ACADEMY AWARDS CRUSHES DREAMS

In spite of the best efforts of the media, the entertainment television shows, obnoxious hosts like Billy Bush, and Oprah and the likes, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences once again proved they cannot be manipulated by the media. For weeks all the so called media experts were proclaiming “Dream Girls” as the runaway Oscar favorite for everything. They got eight nominations, much less than expected, two for supporting roles and the rest for technical and music, but did not land any of the top five nominations.

The avalanche of publicity and support did not fool the public nor the Oscar voters as Dream Girls, a nice musical, was one of two movies receiving extraordinary hype though an ethical nightmare. There are five top Academy Awards, Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay and Dream Girls was not nominated for any of them. Neither was the other ethical nightmare and media favorite Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Why do I say both are ethical nightmares? Dream Girls is the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes and everyone knows it. Yet the producers did not get the support of the real Supremes, no technical input, no nothing. In other words, Diana Ross and the Supremes do not benefit financially or in any way for the exploitation of their lives and career. This production will end up in court for ripping off the Supremes story and when it does they have some explaining to do. The theater owners were not surprised that dreams for Dream Girls were shot down. No more than 800 movie theaters are even showing the movie compared to 2000-4000 for typical hit shows. If the movie had used the real Supreme hit songs the results might have been better but that would have required them to share the benefits with the real Supremes.

As for Borat, the idiotic show used deceptive practices including lying to the Americans appearing in the show about the use of the interviews, it made extensive use of leading interviews to secure preconceived results needed to make Americans look stupid, and they already are being sued by numerous people for unethical practices. Maybe the lack of nominations by the Academy for these shows will finally stop movies from being made that distort and twist all the principles of this cherished American art form.

Of course the media hated Mel Gibson’s show, Apocalypto, rather they hated him and tried to bury the movie. You have heard nothing about it since its release two months ago and they want you to think it was a failure. In spite of the media opposition and efforts to label the show as the most violent every shown it did set box office records the first week, just last week it set box office records in Europe, it has already taken in $80 million in theaters (it cost $40 million to make), and the huge potential DVD sales have not even begun. Oh yeah, it was nominated for two Academy Awards.