The Academy Awards (the official title was rebranded as The Oscars in 2013) is an annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The Academy Awards are widely considered to be the most prestigious cinema awards ceremony in the world. (More from Wikipedia)
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Sadly, Rosemary Clooney is mostly remembered today not so much for her formidable powers as a performer, but rather for the members of her extended family. The eldest son from her marriage to Puerto-Rico–born movie star José Ferrer – the first Hispanic to win an Academy Award – is another movie and television star, Miguel Ferrer. Her nephew George Clooney is one of the biggest movie stars of our time and has two Oscars of his own.
In 1980, Lesley Gore wrote songs for the movie Fame, including “Out Here on My Own” that was co-written with her brother Michael Gore; he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the title song, “Fame” (the lyrics were written by Dean Pitchford).
(January 2014)
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During the tributes to Glen Campbell at this year’s Grammy Awards and Academy Awards, it occurred to me that I am more of a country music fan than I usually let on to other people – or even to myself. Besides the June 2012 concert appearance by the Flaming Lips as part of their mini-tour to set the Guinness World Record for the largest number of concerts in a 24-hour period (and travelling by bus no less), the only live concerts that I have been to in the past four (maybe five) years are the “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson in February 2013 and Glen Campbell in August 2011. The latter concert was at the IP Casino in Biloxi after he publicly acknowledged being afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease and was a warm-up concert for Glen Campbell’s Goodbye Tour, which extended from August 31, 2011 through November 30, 2012. Part of the intention of the Goodbye Tour was to help ease the social stigma associated with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
Apropos of this discussion, Julianne Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a real-life woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s in the film Still Alice. Her acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the telecast of the Oscars this month; in part she said: “I’m so happy – I’m thrilled actually that we were able to hopefully shine a light on Alzheimer’s disease. So many people with this disease feel isolated and marginalized, and one of the wonderful things about movies is it makes us feel seen and not alone. And people with Alzheimer’s deserve to be seen, so that we can find a cure.”
In his acceptance speech for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, J. K. Simmons urged: “Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call ’em. Don’t text. Don’t email. Call them on the phone. Tell ’em you love ’em, and thank them, and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you.”
(February 2015)
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Dreamgirls created drama at the Oscars that year to match what was being portrayed on the screen. Despite not being nominated for Best Director or Best Picture (or any nominations for Best Actor or Best Actress either, for that matter), Dreamgirls had the most Academy Award nominations in 2007 with eight – a first at the Academy Awards. In a rare feat for an actor in a debut role, Jennifer Hudson was named Best Supporting Actress, but Eddie Murphy’s loss to Alan Arkin (for his role in the quirky and delightful comedy Little Miss Sunshine) as Best Supporting Actor was regarded as an upset. Three of the songs from Dreamgirls were nominated for Best Song, but they also lost out to the Melissa Etheridge song “I Need to Wake Up” from the Al Gore documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth.
It was a different story at the Golden Globes, where both Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy won in their categories, and Dreamgirls took the award for Best Picture – Comedy or Musical; Beyoncé Knowles was also nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
If you ask me, the insistence on having only one category of film or performer is a major flaw at the Academy Awards, and the recent decision to multiply the nominations for Best Picture to 10 or 12 only highlights the problem. The Golden Globes is a more enjoyable television experience than the Oscars nearly every year; each Golden Globe actually means something, in contrast to the parade of technical awards that almost no one cares about that composes the middle two-thirds of the Academy Awards show.
(April 2015/1)
