Rarely is there news from
AMPAS that is uniformally good, so this morning’s announcement that the four
Honorary Oscars were being handed out had a dose of the exuberant and a dose of
the painful.
The best news of the
morning was easily that Angela Lansbury, a film actress for nearly 70 years
(her film debut was in Gaslight,
which debuted May 4, 1944), has finally added the title of Oscar Winner to the
front of her name. Lansbury has
received three Oscar nominations in her career, including for Gaslight, as well as The Picture of Dorian Gray and her
magnum opus, The Manchurian Candidate. Younger audiences probably know her
best from her work as Mrs. Potts in Beauty
and the Beast and Eglantine Price in Bedknobs
and Broomsticks. Lansbury has
long been one of my favorite actors, and her weird “always a bridesmaid” status
with both Emmy and Oscar has been a thorn in my side for years (though the Globes and Tonys have made up for it, giving her six and five trophies, respectively). This is a well-deserved honor, and
hopefully the Emmys follow suit in the next year.
Piero Tosi was the “winner
no one had ever heard of” this morning (notice that no one will feature a
picture of him with three publicly known faces amongst the winners already),
though he has more Oscar nominations than all of the other people put
together. Tosi’s costuming work
has been a staple in Italian cinema for decades (we’ll get to all five of his
Oscar nominations someday with the OVP, though his most recent was in 1982, so
it’ll be quite a while). I have to
say that this seems fitting-the Academy thought outside the box a little here,
and Tosi will be an appropriate winner.
Steve Martin is a genius,
and everyone knows it (including him).
What I’ve never quite gotten, and maybe this is because I was an infant
when he was at his peak fame, is why everyone falls all over themselves to
recognize him. Martin’s
filmography is deeply spotty, and aside from some well-regarded work in the
1980’s (and Bowfinger, which is
supposed to be good), his genius seemed to be more in other performing arts. He obviously has great talent, but it
seems like it would be more appropriate to give him a Kennedy Center Honor
(which he has), where you can recognize his contributions to multiple mediums,
rather than the Oscars, where his films don’t quite seem to warrant his
inclusion, and unlike Lansbury, he hasn’t had sustained excellence over a great
period of time in the medium.
Speaking of great periods
of time, what is up with Angelina Jolie getting the Hersholt? She’s only 38 (the youngest Hersholt
winner ever), and while her work on behalf of the United Nations, relief for developing countries, and helping impoverished children in particular is greatly admirable, she’s
only been doing it for 10-12 years.
This pales in comparison to the decades-long work that someone like
Jerry Lewis or Martha Raye did in order to win their respective Hersholts. And Jolie already has an Oscar-I know
that this is for something different, but why not kill two birds with one stone
and give it to someone like Mia Farrow or Ruby Dee? We already discussed how Farrow’s insanely overdue for an
award, and she’s been working in both the industry and in charitable
organizations (ones fairly similar to Jolie) for considerably longer. Ruby Dee has also been acting for
decades, and has been a tireless advocate in the civil rights movement.
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