Morning, everybody! Here’s a laundry list of stuff for you to read, starting with my Oscar recap on the NOW site. Holy shit, that really happened.
Also, here are some words in remembrance of Bill Paxton, whose death at 61 still feels like a sick joke. I hate writing these obit pieces. I especially hate writing them so often.
And finally, here’s my review of Dark Night, which opens this evening at The Royal for a limited run. Didn’t care for it.
Two comments and a question:
1. Kudos to whoever was speaking for La La Land right at the time when the kerfuffle hit who, forget Kimmel’s split-the-award suggestion or Beatty’s explanation, at a moment of sudden and public disappointment said that he would be honoured to hand the award to the actual winner, Moonlight. He showed considerable class.
2. And the honorary Justin Timberlake throw your stage-mate under the bus award goes to…Warren Beatty, for not speaking up at an obvious error, given Emma Stone’s name on the card, and letting Faye Dunaway take the verbal fall.
Question: Given Vince Vaughn’s seething (read your twitter feed) conservative views and political leanings, did you think the music played when he came out to present or introduce or whatever he did was deliberate? (It was movie music all night, and when Vaughn came out, it was the part of Stayin’ Alive that would have the lyrics, “And we can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.” I thought it might have been a barb directed at a Trump supporter given the Trump administration’s very recent treatment of the New York Times and other media outlets, both calling them fake news and “not inviting” them to a press briefing. I could be reading way too much into it, it could have just been random coincidence, but I can’t think of any reason why that would be the music when he came out.)