Just When I Thought...

[silverscreenselect]

... the Oscars might get through the ceremony without a major disaster, Will Smith and Chris Rock brought things back to the low standards of recent shows.

[silverscreenselect]

Rock made a tasteless joke about Jada Pinkett Smith that most people probably didn't even catch. Smith then punched him in the face and cussed him out with a couple of f-bombs. Then, to make matters worse, when he won the Best Actor Oscar, he tried to compare what he did to what Richard Williams did in defending his children. He did apologize to the Academy and his fellow nominees but pointedly not to Chris Rock.

It's hard to compare Oscar lows from year to year but this one has to rank right down there with last year's Best Actor fiasco.

[Appa23]

If you thought that Rock’s joke was tasteless, you need to watch more stand up comedy.

Worse, Smith was caught on camera laughing at the joke until he saw Jada wasn’t laughing.

Jada is a fierce, fit woman with a shaved head (yes, bc of alopecia), so calling her GI Jane can be viewed as a funny compliment.

I really thought that it was a playful fake slap from Smith until they cut the audio and Rock clearly was frazzled.

[silverscreenselect]

I just saw the exchange on a Japanese broadcast that didn't bleep it out. After Smith slaps Rock:

Rock: Oh wow, wow. Will Smith just smacked the s--t out of me.

Smith: Keep my wife's name out your f--ing mouth.

Rock: Wow, dude.

Smith: Yes.

Rock: It was a GI Jane joke.

Smith: Keep my wife's name out of your f--ing mouth.

Rock: I'm going to, okay. (pause) That was the greatest night in the history of television.

Rock was pretty much laughing the whole time and handled the whole event with a good bit of class instead of pouring gasoline on the fire. I'll add that when Smith tried to compare what he did to Richard Williams standing up for his children, the Williams family appeared very uncomfortable about being dragged into it.

[Appa23]

Chris Rock was very professional.

When you referenced the Best Actor from last year, I had forgotten that they had put Best Actor as the last award in 2021.

I’m just happy that I was right about CODA.

[triviawayne]

Since I don't follow the awards much or know the rules, I need to ask, and I figure SSS will know the answer to this:

No Time to Die won for Best Song. The song was released in 2020, but the movie wasn't released until 2021.

I know it was made for the movie, so is that why it was eligible? Was there some sort of COVID exception this year?

Let's say a movie came out this week titled "Paradise City" and it used the GNR classic; would that song then be eligible for the 2023 ceremony?

[bazodee]

Since I don't follow the awards much or know the rules, I need to ask, and I figure SSS will know the answer to this:

No Time to Die won for Best Song. The song was released in 2020, but the movie wasn't released until 2021.

I know it was made for the movie, so is that why it was eligible? Was there some sort of COVID exception this year?

Let's say a movie came out this week titled "Paradise City" and it used the GNR classic; would that song then be eligible for the 2023 ceremony?

The song must be an original work composed primarily for the use in the movie.

[Appa23]

Since I don't follow the awards much or know the rules, I need to ask, and I figure SSS will know the answer to this:

No Time to Die won for Best Song. The song was released in 2020, but the movie wasn't released until 2021.

I know it was made for the movie, so is that why it was eligible? Was there some sort of COVID exception this year?

Let's say a movie came out this week titled "Paradise City" and it used the GNR classic; would that song then be eligible for the 2023 ceremony?

No bc Paradise City was not written for the movie. Same reason why I Will Always Love You didn’t win for The Bodyguard.

Yes, song was eligible for year that Bond film was released.

[silverscreenselect]

The rule was changed in 1941 when The Last Time I Saw Paris won the Best Song Oscar, even though it had become a Best Seller for Kate Smith before the film was ,ade. Jerome Kern was embarrassed by his win and felt that one of the other nominees should have won so he asked for the change.

Other changes over the years include limiting one film to only two Best Song nominations. Some of the Disney animated films essentially crowded out their competition in the category. Also, a nominated song must appear in the movie itself or be the first song in the closing credits. Some films buried original songs in the closing credits just to get a possible Oscar nomination while they relied on more familiar existing music during the movie itself (by the time a second song plays during the closing credits, most people have left the theater anyway).

Up until ten years ago, they had a complicated rating system where the music branch of the Academy gave each submitted song a numerical grade and only those with a certain minimum score could receive nominations. This resulted in two songs being nominated in a couple of years (if only one song got the passing grade, the next highest was automatically nominated so there could be an actual competition). Now, the number of nominees depends on the number of songs submitted and it has been five ever since.

[triviawayne]

Interesting. Thank you

[BackInTex]

When I first saw it, on the Japanese feed SSS mentions, I thought it was a full on closed fist punch and was surprised Rock stood up to it so well. But now I see it was on open hand slap.

[Vandal]

[Beebs52]

I think it was totally planned. After watching 9 million replays the sangfroid is bullshit. I think they discussed ahead of time and this was an opportunity to highlight alopecia areata.

Fyi, a very good friend of mine from way back had this in the 80s. Auto immune, along wirh Crohns Disease.

[Beebs52]

An addendum. Who really gives a fuck about what happens at the Oscars?

[Vandal]

From Twitter:

Even Frank Sinatra never hit Don Rickles.

[Beebs52]

From Twitter:

Even Frank Sinatra never hit Don Rickles.

QED

[silverscreenselect]

From an excellent Twitter commentator:

If The Rock instead of Chris Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, you wouldn't have seen Will Smith budge from his seat.

[Beebs52]

From an excellent Twitter commentator:

If The Rock instead of Chris Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, you wouldn't have seen Will Smith budge from his seat.

[tlynn78]

From an excellent Twitter commentator:

If The Rock instead of Chris Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, you wouldn't have seen Will Smith budge from his seat.

Prolly. I kind of wish there was some video of Will going from laughing at the joke to slappy happy in about 4 seconds...

[flockofseagulls104]

Another lesson to us deplorables about manners, tolerance, goodness and grace brought to us by our betters, the Hollywood Elite.

Unfortunately, none of us that could learn from it were watching or had any interest in watching it, since they do everything in their power to make the show intolerable for anyone with a functional and working brain to watch. Too bad Ricky Gervais doesn't care anymore.

[tlynn78]

Not condoning, in any way, the attack, but Will Smith, it seems clear to me, is a hurting man, and I hope he gets the help he needs.

[silverscreenselect]

Will Smith has resigned from the Motion Picture Academy. This means that he will be ineligible to vote on future Oscars. However, he will still be eligible to be nominated for his work in the future, and the decision has no effect on the Oscar he won Sunday. The MPAA is still considering possible disciplinary action against Smith.

[silverscreenselect]

The Motion Picture Academy has voted to ban Will Smith from all Academy events, including the Oscars, for 10 years. Traditionally, the Best Actor winner award the Best Actress Oscar the next year, but I guess they'll have to get someone else.