There is an understandable debate going on in the Hollywood community over whether the current awards season in general and the Oscars in particular should be postponed or canceled. The sentiment is totally understandable of course, though some of the arguments have been a bit incoherent (According to the Wapo, Jean Smart called for the networks to cancel all award shows, and then to donate the money they would have earned to fire related charities).
It’s probably too early to make a final decision about this, the Oscars are scheduled for almost 2 months from now, And people may feel a lot different about this in March than they do right now(Hopefully a little better ). I know from personal experience that when you are evacuated or about to be evacuated, it’s hard to think about anything else, but a week after that’s over all the little and medium things you usually think about come back into focus, with a special attention on finances.
We are getting close to what might be a necessary announcement about delaying it a couple of weeks. Many have suggested they could use the telecast as a way of raising money for the Red Cross and other likely candidates. Through some strategic tone management, they could take the edge off of what will Inevitably the discordand sound of self indulgence and self congratulation.
The problem with canceling of course is it would hurt most the very people who it would be meant to help. Even relatively well known celebrities in Southern California are merely affluent, not super rich, And for those people losing their home, especially in the fucked up insurance environment currently reigning in California, is a financial disaster. But most of the people who work in the film industry and who work for the Oscars, are middle and working class folks who also are struggling with the devastating fires, and for whom the Oscars represent a major part of their income every year, either because they directly work for them or associated events or because they worked on small and medium size films that would benefit from promotion at theOscars.
It’s not impossible that, seven weeks from now the fires are still raging in or somewhat out of control or that the death rate has risen to triple digits, and maybe it will really just be impossible for the show to go on. My vote, however, would be to do as much as possible to put on the show and use it to offer moral and financial support.