Donald Trump has been merciless toward Hollywood in recent weeks. After denouncing Tinseltown as &#8220;racist&#8221; for making &#8220;The Hunt,&#8221; the president then trashed the Oscars for going downhill in the ratings.
Speaking to supporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the president declared that &#8220;nobody wants to watch&#8221; the famed awards ceremony because Americans have grown weary of celebrities trashing &#8220;the people that won the election in 2016,&#8221; reports <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/457291-trump-mocks-the-oscars-ratings-are-bad-because-they-started">The Hill</a>.
&#8220;The Academy Awards is on hard times now,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;You know why? Because they started taking us on. Everyone got tired of it. That used to be second after the Super Bowl, and now all of a sudden it&#8217;s just another show, because people got tired of people getting up and making fools of themselves and disrespecting the people in this room and the people that won the election in 2016.&#8221;
The president&#8217;s hit at the Academy Awards comes less than a week after he called Hollywood &#8220;racist&#8221; in response to the controversy surrounding &#8220;The Hunt,&#8221; a social satire about Trump supporters fighting back against political liberals.
&#8220;Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate!&#8221; President Trump tweeted. &#8220;They like to call themselves &#8216;Elite,&#8217; but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!&#8221;
The ratings for awards shows, in general, have been steadily decreasing in recent years as more and more celebrities use the opportunity to grandstand about a political issue. Believe it or not, however, the Oscars being used as a political bullhorn is a relatively new phenomenon; even more shockingly, there once existed a time when celebrities heckled the few among them who dared to virtue-signal during the broadcast.
During the 1970s, there were more than a few celebrities who used their big wins on Oscar night to preach a political message or two. It all began, of course, with none other than actor Marlon Brando, who used his Best Actor win for &#8220;The Godfather&#8221; as a platform to talk about the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Rather than give a speech, Brando elected to have Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU&amp;feature=youtu.be">refuse the award on his behalf</a>. At the time, the audience reacted with a mixture of boos, awkward silence, and lone applause.
Later in that same decade, actress Vanessa Redgrave <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAcOsK9gRLk&amp;feature=youtu.be">used her moment</a> of winning Best Supporting Actress in the movie &#8220;Julia&#8221; to bash the country Israel and Jewish protesters upset over her documentary &#8220;The Palestinian,&#8221; which pushed the terrorist organization &#8220;Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).&#8221; Redgrave not only called the doc&#8217;s haters &#8220;Zionist hoodlums,&#8221; she also denounced Nixon and McCarthy for leading a &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; against communists in the 1950s. In a complete reversal of today&#8217;s order, the crowd went on to boo Redgrave, which was later followed by a speech from famed screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, who bashed celebrities &#8220;exploiting the occasion.&#8221;
&#8220;I would like to say — personal opinion, of course — that I am sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda,&#8221; said Chayefsky, prompting cheers. &#8220;I would like to suggest to Ms. Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, it does not require a proclamation, and a simple &#8216;thank you&#8217; would’ve sufficed.&#8221;

89th Annual Academy Awards &#8211; Red Carpet Roll Out

Trump Mocks The Oscars: ‘Nobody Wants To Watch’

Donald Trump

Hollywood

Oscars

Steven Spielberg for now appears to have lost his war against the streaming giant Netflix, which he did not want to see stealing Academy Awards from movies with wide theatrical releases.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/academy-board-does-not-pass-new-rule-targeting-netflix-1204295">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will not be implementing any new rules that will kick Netflix out of the Oscar competition, a sure blow to the cinema die-hards that were seeking to draw a definitive line between television and film.
&#8220;At its annual April rules meeting, the 54-person board of Governors of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to maintain Rule Two, Eligibility &#8212; the one requiring no more than a one-week run in an L.A. County theater to qualify for the best picture Oscar race,&#8221; THR reported.
In a statement late Tuesday, the Academy quoted outgoing president John Bailey as saying the organization still respects the theatrical experience as being integral to the cinema art form.
&#8220;We support the theatrical experience as integral to the art of motion pictures, and this weighed heavily in our discussions,&#8221; Bailey said, according to the Academy. &#8220;Our rules currently require theatrical exhibition, and also allow for a broad selection of films to be submitted for Oscars consideration. We plan to further study the profound changes occurring in our industry and continue discussions with our members about these issues.&#8221;
The war on Netflix kicked off after the streaming giant became a top contender at the Academy Awards earlier this year. Alfonso Cuaron&#8217;s &#8220;Roma&#8221; picked up three top Oscars: Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Foreign Language Film. Though initial buzz was that &#8220;Roma&#8221; would take home Best Picture, the award ultimately went to the American race drama &#8220;Green Book.&#8221; Shortly after, Spielberg fired the first shot, proposing the first rule changes at an Academy Board of Governors meeting.
A representative for Spielberg&#8217;s production company, Amblin, said in a statement at the time that the award-winning director was simply trying to salvage the theatrical experience. &#8220;Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation,&#8221; said the spokesperson. &#8220;He&#8217;ll be happy if the others will join (his campaign) when that comes up. He will see what happens.&#8221;
Prior to that, Spielberg had expressed dissatisfaction over Netflix competing for Oscars without a proper theatrical run and a window between release and streaming.
&#8220;Once you commit to a television format, you&#8217;re a TV movie. You certainly, if it&#8217;s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar,&#8221; Spielberg said in <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2018/03/steven-spielberg-thinks-netflix-films-dont-deserve-oscars.html">March of 2018</a>. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.&#8221;
Despite Spielberg&#8217;s push, several other players in Hollywood were on team Netflix, especially indie filmmakers, all of whom viewed the streaming giant as a Godsend for new and upcoming talent. It also did not help, THR noted, that about a &#8220;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/as-academy-confronts-netflix-question-streamer-has-friends-a-vote-1203465" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dozen members of the Academy board</a> have worked with or are currently working with Netflix, suggesting they do not harbor major reservations about the streaming service.&#8221;
The Academy did, however, implement a few changes. Going forward, the Best Foreign Language Film category will now be referred to as the Best International Feature Film category. Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, co-chairs of the International Feature Film Committee, said that the old reference was &#8220;outdated&#8221; and that the new way will promote an &#8220;inclusive view of filmmaking.&#8221;
&#8220;We have noted that the reference to &#8216;foreign&#8217; is outdated within the global filmmaking community,&#8221; the pair said. &#8220;We believe that international feature film better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience.&#8221;

Netflix Victory? Oscars Will Not Impose New Rules For Now

Netflix

Comedian and movie star Kevin Hart made the decision to remove himself as a &#8220;distraction&#8221; and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39134/kevin-hart-steps-down-oscars-host-amid-firestorm-james-barrett">step down</a> from his invitation to host the Oscars in December amid heightened controversy pertaining to the stand-up&#8217;s past comments about homosexuality. Appearing on the &#8220;Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; podcast over the weekend, Hart opened up about the firestorm, the insincere persistence of the so-called &#8220;outrage mob,&#8221; and why he refuses to become an &#8220;ally&#8221; of the LGBTQ community.
Hart explained to Rogan that the controversy last year stunned him, as he&#8217;s worked his whole career to stay away from &#8220;anything divisive.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t joke in the politics, I don&#8217;t joke in anything that has to do with the slander of others or other communities &#8212; I don&#8217;t do anything divisive. That&#8217;s my biggest thing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This past year was one that got a little weird. I was like, I really dedicated myself to bringing people together. I thought that was my goal. That&#8217;s my priority. I damn sure thought that was what I was doing, on a global scale. Everybody &#8212; all races, shapes, sizes, whoever you are, whatever you are &#8212; you can come to a Kevin Hart show and have a good time. So when it came out that I was a person that was divisive, that was tough.&#8221;
&#8220;Your&#8217;e talking about the Oscars,&#8221; Rogan clarified. &#8220;Well, this is a time that people are just looking to be upset about stuff,&#8221; the host continued. &#8220;They&#8217;re not looking at you as a human being &#8230; Think about how positive you are, and they are concentrating on some jokes you did, what, nine years ago?&#8221;
The comedian recalled his genuine apologies falling on deaf ears of the outrage mob, so he decided to just stop talking about the controversy and remove himself from hosting the Oscars.
&#8220;They&#8217;re never happy,&#8221; interjected Rogan, to which Hart responded: &#8220;It just became the constant conversation.&#8221;
It got to the point that Hart realized &#8220;this is no longer a conversation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, guys, I&#8217;m gonna stop talking about it. &#8230; I&#8217;ve shown that I&#8217;m not hateful .. and that I&#8217;m genuinely sorry, and it just never stopped.&#8221;
Rogan applauded Hart for the wise decision, noting that &#8220;there&#8217;s nothing else you can do&#8221; to appease the critics.
&#8220;Nothing,&#8221; Hart agreed. &#8220;Nothing.&#8221;
The &#8220;Jumanji&#8221; star also discussed the pressure he felt to become an &#8220;ally&#8221; for the LGBTQ community in the wake of the resurfaced tweets. Hart essentially said such action would be insincere, that it was not his place to do such a thing because their plight was foreign to him; instead, he said that becoming informed was far more powerful.
Hart recalled &#8220;Empire&#8221; creator Lee Daniels telling him to &#8220;step up and be a voice&#8221; for the gay community. &#8220;And I said, Lee, I understand what your&#8217;e saying. But why did you expect me to know what&#8217;s been happening within this community in regard to hate and crimes. I&#8217;m just not aware. Some people can just not be aware.&#8221;
&#8220;When you tell me this information, I&#8217;m now educated and I understand. So, it&#8217;s easy to simply inform. Information is key,&#8221; Hart continued.
The comedian added, &#8220;When this happened, it was &#8216;become an ally, become a voice.&#8217; And that&#8217;s where there was just a miscommunication.&#8221;
&#8220;It was becoming tabloid bullsh**, as opposed to a real discussion,&#8221; Rogan said.
&#8220;Yes,&#8221; Hart agreed. &#8220;Click bait. Click bait.&#8221;
After tweets deemed insensitive to the LGBTQ community resurfaced online, once again, Hart said on social media that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences &#8220;had contacted him and said he either had to apologize for the past tweets, posted between 2009 and 2011, or they&#8217;re &#8216;going to have to move on and find another host,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39134/kevin-hart-steps-down-oscars-host-amid-firestorm-james-barrett">reported</a> The Daily Wire in December.
&#8220;I chose to pass. I passed on the apology,&#8221; said the comedian at the time. &#8220;The reason why I passed is because I&#8217;ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I&#8217;ve addressed it. I&#8217;ve spoken on it. I&#8217;ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I&#8217;ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on. I&#8217;m in a completely different space in my life.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="441" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aL185s8B4SQ" width="790"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Kevin Hart On Outrage Mob, Oscars Controversy, And Why He Won&#8217;t Be An &#8216;Ally&#8217; On &#8216;Joe Rogan Experience&#8217; Podcast

Kevin Hart

LGBT

According to an exclusive report in <a href="https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/doj-oscar-rules-changes-netflix-1203178413/">Variety</a>, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences warning that if the Academy alters its rules so that movies premiering on Netflix and other streaming services would not be eligible for Academy Awards, the Academy could violate anti-trust laws.
The letter obtained by Variety was written by Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson on March 21.
It stated, &#8220;In the event that the Academy &#8212; an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership &#8212; establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns.&#8221; The letter added that if the Academy altered its rules to exclude movies debuting on streaming services from an opportunity to win Oscars, it could violate the Sherman Act. The letter stated: &#8220;If the Academy adopts a new rule to exclude certain types of films, such as films distributed via online streaming services, from eligibility for the Oscars, and that exclusion tends to diminish the excluded films&#8217; sales, that rule could therefore violate Section 1.&#8221;
Variety reported that an Academy spokesperson stated, &#8220;We&#8217;ve received a letter from the Dept. of Justice and have responded accordingly. The Academy&#8217;s Board of Governors will meet on April 23 for its annual awards rules meeting, where all branches submit possible updates for consideration.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/2/18292773/netflix-oscars-justice-department-warning-steven-spielberg-eligibility-antitrust-law">The Verge</a> noted:
<blockquote>
Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and other streaming service providers have for years now been edging their way into traditional Hollywood awards shows, winning Oscars and Emmys for a variety of programming as the budgets, big-name talent, and subsequent quality of these shows and movies has drastically increased. But Netflix, more so than other streaming services, has typically done only limited theatrical runs for its films to meet award eligibility requirements.
</blockquote>
After Alfonso Cuaron&#8217;s Netflix production &#8220;Roma&#8221; won Oscars for best director, best cinematography and best foreign-language film, Detlef Rossmann, president of the art house cinema association CICAE, told <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/giving-awards-roma-is-a-devaluation-oscars-say-european-exhibitors-1190434">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, &#8220;&#8220;We consider giving three awards to Roma a devaluation of the Oscars.&#8221; CICAE released a statement urging the Academy to &#8220;redefine the Oscar nomination rules and terms to clarify the difference between film and television.&#8221;
Much of the impetus for making a change to the Academy&#8217;s rules has come from director Steven Spielberg, who <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/03/steven-spielberg-netflix-oscars-tv-clear-and-present-danger-to-filmgoers-1202353123/">told ITV News</a> in March 2018, &#8220;&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe that films that are given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for Academy Award nominations. Once you commit to a television format, you&#8217;re a TV movie. If it&#8217;s a good show, you deserve an Emmy. But not an Oscar.&#8221;
In February 2019, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43627/spielberg-takes-another-swipe-streaming-films-paul-bois">The Daily Wire</a> reported, Spielberg took another shot at streaming services. <a href="https://variety.com/2019/scene/awards/steven-spielberg-cinema-audio-society-awards-streamers-1203141954/">Variety</a> noted that Spielberg, accepting the Filmmaker Award at the Cinema Audio Society&#8217;s CAS Awards, asserted:
<blockquote>
I hope all of us really continue to believe that the greatest contributions we can make as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion picture theatrical experience. I&#8217;m a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever &#8230; I love television. I love the opportunity. Some of the greatest writing being done today is for television, some of the best directing for television, some of the best performances [are] on television today. The sound is better in homes more than it ever has been in history but there&#8217;s nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you&#8217;ve never met before and having the experience wash over you. That&#8217;s something we all truly believe in.
</blockquote>
Netflix tweeted a response in early March, &#8220;We love cinema. Here are some things we also love. Access for people who can&#8217;t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters. Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time. Giving filmmakers more ways to share art. These things are not mutually exclusive.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
We love cinema. Here are some things we also love:
-Access for people who can&#8217;t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters 
-Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time 
-Giving filmmakers more ways to share art
These things are not mutually exclusive.
&#8212; Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) <a href="https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/status/1102418557760024578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

DOJ Warns Motion Picture Academy: Don&#8217;t Exclude Netflix, Streaming Services From Oscars

Department of Justice

It&#8217;s amazing that ABC broadcast an overlong Academy Awards show where no one mocked President Trump by name. There were just a few snarky remarks about walls, but that&#8217;s pretty much it. It&#8217;s equally bizarre that the Oscar for best picture went to &#8220;Green Book&#8221; &#8212; about overcoming segregation in the South &#8212; and the leftists came away angry!
What makes this amusing as well as amazing is that Hollywood votes on these awards. This isn&#8217;t the People&#8217;s Choice Awards. It&#8217;s an insular Tinseltown popularity contest, and they&#8217;ve worked hard to add minorities to the Oscar electorate.
The networks announced that &#8220;Green Book&#8221; is a &#8220;controversial&#8221; choice. ABC&#8217;s Chris Connelly explained that racial uplift is the problem: &#8220;Well, time was when some movies featured black characters who have to show they are much better people than their white counterparts in order to be deemed worthy of being treated as equals. Problematic, you might think.&#8221; Jenni Miller at NBCNews.com underlined the animus, writing, &#8220;this movie was written, directed and produced by white people for white people.&#8221;
Horrors!
Liberal Twitter went viral with a video clip of &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; star Chadwick Boseman making a disparaging face, since &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; was also nominated. Twitter user Nerdy Wonka wrote, &#8220;Chadwick Boseman is all of us when &#8216;Green Book&#8217; was announced as Best Picture.&#8221;
Somehow, America is still backward, which raises the question: How in the blazes did &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; manage to gross $700 million at the domestic box office?
Then there was director Spike Lee, as spoiled as he is left-wing, who reacted to the best-picture pick by pitching a fit and reportedly trying to storm out of the theater. He returned to his seat and rudely turned his back on director Peter Farrelly during his acceptance speech, for having bested his film, &#8220;BlacKKKlansman.&#8221; Later, he complained that &#8220;the ref made a bad call,&#8221; a reference to tantrums he throws in the front row of New York Knicks games.
The hot hashtag used to be #OscarsSoWhite. That&#8217;s not at all what the winners list looked like this year. Best director went to Mexican Alfonso Cuaron for &#8220;Roma,&#8221; which many expected to win best picture. Cuaron&#8217;s film also won for cinematography and best foreign language film. Mexican directors have won five of the last six best director awards.
Best actor went to Rami Malek, the son of Egyptian immigrants. The best supporting actor and actress, Mahershala Ali and Regina King, are both black. The best animated film, &#8220;Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,&#8221; featured a half-black, half-Puerto Rican teenager as Spider-Man, voiced by Shameik Moore. &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; won for costume design and production design; black women held both Oscars.
Spike Lee actually won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and he used the spotlight for an anti-Trump rant (without using the name): &#8220;Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today, along with the genocide of its native people. &#8230; The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let&#8217;s all mobilize. Let&#8217;s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.&#8221;
As National Review movie critic Kyle Smith asked, &#8220;Who throws a hissy fit because he wins only one Oscar?&#8221; And he predicted, &#8220;Lee&#8217;s crybaby act pretty much guarantees he&#8217;ll win an Oscar if he ever again makes a film that is a hair better than mediocre.&#8221;
These award shows no longer reward talent. They reward their very own brand of self-centered idiocy.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

BOZELL &#038; GRAHAM: Diversity Reigns At Oscars. Tantrums Continue

The Academy Awards actually saw an uptick in audience numbers Sunday night, for the first time in almost a decade, even without a host.
<a href="https://deadline.com/2019/02/2019-oscars-ratings-rise-spike-lee-protest-green-book-abc-1202564523/">Deadline reports</a> that the Oscars broadcast earned 29.6 million viewers, gaining 3.1 million viewers over the 2018 broadcast, making Sunday night&#8217;s show the second least-watched Oscars broadcast in history after last year.
&#8220;Up 12% in viewers and 13% in the key demo over the 2018 Jimmy Kimmel fronted show, the 2019 Oscars are the most watched non-sports show on all of TV since the 32.9 million who tuned in for the 2017 Oscars,&#8221; Deadline said Monday morning.
That&#8217;s good news for Oscars advertisers, who were so unsure of whether the Oscars would draw an audience that they demanded money-back guarantees for ads placed during Sunday night&#8217;s show. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appeared to begrudgingly agree to the deal, given that the audience for Sunday night&#8217;s program was unpredictable, particularly without a big-name draw on the marquee.
But, it turns out, people seemed to like the hostless show, which started giving out awards almost immediately, without a 15-minute lecture from a late-night talk show host. The show also ran smoothly, and without lifetime achievement awards, an in-show explanation of the voting process, or a lofty speech from the Academy president, was able to shave around 30 minutes off 2018&#8217;s running time (though the broadcast still easily topped three hours).
Deadline and other Hollywood outlets suggest that the Oscars broadcast may have drawn more viewers because of its more accessible nominees, including comic-book blockbuster &#8220;Black Panther,&#8221; and a promised performance by Lady Gaga that appeared to deliver. But viewers may have also tuned in to see if the show&#8217;s year of public troubles affected the broadcast itself &#8212; in other words, they may have flipped over to the Oscars to watch a car wreck happen in real time.
Over the past 12 months, the Academy has struggled with how to bring viewers back to the annual awards show, which has seen double-digit declines in numbers over the past half-decade. They tried to recruit a snappier host in the form of Dwyane &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Johnson, but couldn&#8217;t compete with Johnson&#8217;s intense filming schedule, then tried to reel in comedian Kevin Hart. Twitter outrage took Hart off the agenda, and even though the Academy begged for his return, he refused, spending Oscars night working out at home, according to his posts on Instagram.
The Oscars tried to scale back the number of on-air categories, putting awards for cinematography, editing, and sound editing during commercial breaks, but reversed that decision after Hollywood became outraged. Instead, the broadcast dropped it&#8217;s annual &#8220;lifetime achievement&#8221; awards, shaving around 20 minutes off the running time.
Fewer long-winded speeches also meant fewer opportunities for political pontificating. Without an opening monologue, there were no direct attacks on anyone&#8217;s ideology for hours, until Spike Lee made a lukewarm plea to voters to &#8220;do the right thing&#8221; in the 2020 presidential election, and Javier Bardem made a vague reference to a &#8220;border&#8221; and a &#8220;wall.&#8221;

Oscar Audience Numbers Actually INCREASE Without A Host

They put up a good fight, but in the end, not even the howls of a thousand raging social justice warriors could keep &#8220;Green Book&#8221; from winning the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night.
Though &#8220;Green Book&#8221; deals with themes related to race relations and racism, wide swaths of the intersectional Left worked tirelessly to trash its chances of winning Best Picture from the very start, from Viggo Mortensen&#8217;s <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/viggo-mortensen-says-sorry-using-n-word-q-a-1159813">academic use of the N-word</a> to screenwriter Nick Vallelonga&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42031/golden-globe-winning-films-writer-under-fire-past-james-barrett">alleged</a> &#8220;Islamophobia.&#8221; Unlike Spike Lee&#8217;s &#8220;BlacKkKlansman,&#8221; Peter Farrelly&#8217;s &#8220;Green Book&#8221; commits the grievous offense of actually offering a resolution to American race relations, audaciously suggesting that only through mutual understanding can harmony overtake discord.
Writing at <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/academy-awards/2019/02/25/oscars-2019-green-book-wasnt-best-choice-best-picture/2977060002/">USA Today</a>, Brian Truitt said that &#8220;Green Book&#8221; stole the show from better deserving artists simply because they had black skin or because they pushed an anti-Trump political message:
<blockquote>
It&#8217;s also the wrong choice on a night where Lee stood exultant with the first non-honorary Oscar of his long career and Hannah Beachler of &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; became the first African-American woman to win for production design. &#8220;Green Book&#8221; ending the ceremony triumphant was odd, a dunderheaded decision at worst and a dull one at best. (Also, if your movie is about race relations, maybe don&#8217;t have your trophy-room pictures be only of white filmmakers?)
</blockquote>
Truitt and many other critics have decried &#8220;Green Book&#8221; as the worst Best Picture winner since &#8220;Crash&#8221; or &#8220;Driving Miss Daisy.&#8221; They all neglect the fact that 2017&#8217;s Best Picture winner featured a deaf woman becoming romantically involved with a magical fish; 2016&#8217;s winner depicted one teenage boy giving another teenage boy a handjob on a Florida beach. If anything, &#8220;Green Book&#8221; is a return to classical storytelling.
Writing at CNN, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/25/entertainment/green-book-politics/index.html">Lisa Respers laments</a> &#8220;Green Book&#8221; reinforces how America wishes to see itself in 2019:
<blockquote>
The movie of the same name has a scene with a white man teaching a black man how to eat fried chicken, while the white character drives him through the &#8217;60s South.
And it won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday night.
If that ain&#8217;t America, nothing is.
Just like the nation remains split over issues of ethnicity and identity, the film has caused a divide between those who see it as celebrating friendship and those who see it as racist.
&#8220;Green Book&#8221; chronicles the real-life friendship between piano virtuoso Dr. Donald Shirley, played by best supporting actor Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, and Tony Vallelonga, played by Viggo Mortensen, who served as his driver.
The film has faced <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/24/entertainment/green-book-best-picture-oscars/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">criticism</a> by some for seeming to reinforce the &#8220;white savior&#8221; trope used by Hollywood time and again in films having to do with race.
</blockquote>
Justin Chang at the LA Times<a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-oscars-green-book-worst-best-picture-winner-20190224-story.html"> went completely off the rails</a>, denouncing the &#8220;Green Book&#8221; upset as an &#8220;embarrassment.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Peter Farrelly&#8217;s interracial buddy dramedy is insultingly glib and hucksterish, a self-satisfied crock masquerading as an olive branch. It reduces the long, barbaric and ongoing history of American racism to a problem, a formula, a dramatic equation that can be balanced and solved. &#8220;Green Book&#8221; is an embarrassment; the film industry&#8217;s unquestioning embrace of it is another.
</blockquote>
Could the Academy really have awarded Best Picture to a movie that SJWs loathe? Maybe 2019 really will be the year Hollywood decided to make itself great again.

SJWs Triggered By ‘Green Book’ Winning Best Picture

A report in the <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/02/oscars-ads-abc-ratings-concerns-threshold-guarantees-1202562868/">Hollywood news outlet Deadline claims</a> that advertisers who have purchased slots during the Academy Awards are so concerned about audience numbers for Sunday night&#8217;s broadcast that they&#8217;re asking for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which puts on the show, to issue ratings thresholds guarantees.
The Academy is at the end of a year-long, failed effort to &#8220;update&#8221; the Oscars, which reportedly involved finding a more &#8220;relevant&#8221; host, adding new elements to the Oscars ceremony, potentially shortening the broadcast, and delivering some of the &#8220;less-interesting&#8221; awards during commercial breaks so as to focus the broadcast on awards the audience really wants to see.
Every effort was met with abject disaster. After failing to secure Dwayne &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Johnson for the host slot, the Academy hired Kevin Hart, who was immediately discovered to have tweeted some &#8220;anti-gay&#8221; opinions years ago, making him the subject of Hollywood social justice scorn, which eventually forced him to withdraw from the gig. After unsuccessfully trying to woo him back using former Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres, the Oscars were forced to admit they could not find a host, leaving them without a big name draw on the marquee.
When the Academy tried to &#8220;hide&#8221; some awards for editing, cinematography, and live-action short film in the broadcast&#8217;s commercial breaks, members of the Academy objected, forcing the Academy to re-extend the broadcast to include the &#8220;boring&#8221; awards.
An effort to award an &#8220;audience favorite&#8221; movie with an Oscar also hit the skids rather quickly.
Oscars viewership has been declining by double digit percentages for close to a decade, but until now, after the failed public efforts to reverse that drop, advertisers failed to take much notice, assuming that the broadcast, which still draws more than 20 million viewers, was worth the investment. It&#8217;s incredibly rare for advertisers to demand any audience thresholds for live events like the Oscars or the Super Bowl, even when they don&#8217;t do well.
According to Deadline, though, the parade of embarrassing issues dogging the Oscars broadcast has forced ABC, which airs the ceremony, to guarantee a &#8220;baseline&#8221; of viewers to advertisers, which could result in ABC having to give money back if advertiser expectations aren&#8217;t met.
&#8220;The Oscars are still a very big deal, but people aren&#8217;t stupid, and year after year of declining ratings are getting us to a danger zone,&#8221; a source told the Hollywood mag. &#8220;We are right on the edge of that danger zone &#8212; not close, but on it &#8212; and that makes advertisers very nervous.&#8221;
Fortunately for the Oscars, those audience thresholds are still pretty low, and they&#8217;re expected to clear them, even though far fewer people are expected to tune in Sunday night than in years before, according to an executive who spoke to Deadline.
It&#8217;s very unlikely that things will fall so radically this year that they&#8217;ll drop beneath those thresholds, but the fact is that there finally had to be such guarantees was a wake-up call to everyone,&#8221; the source said, adding that ABC is now motivated to make changes in the Oscars broadcast after dropping $85 million into a multi-year contract to air the show. The network has sold around $145 million in ads.
The Oscars air at 7 p.m. EST on ABC. The show is expected to run for at least three hours.

REPORT: Advertisers Expecting So Few Oscar Viewers, They&#8217;re Demanding Money-Back Guarantees

There was a time when The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s annual &#8220;brutally honest Oscar ballot,&#8221; in which an anonymous Academy voter dons the thankless role of giving an unfiltered &#8212; and often politically incorrect &#8212; opinion on the slate of nominated films, was brutally honest. In 2019, however, that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/brutally-honest-oscar-ballot-roma-just-an-expensive-home-movie-1187668/item/best-documentary-feature-brutally-honest-oscars-ballot-19-1187677">brutal honesty has been supplanted by virtue-signaling</a>.
Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences set the 2019 Oscars telecast on course for a complete ratings disaster when actor/comedian Kevin Hart dropped out of hosting the show after a woke troll campaign demanded he issue a apology over old LGBT-related jokes that were deemed controversial. Rather than use The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s platform to get &#8220;brutally honest&#8221; about the Academy&#8217;s steamrolling of Kevin Hart, the anonymous Oscar voter, whom The Hollywood Reporter identifies simply as a &#8220;male member of the Academy&#8217;s 519-person directors branch,&#8221; elected to simply complain about the show being &#8220;hostless&#8221; while making no mention of Hart&#8217;s unfair treatment.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to watch the Oscars this year,&#8221; he told The Hollywood Reporter. &#8220;I&#8217;m just anticipating a very boring show. One of the best things about the show is the opening monologue, which is usually pretty good &#8212; it&#8217;s what happens after that that&#8217;s not great.&#8221;
The &#8220;brutally honest&#8221; voter leaves the controversy at that, saying nothing more about it. Regarding the Academy&#8217;s decision &#8212; now reversed &#8212; to relegate the Best Editing/Cinematography awards to the commercial breaks, the director&#8217;s language was far more pointed.
&#8220;It&#8217;s an abomination,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If ABC, which I&#8217;m sure was pushing for this, thought that dumping cinematography and film editing was going to bring back any of the viewers the show has lost in recent years, they&#8217;re idiotic. Cinematography and editing are so important. For f***&#8217;s sake, man, a movie director [Roma&#8216;s Alfonso Cuarón] is going to win the cinematography award this year for the first time ever, and we weren&#8217;t going to see it live? I don&#8217;t f***ing get it.&#8221;
When it comes to the actual nominations, the anonymous scold shamelessly admits that he voted for Spike Lee for Best Director because &#8220;it&#8217;s about f***ing time,&#8221; admitting the veteran filmmaker did not give his best offering with &#8220;BlacKkKlansman.&#8221;
&#8220;The greatest wrong in the history of the Oscars was Spike Lee not being nominated for Do the Right Thing, and BlacKkKlansman is like the other end of Do the Right Thing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve admired this guy&#8217;s work so much over the years. Until now, the Academy has almost completely ignored this genius, and it&#8217;s about f***ing time to correct that. I don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s the best directing job of the year &#8212; I think that [The Favourite&#8216;s] Yorgos Lanthimos&#8217; decisions were more creative, interesting and daring &#8212; but I don&#8217;t know that I&#8217;ll have another opportunity to vote for Spike, so I&#8217;m going to take this one.&#8221;
On the Best Picture nominees, the anonymous voter offers not even a shred of sardonic commentary about how nearly all the films (minus &#8220;A Star Is Born&#8221;) have received their torrent of accolades. In fact, he downright praises the films for their woke messaging, selecting Spike Lee&#8217;s &#8220;BlacKkKlansman&#8221; for Best Picture for taking a dig at Trump.
&#8220;I prefer to reward a movie that is solid and has something of social importance to say, like BlacKkKlansman,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The Charlottesville footage at the end of it sealed the deal for me &#8212; it reminds us that things really haven&#8217;t gotten better.&#8221;
Finally, to really wave the bias flag for all to see, the anonymous voter admits to voting for the documentary &#8220;RBG&#8221; about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg &#8212; with whom he is none too happy due to her refusal to retire during President Obama&#8217;s tenure. He says, &#8220;I voted for RBG. I cannot say that I&#8217;m happy with Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a person &#8212; I&#8217;m really upset that she didn&#8217;t retire when Obama was still around, and if she steps down or dies now, this country is f***ed forever &#8212; but the story that they tell in that film is compelling and taught me so much and left me talking about it with my wife for hours afterward. For a documentary biopic, I found it to be fabulously entrancing.&#8221;

WEAK: The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s ‘Brutally Honest’ Oscar Voter Goes Politically Correct

Political Correctness

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be getting her own tribute at the Oscars this year, taking the notorious cult of RBG to a whole new level. According to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/music/news/jennifer-hudson-rbg-ill-fight-oscars-1203125072/">Variety</a>, the nominated song &#8220;I&#8217;ll Fight&#8221; from the documentary &#8220;RBG&#8221; will be performed by Academy Award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson.
On Thursday, the Academy excitedly announced that Hudson will be performing the song, adding that &#8220;this has been our favorite tweet of the day.&#8221;
The Academy tweeted: &#8220;Things we&#8217;d like to announce today: 1. <a data-mentioned-user-id="33990291" href="https://twitter.com/IAMJHUD">@IAMJHUD</a> will perform the nominated song &#8220;I&#8217;ll Fight&#8221; on the <a data-query-source="hashtag_click" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash">#Oscars</a>! 2. This has been our favorite tweet of the day.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Things we&#8217;d like to announce today:
1. <a href="https://twitter.com/IAMJHUD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IAMJHUD</a> will perform the nominated song &#8220;I&#8217;ll Fight&#8221; on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars</a>!
2. This has been our favorite tweet of the day.
&#8212; The Academy (@TheAcademy) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1091072822900809729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Hudson&#8217;s addition marks the first official confirmation of any song from the <a data-tag="best-original-song" href="https://variety.com/t/best-original-song/">best original song</a> category being performed on the Oscars,&#8221; reports Variety.
The Oscars were reportedly planning on cutting down the number of performed songs this year to just two &#8212; Lady Gaga&#8217;s &#8220;Shallow&#8221; and Kendrick Lamar and SZA&#8217;s &#8220;All the Stars&#8221; &#8212; which means that the Academy changed the entire show&#8217;s already long running time to squeeze in a whole song dedicated to the left-wing justice. The Academy&#8217;s addition of &#8220;I&#8217;ll Fight&#8221; being performed at the show follows an intense public outcry, with many members of the film music community expressing disappointment that the song, written by Diane Warren, would be nixed from the show along with the other nominees.
While the song explicitly does not name Justice Ginsburg as its subject, it clearly portrays her as a warrior who will persist in the fight for justice no matter how weak she becomes. Full lyrics:
<blockquote>
When you feel you&#8217;re taking all that you can take 
And you&#8217;re sure you&#8217;re never gonna catch a break 
And the tears are rivers running down your face, yeah 
When your faith is low and you&#8217;ve got no strength left 
When you think you&#8217;ve gone as far as you can get 
And you&#8217;re too undone to take another step
Oh I will take up the struggle 
Oh I know it&#8217;s a fight
So I&#8217;ll fight, fight that war for you 
I&#8217;ll fight, stand and defend you 
Take your side, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here to do 
I&#8217;ll be there to be strong 
Oh I&#8217;ll keep on, keep on the fight
When it&#8217;s dangerous, takes another piece of you 
Everybody takes all they can get from you 
Till you&#8217;re left with almost nothing left of you 
When each night is like a battle you can&#8217;t win 
And the pain is like a weight you&#8217;re carrying 
I will be the one to help you carry it
Oh I will take all your troubles 
Oh I know it&#8217;s a fight
So I&#8217;ll fight, fight that war for you 
I&#8217;ll fight, stand and defend you 
Take your side, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here to do 
I&#8217;ll be there to be strong 
Oh I&#8217;ll keep on, keep on the fight
I&#8217;ll help your back when your backs to the wall 
I&#8217;ll catch the tears when your tears fall 
I will give it all I won&#8217;t give up the fight
</blockquote>
The Oscars will be a historic show this year by having <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41981/its-official-oscars-have-no-host-year-paul-bois">absolutely no host</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gOqHWrCjuY4" width="560"></iframe></div>

Jennifer Hudson To Sing Ruth Bader Ginsburg Song ‘I’ll Fight’ At The Oscars

Supreme Court

The 2019 Oscar nominees were announced Tuesday morning, and several social justice-themed films made the final cut. Here are the Best Picture nominees:
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/blackkklansman" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BlacKkKlansman</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/black-panther" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Black Panther</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/bohemian-rhapsody" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bohemian Rhapsody</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/favourite" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Favourite</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/green-book" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Green Book</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/roma" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Roma</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/a-star-is-born" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Star Is Born</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/vice-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vice</a></li>
</ol>
With a total of 10 nominations apiece, both &#8220;Roma&#8221; and &#8220;The Favourite&#8221; are the dominant movies this year. &#8220;A Star is Born&#8221; and &#8220;Vice&#8221; hold second place with eight nominations, trailed closely behind by &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; with seven, Spike Lee&#8217;s &#8220;BlacKkKlansman&#8221; with six and &#8220;Bohemian Rhapsody&#8221; and &#8220;Green Book&#8221; with five each, according to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/oscar-nominations-2019-complete-list-nominees-1172407/item/best-picture-1172473">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
&#8220;Meanwhile, in the directing category, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-spike-lee-earns-first-directing-nomination-1177894" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spike Lee earned his first-ever best directing Oscar nom for BlacKkKlansman, </a>while A Star Is Born director Bradley Cooper was <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-nominations-snubs-2019-bradley-cooper-director-mr-rogers-doc-1177867" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">among the snubs</a>, though he did earn a best acting nomination,&#8221; THR reports. &#8220;Lee will vie with Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), Adam McKay (Vice) and Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) for the honor of best director at the 2019 Oscars.&#8221;
Though it&#8217;s anyone&#8217;s game at this point, the frontrunner for Best Picture this year appears, at least initially, to be either &#8220;Bohemian Rhapsody&#8221; or &#8220;Green Book,&#8221; being that the latter won Best Picture Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes while the former won Best Picture Drama. However, as noted by <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/oscar-predictions-2019-best-picture-movies#">Thrillist</a>, a string of controversies have erupted in recent weeks that could knock &#8220;Green Book&#8221; out of the running:
<blockquote>
Get ready for a lot of it with this one. First up: Viggo Mortensen <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/viggo-mortensen-says-sorry-using-n-word-q-a-1159813" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">used the n-word</a> in full when discussing the movie at a recent Q&amp;A. While the point he was trying to make was about how the word was casually used in the time period in which the movie takes place, he faced immediate blowback for having uttered the word himself and has since apologized. <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/green-book-whitewashing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Negative</a> <a href="https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/11/27/18112880/green-book-race-viggo-mortensen-mahershala-ali-peter-farrelly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">takes</a>, arguing that the story is centered around the racist white man at the expense of a nuanced approach to African-American history, have also intensified since Green Book&#8216;s release. Maurice Shirley, Don Shirley&#8217;s brother, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/truth-about-green-book-viggo-mortensen-mahershala-ali" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has also condemned the film for factual inaccuracies</a>, as have <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/green-book-is-one-awards-seasons-contentiously-debated-films-1174333" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">other members of the Shirley family</a>. His great-niece Yvonne Shirley <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/green-book-is-one-awards-seasons-contentiously-debated-films-1174333" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told The Hollywood Reporter</a>, &#8220;They decided to create a story of a white man&#8217;s redemption and self-realization using an extraordinary black life and a history of black oppression in this country as their backdrop. Many viewers are simply tired of that devaluing narrative.&#8217;
</blockquote>
The Academy still <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41981/its-official-oscars-have-no-host-year-paul-bois">has not tapped a host</a> to replace Kevin Hart, following a recent debacle in which political correctness forced him from emceeing Hollywood&#8217;s most glamorous night of the year. With just a little over a month to go, the night will most likely be led by an ensemble of A-list stars doing various SNL-style set-ups.
Best Picture
<ul>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>Bohemian Rhapsody</li>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>Green Book</li>
<li>Roma</li>
<li>A Star is Born</li>
<li>Vice</li>
</ul>
Best Director
<ul>
<li>Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War</li>
<li>Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite</li>
<li>Alfonso Cuarón, Roma</li>
<li>Adam McKay, Vice</li>
</ul>
Best Actor
<ul>
<li>Christian Bale, Vice</li>
<li>Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born</li>
<li>Willem Dafoe, At Eternity&#8217;s Gate</li>
<li>Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody</li>
<li>Viggo Mortensen, Green Book </li>
</ul>
Best Actress
<ul>
<li>Yalitza Aparicio, Roma</li>
<li>Glenn Close, The Wife</li>
<li>Olivia Colman, The Favourite</li>
<li>Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born</li>
<li>Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? </li>
</ul>
Best Supporting Actor
<ul>
<li>Mahershala Ali, Green Book</li>
<li>Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born</li>
<li>Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? </li>
<li>Sam Rockwell, Vice</li>
</ul>
Best Supporting Actress
<ul>
<li>Amy Adams, Vice</li>
<li>Marina De Tavira, Roma</li>
<li>Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk</li>
<li>Emma Stone, The Favourite</li>
<li>Rachel Weisz, The Favourite</li>
</ul>
Best Adapted Screenplay
<ul>
<li>The Ballad of Buster Scruggs</li>
<li>BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>Can You Ever Forgive Me?</li>
<li>If Beale Street Could Talk</li>
<li>A Star Is Born</li>
</ul>
Best Original Screenplay
<ul>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>First Reformed</li>
<li>Green Book</li>
<li>Roma</li>
<li>Vice</li>
</ul>
Best Foreign Language Film
<ul>
<li>Capernaum</li>
<li>Cold War</li>
<li>Never Look Away</li>
<li>Roma</li>
<li>Shoplifters</li>
</ul>
Best Documentary Feature
<ul>
<li>Free Solo</li>
<li>Hale County This Morning, This Evening</li>
<li>Minding the Gap</li>
<li>Of Fathers and Sons</li>
<li>RBG</li>
</ul>
Best Animated Feature
<ul>
<li>Incredibles 2</li>
<li>Isle of Dogs</li>
<li>Mirai</li>
<li>Ralph Breaks the Internet</li>
<li>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</li>
</ul>
Best Documentary Short Subject
<ul>
<li>Black Sheep</li>
<li>End Game</li>
<li>Lifeboat</li>
<li>A Night at the Garden</li>
<li>Period. End of Sentence.</li>
</ul>
Best Original Song
<ul>
<li>&#8220;All The Stars,&#8221; Black Panther</li>
<li>&#8220;I&#8217;ll Fight,&#8221; RBG</li>
<li>&#8220;The Place Where Lost Things Go,&#8221; Mary Poppins Returns</li>
<li>&#8220;Shallow,&#8221; A Star Is Born</li>
<li>&#8220;When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,&#8221; The Ballad of Buster Scruggs</li>
</ul>
Best Production Design
<ul>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>First Man</li>
<li>Mary Poppins Returns</li>
<li>Roma</li>
</ul>
Best Cinematography
<ul>
<li>Cold War</li>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>Never Look Away</li>
<li>Roma</li>
<li>A Star Is Born</li>
</ul>
Best Costume Design
<ul>
<li>The Ballad of Buster Scruggs</li>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>Mary Poppins Returns</li>
<li>Mary Queen of Scots</li>
</ul>
Best Sound Editing
<ul>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>Bohemian Rhapsody</li>
<li>First Man</li>
<li>A Quiet Place</li>
<li>Roma</li>
</ul>
Best Sound Mixing
<ul>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>Bohemian Rhapsody</li>
<li>First Man</li>
<li>Roma</li>
<li>A Star Is Born</li>
</ul>
Best Animated Short Film
<ul>
<li>Animal Behaviour</li>
<li>Bao</li>
<li>Late Afternoon</li>
<li>One Small Step</li>
<li>Weekends</li>
</ul>
Best Live Action Short Film
<ul>
<li>Detainment</li>
<li>Fauve</li>
<li>Marguerite</li>
<li>Mother</li>
<li>Skin</li>
</ul>
Best Original Score
<ul>
<li>Black Panther</li>
<li>BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>If Beale Street Could Talk</li>
<li>Isle of Dogs</li>
<li>Mary Poppins Returns</li>
</ul>
Best Visual Effects
<ul>
<li>Avengers: Infinity War</li>
<li>Christopher Robin</li>
<li>First Man</li>
<li>Ready Player One</li>
<li>Solo: A Star Wars Story</li>
</ul>
Best Film Editing
<ul>
<li>BlacKkKlansman</li>
<li>Bohemian Rhapsody</li>
<li>The Favourite</li>
<li>Green Book</li>
<li>Vice</li>
</ul>
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
<ul>
<li>Border</li>
<li>Mary Queen of Scots</li>
<li>Vice</li>
</ul>

Here Are The 2019 Oscar Nominees. Yep, &#8216;Black Panther&#8217; For Best Picture

Last week, the Academy of Motion Pictures announced that for the first time in decades that the Oscars would abandon its traditional format of having a celebrity host. The decision was made after comedian Kevin Hart reaffirmed his decision to withdrawal from the nomination while on Ellen DeGeneres&#8217; daily talk show. Which brings us to the topic of this column. Ellen DeGeneres.
Historically, the annual Academy Awards has endured periods of both fallow and flourishment, subject to, among other things, the eminence of movies in a given year. But for the past half-decade, the Oscars&#8217; ratings have withered dramatically. Last year, the overall audience dipped below 30 million for the first time.
It&#8217;s imprudent to attribute the annual ceremony&#8217;s decline to any one singular impetus; there are several. However, if the Oscars are ever to recover, it is important to address one specific foible. At each Academy Awards ceremony over the past few years, there&#8217;s been a giant elephant in the room. Its bottom half is always red, and the top half blue, donning three white stars. It&#8217;s the Republican Elephant.
No matter the host, or the subject of films nominated, every Oscars ceremony in recent history has had one common theme: browbeating and haranguing Republicans from an ostensible moral high ground &#8212; and you don&#8217;t need to look hard for examples.
Just minutes into his opening monologue at last year&#8217;s Oscars, host Jimmy Kimmel called President Trump a racist, claiming the first three-fourths of &#8220;Get Out&#8221; &#8212; a thriller about psychopathic white people hypnotizing and enslaving black people &#8212; was Trump&#8217;s favorite movie.
At this year&#8217;s Golden Globes &#8212; the precursor to the Oscars &#8212; Christian Bale, accepting the best actor award for his portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney in the movie &#8220;Vice,&#8221; thanked Satan (that&#8217;s not his father&#8217;s name; the actual, Biblical Satan) for &#8220;inspiration.&#8221;
Movie award ceremonies shouldn&#8217;t be subject to the insipid political musings of Jimmy Kimmel or Meryl Streep. If people want to hear left-of-center political ramblings, they can do that any time by changing the channel to CNN. Conversely, there&#8217;s &#8220;The Daily Show&#8221; (hosted by Trevor Noah); &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; (hosted by Stephen Colbert); or &#8220;Jimmy Kimmel Live!,&#8221; just to name a few.
This brings us back to Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres&#8217; show is enjoyed across America, by both liberals and conservatives. A 2013 poll <a href="https://uproxx.com/tv/the-most-popular-tv-personality-among-republicans-ellen-degeneres/">revealed</a> that Ellen DeGeneres was on par with former Fox News host Bill O&#8217;Reilly as the most popular TV personality amongst Republicans. This is why Ellen DeGeneres should host the Oscars this year. The ratings speak for themselves: Since the start of the millennium, ratings have peaked exactly three times for the lux gala, two of which were times hosted by DeGeneres.
DeGeneres&#8217; success as a host largely derives from her innate ability to lighten the atmosphere in any setting or situation. Despite her tremendously fruitful career &#8212; earning a whopping 77-million-dollar salary &#8212; she&#8217;s never met an audience she couldn&#8217;t connect with. She&#8217;s one of the few Hollywood successes who, despite receiving reams of accolades, doesn&#8217;t consider herself a holier-than-thou arbiter of morality.
Though DeGeneres has hitherto reprimanded Trump, proclaiming that he was &#8220;against everything she stood for,&#8221; DeGeneres has always kept her personal political views off her show, and out of her public persona more broadly, opting to instead capture audiences with her genial and witty personality. Eschewing jokes at the expense of others, she once famously said, &#8220;Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else&#8217;s expense, and I find that&#8217;s just a form of bullying.&#8221;
The best-rated Oscars in decades (2014) did not disappoint. DeGeneres brought her amiable, charismatic persona, whirling jokes at the audience. While other hosts addressed the up-in-arms brigade of indignation at the Oscar&#8217;s meager diversity through pedantic, preachy lectures, DeGeneres instead did what she does best. She made a joke about it: &#8220;Anything could happen tonight! So many possibilities! Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility number two: you&#8217;re all racists. And now, please welcome our first white presenter, Anne Hathaway.&#8221;
There&#8217;s no evidence that DeGeneres harbors any hostility to Republicans or political conservatives. On the contrary, DeGeneres staffs an (openly!) conservative, Republican-voting (again, openly!) writer on her show: Adam Yenser. Last December, Yenser <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5aP2s-Y-eI">wrote</a> a comedy skit directed by The Daily Wire&#8217;s own Paul Bois lampooning a societal sacred cow: the fringes of the #MeToo movement.
Earlier this January, Jon Levine <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/01/05/forget-kevin-hart-why-actor-james-woods-would-be-the-perfect-oscars-host/">penned</a> an op-ed for the New York Post suggesting that the Oscars need more than an abandonment of politics. They need a whole new approach. Arguing that a conservative firebrand &#8212; James Woods &#8212; would be medicine for the award show&#8217;s near decade long trend of decline. &#8220;He [James Woods] may not be the host you want, but for struggling awards shows, he&#8217;s what America needs.&#8221;
As tempting as that sounds &#8212; flipping the Oscars on its head, handing the ceremonial reigns to a Trump-loving Republican &#8212; it&#8217;s as likely to happen as Hillary Clinton headlining the next Republican National Convention. The issue isn&#8217;t that the annual ceremony has been plagued by the wrong flavor of politics. The issue is that divisive, partisan politics have slithered into a cultural celebration of cinema in the first place.
The Oscars don&#8217;t need to become a conservative convention. It&#8217;s not preferable to have right-leaning actors like Vince Vaughn or Clint Eastwood take to the stage and flaunt their political views any more than to have Jimmy Kimmel deliver an opening monologue deriding the President as a racist.
The Oscars are a seminal celebration of culture in America. They should acknowledge and award creativity, talent, and art &#8212; all things that transcend petty political differences. And in an era where those political differences have become potently polarized, the Oscar&#8217;s ought to be an event of unity. Ellen DeGeneres&#8217; down-to-earth, good-natured and witty humor livened and lightened the Oscars twice before; they should do it again.
Follow Harry Khachatrian on <a href="https://twitter.com/harry1t6">Twitter</a>

KHACHATRIAN: Ellen DeGeneres Should Host The Oscars This Year

Ellen Degeneres

The virus of political correctness and woke sermonizing that has wormed its way into the Academy Awards for the past decade has all but turned Hollywood&#8217;s most prestigious awards show into a level of laughingstock that not even the Golden Globes has stooped to. In a breaking piece at <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/oscars-no-host-2019-kevin-hart-1203103010/">Variety</a>, Academy insiders close to the show&#8217;s planning have confirmed that Oscars 2019 will be entirely host-free, meaning no Kevin Hart, no Ellen Degeneres, no Chris Rock, not even Jimmy Kimmel.
&#8220;The <a data-tag="oscars" href="https://variety.com/t/oscars/">Oscars</a> are poised to embark on one of the most radical reinventions in the awards show&#8217;s long history,&#8221; reports Variety. &#8220;For the first time in nearly three decades, the biggest night in movies plans to go without a host, individuals with knowledge of the plans told Variety.&#8221;
In place of the wise-cracking host, the show&#8217;s producers will instead select &#8220;a crop of A-listers to introduce various segments.&#8221; Exactly how the Oscars will open the show sans the traditional opening monologue remains to be seen. For now, the Academy is scrambling to secure the top talent in the small window of time (six weeks) they have until the show airs on February 24.
&#8220;As it stands, no new offers are out, nor are any expected to be made to a single potential host to fill the void left by <a data-tag="kevin-hart" href="https://variety.com/t/kevin-hart/">Kevin Hart</a>,&#8221; reports Variety. &#8220;Barring an eleventh-hour pivot by the Academy &#8212; in the event that a superstar host materializes &#8212; the show producers are moving forward with a broadcast that will focus on starry skits and play up a high-profile year for music in film, thanks to likely nominees Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton, and Kendrick Lamar, one individual involved with the show said.&#8221;
After a show of support from fellow comedienne Ellen Degeneres, rumors began to circulate if Kevin Hart would set aside his differences with the Academy and host the Oscars anyway. Speaking with <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/kevin-hart-addresses-oscars-controversy-in-exclusive-interview-would-i-ever-do-it-again-no-im-done-1203099460/">Variety</a> last Friday, Hart put those rumors to rest when he unequivocally stated, &#8220;It&#8217;s done.&#8221;
&#8220;Would I ever do it? No, it&#8217;s done. It&#8217;s done,&#8221; Hart told Variety. &#8220;The moment came and it was a blessing and I was excited at the opportunity and I still am. In my mind I got the job, it was a dream job, and things came up that simply prohibited it from happening. But I don&#8217;t believe in going backwards.&#8221;
Worse still, members of the Academy apparently have no contrition for how they handled the Kevin Hart fiasco. In fact, they were reportedly upset when the famed comedian portrayed himself as a victim of internet trolls during his interview with Ellen Degeneres last week.
&#8220;The Academy had been considering welcoming Hart back if he had used the opportunity in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres to demonstrate contrition,&#8221; reports Variety. &#8220;But his sit-down with DeGeneres, a sympathetic friend, backfired when he was made out to be the victim of internet trolls and &#8216;haters&#8217; rather than the perpetrator of hateful remarks.&#8221;
The Academy was also none-too-happy with Ellen Degeneres for allegedly mischaracterizing a phone call she had with an unnamed Academy official to lobby in Hart&#8217;s favor:
<blockquote>
Moreover, the Academy, according to sources, was furious that DeGeneres, on her show, mischaracterized her phone conversation with an unnamed Academy official whom she contacted to lobby for Hart&#8217;s reinstatement.
DeGeneres implied that the Academy wanted Hart back at all costs, to the point of quoting someone in the ranks admitting the organization may have &#8220;said the wrong thing&#8221; in discussing Hart&#8217;s exit.
While the Academy never commented on the veracity of the call, or whom it may have been with, one person said DeGeneres took the remarks out of context. A rep for DeGeneres had no comment.
</blockquote>
The debacle on the Academy&#8217;s hands is one entirely of their own making, shot through by their sycophantic love affair with all things left-of-center and politically correct. Had the Academy just kept silent and not demanded that Kevin Hart issue a public apology over past jokes that some LGBT community members found offensive, the Oscars would be on its way to a ratings blowout. Instead, all of them will likely stand humiliated when the Nielsen numbers the following Monday reveal the show managed to outdo last year&#8217;s record as being one of the lowest-rated Oscars ever.

It’s Official: Oscars Have No Host This Year

After a show of support from fellow comedienne Ellen Degeneres, rumors began to circulate if Kevin Hart would set aside his differences with the Academy and host the Oscars anyway. Speaking with <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/kevin-hart-addresses-oscars-controversy-in-exclusive-interview-would-i-ever-do-it-again-no-im-done-1203099460/">Variety</a> on Friday, Hart put those rumors to rest when he unequivocally stated, &#8220;it&#8217;s done.&#8221;
&#8220;Would I ever do it? No, it&#8217;s done. It&#8217;s done,&#8221; Hart told Variety. &#8220;The moment came and it was a blessing and I was excited at the opportunity and I still am. In my mind I got the job, it was a dream job, and things came up that simply prohibited it from happening. But I don&#8217;t believe in going backwards.&#8221;
Last December, Kevin Hart <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39148/leftists-celebrate-kevin-harts-firing-oscars-paul-bois">stepped down from hosting the Oscars</a> over old jokes that were offensive to the LGBT community, most of them revolving around his fear about his son becoming gay. As the backlash online mounted, the Academy demanded that Hart publicly apologize or face firing; hours later, he declined that apology and announced he would be stepping down.
&#8220;I chose to pass. I passed on the apology,&#8221; said Hart in an Instagram video. &#8220;The reason why I passed is because I&#8217;ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I&#8217;ve addressed it. I&#8217;ve spoken on it. I&#8217;ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I&#8217;ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on. I&#8217;m in a completely different space in my life.&#8221;
The Academy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39253/kevin-hart-gets-last-laugh-report-academy-freaking-james-barrett">has since been scrambling</a> to find a solution following the Hart fiasco. Reports indicate that the Academy is considering forgoing an Oscars host entirely in 2019.
None of that means, however, that Hart has no ambitions to stand upon the Oscars stage.
&#8220;When I go on that stage, it will be because I&#8217;ve somehow figured out a way to win the Oscar,&#8221; Hart said. &#8220;Somehow I&#8217;ll get to the stage but it&#8217;s not going to be in this way because it just comes with such a weird cloud at this point.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;There&#8217;s no ill will toward the Academy.&#8221;
Kevin Hart leveled much of his criticism at the online trolls who used the old jokes he made as a means to stoke a social media mob.
&#8220;You&#8217;re living in times where words and points of view can be misconstrued because of how strong the internet is,&#8221; Hart said. &#8220;The manipulation of headlines is what was amazing when this whole thing hit. It was, &#8216;<a data-tag="kevin-hart" href="https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/kevin-hart-oscar-controversy-barely-diminished-his-appeal-survey-suggests-1203096446/">Kevin Hart</a> steps down because he refuses to apologize for homophobic tweets.&#8217; This was what was said and it was blasted all over the internet, and the word &#8216;again&#8217; somehow got lost, which was a major word. I&#8217;ve addressed this several times.&#8221;
In his interview with Ellen Degeneres on Friday, the noted LGBT activist openly stated her hope that Hart would reconsider his decision to step down.
&#8220;I know you are not that guy because I know you,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think the night will be about you, and it should be about you, and you should host the Oscars, and I&#8217;m going to talk you into it.&#8221;
<div class="embed"><iframe allowfullscreen height="90" width="100%"></iframe></div>

Kevin Hart Confirms He Will Not Reconsider Hosting Oscars: ‘I&#8217;m Done!’

We&#8217;re less than two months out from the 91st Academy Awards ceremony, and the Academy still hasn&#8217;t announced a replacement host for comedian Kevin Hart.
The Hollywood Reporter sounded the alarm Wednesday: &#8220;Sources within the Academy&#8217;s 300-person staff and 54-person board of governors have told The Hollywood Reporter that they have no idea how things are progressing, but they are growing concerned as Hollywood&#8217;s biggest night rapidly approaches. Indeed, not since Jon Stewart was announced as the host of the 78th Oscars on Jan. 5, 2006, and only once before that in the 21st century, when Whoopi Goldberg was announced as the host of the 74th on Jan. 7, 2002, has the search for a host extended into the calendar year of the show itself.&#8221;
While the Academy doesn&#8217;t appear to know exactly who they want, they do know who they don&#8217;t want, THR stresses: &#8220;someone who is socially divisive (especially after the Hart debacle), having concluded that politically-outspoken hosts have contributed to the show&#8217;s ratings declines in recent years; and they do not want someone who primarily appeals to older viewers, who are likely to watch the show regardless of who hosts.&#8221;
While the Academy hits the panic button, the ousted former host appears to be doing just fine. Not only is he now the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39519/last-laugh-kevin-hart-labeled-second-highest-paid-paul-bois">second-highest paid comedian in the world</a> (just after Jerry Seinfeld), his popularity hasn&#8217;t taken the hit many predicted.
&#8220;Despite the furor earlier this month over past homophobic tweets that resulted in his exiting his Academy Awards gig, the comedian&#8217;s reputation has proved remarkably resilient in the public eye, according to Spotted, a data and research provider focused on the celebrity endorsement space,&#8221; <a href="https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/kevin-hart-oscar-controversy-barely-diminished-his-appeal-survey-suggests-1203096446/">Variety</a> reports. &#8220;Spotted&#8217;s &#8216;consumer approval&#8217; metric, which measures a mix of likability, relatability and trustworthiness among U.S. consumers, measured a rebound of nearly 50% for Hart after he apologized.&#8221;
Hart registered only an 11.55% drop in public approval immediately following the blow-up over his past tweets and jokes that were widely condemned as homophobic and for which he has since apologized. That drop is a little over one-point less than average for celebrities after similar controversies.
&#8220;Kevin Hart has an uncanny ability to recover from scandal,&#8221; said Spotted CEO Janet Comenos, Variety reports. &#8220;His ability to quickly rebound is directly correlated to how high he scores in terms of consumer approval, pre-scandal. When a celebrity is so well-liked in the eyes of consumers, just like a mother&#8217;s favorite child, they can almost do no wrong.&#8221;
Spotted says they&#8217;ve found that Hart has been able to recover from past controversies about 2-3 times faster than other stars.
The Oscars meltdown began within hours of the Academy announcing Hart as their choice as the next host. After activists accused Hart of &#8220;homophobia&#8221; due to comments and tweets from 2009-2011, Hart said the Academy contacted him and demanded that he apologize publicly or they&#8217;d be forced to go with someone else. Just about 48 hours after being announced as the host, Hart <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39253/kevin-hart-gets-last-laugh-report-academy-freaking-james-barrett">announced</a> that he was stepping down.
&#8220;I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year&#8217;s Oscar&#8217;s&#8230;.this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,&#8221; Hart wrote in a pair of tweets on December 7. &#8220;I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.&#8221;
In an Instagram video he posted a few hours before his announcement, Hart said the Academy gave him an ultimatum: apologize or we&#8217;ll move on.
&#8220;I chose to pass. I passed on the apology,&#8221; said Hart. &#8220;The reason why I passed is because I&#8217;ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I&#8217;ve addressed it. I&#8217;ve spoken on it. I&#8217;ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I&#8217;ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on.&#8221;
<div class="embed">
<blockquote data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEjHFCFe83/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" data-instgrm-version="12">
<div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEjHFCFe83/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a></div>
<div>
<div><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEjHFCFe83/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">View this post on Instagram</a></div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEjHFCFe83/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">I know who I am &amp; so do the people closest to me. #LiveLoveLaugh</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kevinhart4real/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Kevin Hart</a> (@kevinhart4real) on Dec 6, 2018 at 7:31pm PST
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
A few days later, <a href="https://variety.com/2018/film/news/oscars-academy-kevin-hart-replacement-1203084598/">Variety</a> reported that inside sources said Hart&#8217;s resignation &#8220;blindsided&#8221; the Academy and left its leadership &#8220;scrambling&#8221; to find someone to replace him. &#8220;They&#8217;re freaking out,&#8221; a &#8220;top comedy agent&#8221; told the outlet.
Among the comments that got Hart in trouble was a bit from 2010 in which he joked that his &#8220;biggest fear&#8221; was that his son would end up turning gay. &#8220;Keep in mind, I&#8217;m not homophobic,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I have nothing against gay people. Be happy. Do what you want to do. But me, as a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.&#8221;
In a 2015 interview with <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/kevin-harts-funny-business-67836/">Rolling Stone</a>, Hart apologized for his past comments and suggested they were more about his own insecurities than harboring &#8220;homophobia&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s about my fear,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking about what I did as a dad, did I do something wrong, and if I did, what was it? Not that I&#8217;m not gonna love my son or think about him any differently. The funny thing within that joke is it&#8217;s me getting mad at my son because of my own insecurities &#8212; I panicked. It has nothing to do with him, it&#8217;s about me. That&#8217;s the difference between bringing a joke across that&#8217;s well thought-out and saying something just to ruffle feathers.&#8221;

Oscars Still In Panic Mode, But Ousted Host Kevin Hart Is Doing Just Fine

Sexuality

The Marvel hit &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; is all but assured to get a (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39103/golden-globes-black-panther-nominated-best-picture-paul-bois">wholly undeserving</a>) Best Picture nomination at this year&#8217;s Academy Awards now that the &#8220;Queen of all Media&#8221; Oprah Winfrey has given it her endorsement.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oprah-winfrey-endorses-black-panther-calling-it-bigger-a-movie-1170983">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Oprah gave &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; her blessing while speaking before more than 100 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday night. Her endorsement reportedly came at the behest of Disney chief Bob Iger, whom she has been friends with for three decades.
Winfrey began: &#8220;I just wanted to say that when I first saw &#8216;Black Panther,&#8217; I sent an email to my friend Bobby and said, &#8216;Hi Bobby! Just saw it. It&#8217;s worth everything I&#8217;ve heard and more. A phenomenon in every way, on every level. Makes me tear up to think that little black children will grow up with &#8216;Wakanda forever.&#8217; It&#8217;s game-changing, it&#8217;s pride-making, it&#8217;s dazzling, it&#8217;s phenomenal.&#8217; That was my personal review.&#8221;
Oprah Winfrey was joined by &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; screenwriter/director Ryan Coogler, screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, and producer Kevin Feige. &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Daniel Kaluuya were also present.
The &#8220;Queen of all Media&#8221; went on to describe &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; as being something bigger than a movie.
&#8220;I also know that throngs and throngs and so many people came, and came with their families, and then they went back and they got more family members, and then they went back and told their coworkers and their friends, because everybody recognized that something bigger than a movie was happening up on that screen,&#8221; she said.
Oprah went on to say that &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; gave people like herself &#8220;life.&#8221;
&#8220;It just gave us life! It gave us life! But it was so affirming for everyone who saw it because you knew that it was bigger than this moment &#8212; it was a cultural happening &#8212; and just to be in the theater was to be a part of all of that,&#8221; she said.
In closing, Oprah Winfrey thanked Disney chief Bob Iger for allowing &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; to become a reality.
&#8220;None of that could have happened without one man. You know, no matter how many thousands of people there are at Disney, the bottom line is, if he doesn&#8217;t say &#8216;yes,&#8217; it doesn&#8217;t happen,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I have admired and been a friend of Bob Iger&#8217;s for a very long time, and am just so respectful of his leadership. And I know that this happened the way it happened because of his leadership, because he had the good sense to hire Ryan Coogler. And then to let him execute his vision. So we are thankful to you, Mr. Iger, for that.&#8221;
Disney chief Bob Iger then took the floor to offer a toast in the name of &#8220;Black Panther.&#8221; His words echoed that of Oprah&#8217;s by heralding the film as more than just a film. He also credited the film&#8217;s success to Ryan Coogler&#8217;s talent.
&#8220;The exhilaration that we all felt about this film was due to the fact that we believe it actually had an impact on the world,&#8221; said Iger. &#8220;And it was because of boldness, daring to dream, defying conventional wisdom and, of course, putting it in the hands of an unbelievably gifted director, Ryan Coogler, who not only told a great story, but he brought an incredible vision to this film.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Oprah toasts BLACK PANTHER, part 1&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/yrJcyWVNUc">pic.twitter.com/yrJcyWVNUc</a>
&#8212; Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottFeinberg/status/1074865006955528193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Oprah toasts BLACK PANTHER, part 2&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/5ICDMK5s45">pic.twitter.com/5ICDMK5s45</a>
&#8212; Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottFeinberg/status/1074866439775969280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Oprah toasts BLACK PANTHER, part 3 (final part)&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/HfmI1eaviH">pic.twitter.com/HfmI1eaviH</a>
&#8212; Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottFeinberg/status/1074867396362481664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Oprah Endorses ‘Black Panther’ For Oscars Nomination: &#8216;It Gave Us Life&#8217;

Oprah Winfrey

The Oscars may have snubbed Kevin Hart over a past joke that offended LGBT people, but he gets the last laugh. According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2018/12/19/the-worlds-highest-paid-comedians-of-2018/#70833e586fed">Forbes</a>, the &#8220;Jumanji&#8221; star is now the second-highest-paid comedian in the world behind none other than Jerry Seinfeld.
&#8220;Though Seinfeld is on top, Hart certainly gave him a run for his money,&#8221; reports Forbes. &#8220;The pint-sized powerhouse ranks second with $57 million, only $500,000 behind Seinfeld. The Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour, which was the biggest comedy tour of 2018, topped 1 million tickets sold and banked Hart more than $30 million. He also starred in the wildly successful Jumanji remake, which grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide.&#8221;
Jerry Seinfeld, the indisputable King of Comedy, earned $57.5 million before taxes and fees in 2018, much of which stems from multimillion-dollar dividends from his 2017 Netflix deal and Hulu&#8217;s streaming rights of all nine seasons of his hit 90&#8217;s sitcom &#8220;Seinfeld.&#8221; He has held the top spot since 2006, with the exception of 2016 when the spot went to none other than Kevin Hart.
The number 3 spot goes to Dave Chapelle at $35 million, followed closely by Chris Rock at $30 million, and Ricky Gervais at $25 million. The full list:
<blockquote>
10. Sebastian Maniscalco
Earnings: $15 million
9. Jeff Dunham
Earnings: $16.5 million
8. Jim Gaffigan
Earnings: $17.5 million
7. Terry Fator
Earnings: $18 million
6. Gabriel Iglesias
Earnings: $20.5 million
5. Ricky Gervais
Earnings: $25 million
4. Chris Rock
Earnings: $30 million
3. Dave Chappelle
Earnings: $35 million
2. Kevin Hart
Earnings: $57 million
1. Jerry Seinfeld
Earnings: $57.5 million
</blockquote>
Two weeks ago, Kevin Hart <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39148/leftists-celebrate-kevin-harts-firing-oscars-paul-bois">stepped down from hosting the Oscars</a> over old jokes that were offensive to the LGBT community, most of them revolving around his fear about his son becoming gay. As the backlash online mounted, the Academy demanded that Hart publicly apologize or face firing; hours later, he declined that apology and announced he would be stepping down.
&#8220;I chose to pass. I passed on the apology,&#8221; said Hart in an Instagram video. &#8220;The reason why I passed is because I&#8217;ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I&#8217;ve addressed it. I&#8217;ve spoken on it. I&#8217;ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I&#8217;ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on. I&#8217;m in a completely different space in my life.&#8221;
The Academy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39253/kevin-hart-gets-last-laugh-report-academy-freaking-james-barrett">has since been scrambling</a> to find a solution following the Hart fiasco. Reports indicate that the Academy is considering forgoing an Oscars host entirely in 2019.
Hart is certainly no friend to political correctness and has even taken his own share of heat from social justice warriors for not living according to their preferred script. After hosting a &#8220;Cowboys and Indians&#8221;-themed birthday party for his son recently, SJWs denounced him as insensitive; Hart said the outrage showed &#8220;just how stupid our world is becoming.&#8221;
&#8220;The reason why I&#8217;m even bringing this dumb s**t up is because it shows just how stupid our world is becoming with opinions,&#8221; Hart <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2018/11/28/kevin-hart-defends-son-birthday-party-cowboys-indians-racist-backlash/">said on SiriusXM</a>. &#8220;People are at a point of an all-time high, to throw racial judgment into the development of a 1-year-old&#8217;s birthday party where the theme is Cowboys and Indians, and it&#8217;s based around the outfits that are given to these young kids.&#8221;

Last Laugh: Kevin Hart Labeled World&#8217;s Second Highest Paid Comedian After Oscars Snub

No friend to political correctness, comedian Jerry Seinfeld didn&#8217;t mince words when expressing his disapproval with the Academy&#8217;s recent decision to force Kevin Hart into stepping from the job as Oscar&#8217;s host over past jokes he made that offended LGBTQ people.
&#8220;I think Kevin is going to be fine, but find another Kevin Hart: That&#8217;s not so easy,&#8221; Seinfeld <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-seinfeld-kevin-hart-oscars-controversy-who-got-screwed-deal-1168953">told</a> Willie Geist on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Sunday Today.&#8221;
Last week, Kevin Hart <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39148/leftists-celebrate-kevin-harts-firing-oscars-paul-bois">stepped down from hosting the Oscars</a> over old jokes offensive to the LGBT community, most of them revolving around his fear about his son becoming gay. As the backlash online mounted, the Academy demanded that Hart publicly apologize or face firing; hours later, he declined that apology and announced he would be stepping down.
&#8220;I chose to pass. I passed on the apology,&#8221; said Hart in an Instagram video. &#8220;The reason why I passed is because I&#8217;ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I&#8217;ve addressed it. I&#8217;ve spoken on it. I&#8217;ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I&#8217;ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on. I&#8217;m in a completely different space in my life.&#8221;
Ultimately, Seinfeld believes, the Academy &#8220;screwed&#8221; themselves by how they handled the situation, reports <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-seinfeld-kevin-hart-oscars-controversy-who-got-screwed-deal-1168953">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
&#8220;Kevin is in a position, because he is a brilliant comedian, to kind of decide what he wants to do,&#8221; Seinfeld said. &#8220;He doesn&#8217;t have to step down. But he can.&#8221;
Seinfeld continued, &#8220;And when you look at the situation &#8212; well, who got screwed in that deal? I think Kevin is going to be fine, but find another Kevin Hart: That&#8217;s not so easy. He&#8217;s a brilliant guy with a movie career.&#8221;
Indeed, the Academy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39253/kevin-hart-gets-last-laugh-report-academy-freaking-james-barrett">has since been scrambling</a> to find a solution following the Hart fiasco. Reports indicate that the Academy is considering forgoing an Oscars host entirely in 2019.
&#8220;We have been navigating these slalom gates forever,&#8221; Seinfeld explained. &#8220;Look, when I started out, there were dirty comedians &#8212; well, if you want to get on The Tonight Show, you can&#8217;t use any of those words. And a lot of us went, &#8216;OK. I still want to play. I&#8217;ll play.&#8217; Here&#8217;s a new rule, we&#8217;re cutting this out. &#8216;OK, I&#8217;ll get around that.&#8217; So, that&#8217;s our thing. It&#8217;s like Lindsey Vonn: Wherever you put the gates, I&#8217;m going to make them.&#8221;
Jerry Seinfeld is not one to kowtow to political correctness, especially on college campuses. In 2015, he <a href="https://ew.com/article/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-politically-correct-college-campuses/">said</a>, &#8220;I don&#8217;t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, &#8216;Don&#8217;t go near colleges. They&#8217;re so PC. They just want to use these words: &#8216;That&#8217;s racist;&#8217; &#8216;That&#8217;s sexist;&#8217; &#8216;That&#8217;s prejudice.&#8217; They don&#8217;t know what the hell they&#8217;re talking about.&#8221;
The former NBC sit-com icon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/32343/seinfeld-roseanne-should-not-have-been-fired-paul-bois">also defended Roseanne following her firing</a> from ABC for a racially-charged tweet directed at former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t see why it was necessary to fire her,&#8221; Seinfeld told ET. &#8220;Why would you murder someone who&#8217;s committing suicide?&#8221;
&#8220;But I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push,&#8221; he added. &#8220;That was fresh.&#8221;

Jerry Seinfeld Blasts The Oscars: They &#8216;Won&#8217;t Find Another Kevin Hart&#8217;

Jerry Seinfeld

This week, shortly after being tapped to host the Oscars, Hollywood star Kevin Hart found himself on the wrong side of the woke social-justice warriors. His great sin: Years ago, he tweeted jokes referencing homosexuality. More egregiously, in 2010, he did a comedy bit in which he discussed not wanting his son, then five years old, to be gay. &#8220;One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay,&#8221; Hart stated. &#8220;That&#8217;s a fear. Keep in mind, I&#8217;m not homophobic. . . . Be happy. Do what you want to do. But me, as a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.&#8221;

The left-wing media machine immediately went to DEFCON 1: Hart was clearly a brutal homophobe. Never mind that no one had any evidence of Hart actually discriminating against gay people. Never mind that Hart is a comedian who makes things called jokes for a living. He sinned. He had to pay the price.
So, naturally, Hart both apologized and stepped down from the Oscars.
Now, there&#8217;s been a lot written about the puritanism of social media these days &#8212; the willingness to destroy people&#8217;s lives and reputations based on statements made years ago in jest, without nasty intent. But there&#8217;s a deeper problem many on the radical left have with Hart&#8217;s statements: He is imposing his own values on his child. This is a no-no. Parenting from a traditional values-based perspective is a threat to children, according to these radicals. And it&#8217;s oppressive to even parent from the perspective of trying to alleviate the possibility of future emotional and mental hardship &#8212; hardships that are far more likely if you are homosexual, to take the Hart example, for reasons both societal and personal. To say that you&#8217;d prefer your child to grow up attracted to members of the opposite sex, prepared for marriage and biological child-bearing and -rearing, learning and growing in your life with someone of the opposite sex, being a father joined to a mother, or a mother joined to a father &#8212; this is supposedly cruelty.
<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/radical-left-mob-kevin-hart-parenting-children/">Read the rest here</a>.

Shapiro At &#8216;National Review&#8217;: The Mob Gets Kevin Hart

Comedian Nick Cannon came to the defense of his friend Kevin Hart Saturday, striking back at &#8220;woke&#8221; comedians who demanded Hart step down from his position hosting the Oscars awards ceremony by revealing their individual histories of making &#8220;homophobic&#8221; and &#8220;problematic&#8221; comments on Twitter.
Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars on Friday, after pro-LGBTQ activists revealed that Hart had written &#8220;homophobic&#8221; tweets in the past about what he might do if his son turned out to be gay.
Hart initially refused to apologize for his past tweets, claiming that they were immaterial to his current career, but eventually caved to pressure, announcing late last week that he was &#8220;sorry&#8221; for his behavior and that he would not be hosting the Oscars, so as to &#8220;not be a distraction&#8221; from the Hollywood awards ceremony.
That&#8217;s when Cannon stepped in, posting to his own Twitter feed examples of &#8220;homophobic&#8221; tweets from some of Hollywood&#8217;s most recognizable &#8220;woke&#8221; names: Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and, of course, Chelsea Handler.
Warning: the language is pretty strong.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Interesting I wonder if there was any backlash here&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/0TlNvgYeIj">https://t.co/0TlNvgYeIj</a>
&#8212; Nick Cannon (@NickCannon) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickCannon/status/1071246517980123137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I&#8217;m just saying&#8230; should we keep going??? <a href="https://t.co/1kESA82WqR">https://t.co/1kESA82WqR</a>
&#8212; Nick Cannon (@NickCannon) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickCannon/status/1071247372049502208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
And I fucking love Wreck it Ralph!!! <a href="https://t.co/6cHA1EQEkg">https://t.co/6cHA1EQEkg</a>
&#8212; Nick Cannon (@NickCannon) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickCannon/status/1071247118046613510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
Cannon doesn&#8217;t want the three women to be forced to apologize, <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2018/12/nick-cannon-defends-kevin-hart-tweets-amy-schumer-sarah-silverman-gay-slurs-1202026744/">IndieWire reports</a>, &#8220;but to question why so much backlash was given to Hart when homophobic jokes have been made for some time by comics both male and female.&#8221;
Ultimately, Cannon believes that comedians should be free to joke about what they want, and to make mistakes, missteps, and bad jokes along the way, without those mistakes coming back to haunt them when they&#8217;re nominated to host one of the single largest entertainment events on the calendar.
&#8220;You know I&#8217;ve been saying f***ed up sh*t since twitter started!&#8221; Cannon replied to one fan who asked him what he was doing. &#8220;I don&#8217;t play that politically correct bulls**t! F*** politics!! Only Truth!&#8221;
None of the women Cannon exposed have apologized for their tweets or, really, said anything in response to Cannon&#8217;s publication. Sarah Silverman, IndieWire says, has occasionally cited her previous work as rough and amateurish.
&#8220;All I can do is learn from it, be changed forever by it, and do what I can to make it right going forward,&#8221; Silverman told The Guardian last year.
Strangely, though, woke Hollywood isn&#8217;t willing to grant the same grace to Kevin Hart.

Menu

Oscars

Articles tagged with Oscars

Trump Mocks The Oscars: ‘Nobody Wants To Watch’

Netflix Victory? Oscars Will Not Impose New Rules For Now

WATCH: Kevin Hart On Outrage Mob, Oscars Controversy, And Why He Won’t Be An ‘Ally’ On ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ Podcast

DOJ Warns Motion Picture Academy: Don’t Exclude Netflix, Streaming Services From Oscars

BOZELL & GRAHAM: Diversity Reigns At Oscars. Tantrums Continue

Oscar Audience Numbers Actually INCREASE Without A Host

SJWs Triggered By ‘Green Book’ Winning Best Picture

REPORT: Advertisers Expecting So Few Oscar Viewers, They’re Demanding Money-Back Guarantees

WEAK: The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Brutally Honest’ Oscar Voter Goes Politically Correct

Jennifer Hudson To Sing Ruth Bader Ginsburg Song ‘I’ll Fight’ At The Oscars

Here Are The 2019 Oscar Nominees. Yep, ‘Black Panther’ For Best Picture

KHACHATRIAN: Ellen DeGeneres Should Host The Oscars This Year

It’s Official: Oscars Have No Host This Year

Kevin Hart Confirms He Will Not Reconsider Hosting Oscars: ‘I’m Done!’

Oscars Still In Panic Mode, But Ousted Host Kevin Hart Is Doing Just Fine

WATCH: Oprah Endorses ‘Black Panther’ For Oscars Nomination: ‘It Gave Us Life’

Last Laugh: Kevin Hart Labeled World’s Second Highest Paid Comedian After Oscars Snub

Jerry Seinfeld Blasts The Oscars: They ‘Won’t Find Another Kevin Hart’

Shapiro At ‘National Review’: The Mob Gets Kevin Hart

Nick Cannon STRIKES BACK, Defends Kevin Hart By Posting ‘Homophobic’ Tweets From Woke Comedians