Ever since I first fell in love with the Oscars as a young boy, I declared the Oscars my Christmas. Of course as my Oscar obsession grew I had to adjust. Nomination Morning became Christmas (full of sleepless night, early morning thrills, and a few dud gifts) and the Ceremony itself became New Year's Eve (rambunctious, noisy, equal parts exhilarating and disappointing, and usually causing a hangover).
Santa (aka The Academy) thinks I've been naughty every year.
I must've been because they always throw a giant lump of Category Fraud coal in my stocking. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the supporting categories in 1936 when they realized that they hadn't accounted for honoring character actors who bring so much to the industry and to each movie and their current awards only honored movie stars. 77 years later they no longer care about their intentions and now all the acting categories are designed to honor movie stars. Which leaves character actors to just do their work (its own reward, sure) in their former thankless way. They are, after all, very low on Hollywood's totem pole and Hollywood is a place where power matters.
I wasn't at all surprised to hear that August: Osage County, which has in every incarnation had two leads (Barbara & Violet), suddenly only had one for its future Oscar campaigns according to Gold Derby.
I am, however, a bit surprised that that it's Violet/Streep who all the action centers on who has mysteriously becoming a "supporting" character. [more]
Meryl is such a big star that she became the defacto lead of The Devil Wears Prada as soon as she first uttered two quotable syllables ( "that's all") despite far less screen time than her assistant/victim/toy Anne Hathaway. But then, that's a two leads of same gender films and no one can fathom that these exist anymore (even though they come out in movie theaters all the time. Like just last week: Two Guns!).
Frankly, if the rumor proves true, I expected more from Meryl Streep. She's one of the few people in the industry who could actually make a difference in reversing this cancer that has eaten away at the Oscars and steals dozens upon dozens of opportunities away from the less famous all the time. Meryl Streep of all people, who has been more rewarded than anyone (17 nominations, 3 wins) and who is in general a very thoughtful charitable person, should have drawn the line in the sand and made the industry rethink its star worship. Think how much she could have done if she had just said:
"You know what. that's totally not right. I've been so enormously rewarded in my career. I'm just not going to lie about the fact that I'm STARRING in this movie and destroy the opportunity for a character actor whose career might totally benefit from Academy recognition -- like say ANY of the women in my film -- for their hard work supporting movie stars like Julia Roberts and myself . They help our work feel fuller. This is what character actors do all the time, adding beautiful grace notes, fascinating reactions, and interesting variations to scenes while the star at the center gets all the spotlight and all the glory."
Meryl with Misty Upham, who she will help to sideline if her 'Supporting' campaign is true.Since Streep did not say this and has agreed to campaign as a Supporting Actress this will shake up the Oscar charts in both categories so I'll need some time to adjust them. While it's true that Oscars are not required to follow the fraudulent campaigns when it comes to their voting, they rarely resist the Fraud. And they have never resisted it in modern years in the case of a Two Lead Same Gender film. They only ever cry foul when the fraud is patently ridiculous (The Reader and Whale Rider) and there's not a same gendered actor to pick up the 'but who is starring in this thing' slack.
The only solution I can see at this point to combat this disease is for a big star like Streep to speak out against it on behalf of the hordes of actors who worship her OR for the Academy to have a committee which makes rulings about whether someone is a lead or a supporting player like the Tony Awards do. A committee which I should clearly be elected the Emperor of.
I'm waiting right here by the phone, Cheryl Boone Isaacs!
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