Visual Effects Society president Eric Roth, "It clearly looked
like a second-class procedure for giving out certain awards. It would
have been, I think, more acceptable if they had chosen awards from all
different types of categories including quote A-List unquote categories
like best actor or actress or director to receive their awards
onstage."
Motion Picture Sound Editors president David Bondelevitch appeared to
give Cates the benefit of the doubt. "He has my sympathy," he said.
"However, when you only do this type of presentation for some awards,
and you only do it for the awards that are considered "technical"
categories, you're pretty much segregating them and that marginalizing
their contributions. If they did it with an acting award, I would have
had no problem with it. It seemed odd that some of the people didn't
even go onstage (instead they were given awards in their seats)."
He added, "I did appreciate Chris Rock's comment that next year they'll
be giving drive-through awards -- it marginalizes those categories, and
the Oscars are about recognizing the art and craft that these people
have contributed to the movie."
On the other hand, at least one Oscar winner, Valli O'Reilly, who was
honored for the makeup for "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate
Events," said of receiving her award in the middle of the auditorium:
"It was actually easier. I was wondering if we won how I would go to
the stage (in this dress and shoes). I'm a flip-flop kind of girl."
But fellow "Snicket" makeup artist Bill Corso said of the nominees who
were led onstage like a "Chorus Line" lineup: "It looked like a beauty
pageant. Sometimes, the old-fashioned way is the best."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter