The Kennedy Center Honors always seems to somewhat understandably have more of a difficult time putting on a big gala presentation for actors, and that’s the case here when Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were jointly honored in 1992. In fact, there’s very little entertainment at all. BUT – there is a wonderful opening speech from Sally Field (who worked with both honorees) and a lovely (and at one point, hilarious) speech from, not shockingly, Robert Redford. And for what little entertainment there is, I’ll just say it’s a low-key wallop to tug at every heartstring. And leave it at that.
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The past few years, on the day of the Oscars, I wrote the following, about a quest I've been on. A long while back, I was on a mini-mission to get the Motion Picture Academy to open their Oscar broadcast with a particularly wonderful song that, though it had a bit of shelf-life in country music (reaching #10 on the country charts), I figured they wouldn't know. I actually came close -- not to accomplishing my task, but having access to making the suggestion -- when my former boss at Universal Studios, Bob Rehme, years later was made president of the Academy. Alas, I didn't have the contact information that would have helped and didn't make the effort -- which probably wouldn't have been too difficult, even it was before Google searches -- to track it down (hence never getting beyond being just a "mini-mission"). The idea time has long-since passed, since the group who sang the song, the Statler Brothers, have retired, and also some of the references in the song -- while many are still classic -- aren't all likely as impactful on today's audience. Still, it's a very fun song with clever, overlapping references (as best as I can quickly count) to 51 movies, as well as a jammed-in handful of actors and characters, and would make an enjoyable number in the middle of the broadcast, sung by a cobbled-together group of movie stars singing. And classic movies are just that – classic. (Hey, the Statlers themselves could even come out of retirement. They did briefly a few years back for an event when elected into a country music Hall of Fame). But no, it’s not likely to happen. But it doesn't stop me from at least presenting the song on the day of the Oscar broadcast. So, here it is -- one of the most affectionate and truly clever songs I've heard about movies. And it fits perfectly into the portfolio of "list" songs that the Statlers were so well-known for. Indeed, the name of the song is "The Movies." There's one change from the initial years. For a long time, when I've posted the song initially, it was a video with Jimmy Fortune who had replaced Lew DeWitt who'd had to retire for health reasons. But as I mentioned in 2021, I found a video with all four original Statlers, all the more notable since it was Lew DeWitt (on your far right, with the guitar and wearing tinted glasses) who wrote the song. And that’s the version I get to post now. Sometimes, you just need a break from the morass that is Trump World to recharge, and this seems a good palate cleanser. Many decades back, during what I call my “dark days,” I worked in movie publicity. At one point, I was the head publicity writer at Universal Pictures. It actually had some high points to it – like working on certain movies like E.T. and On Golden Pond and Sophie’s Choice. But one particularly leaps out among the rest. That’s when I attended the knighting ceremony for Alfred Hitchcock. Really. Well, sort of. But really. It was in January, 1980. Hitchcock had been knighted, but it was too difficult for him to get back to England for the official affair. Instead, they held an event at a screening room at the Universal studios, where he had his office. (After he passed away a few months later, his long-time secretary Sue Gauthier came to work in our department. I got to know her a bit, and it was a treat talking with her. She never gave interviews -- but I convinced her to do one with my childhood friend Patrick Goldstein who wrote for the L.A. Times, which she agreed to as long as I sat in on it. As far as I know, it was the only interview she ever did.) I don’t know if they had a full ceremony at Universal, or just held a press conference. My recollection is that they did have something official first, handled by either the British Ambassador or British Counsel, I forget, though I think the latter. However, it was held during working hours, and I couldn’t get away from the office. But as soon as my lunch break started, I raced over. (I’d asked others on staff if they wanted to join me, and was flabbergasted that no one wanted to. My God, this was the “knighting ceremony” of Alfred Hitchock! A four-minute walk away! How on earth could someone working at a movie studio not want to be there??) Whatever happened earlier, I got there for the Q&A. I was discussing this the other day with Greg VanBuskirk, and said that though I vividly remember the occasion, I only remember one specific thing from the event. Some reporter asked a bizarrely pathetic question -- "Sir Alfred, now that you've been knighted, do you think this will affect your relationship with your wife?" Yes, really. You could feel the entire room tense and some almost inaudible mumbles of "Yeeeesh" filled the air around me in the make. And most people were probably filled with the same thought: How in the world would he respond?? And then, after a moment, he said -- and please read this with the voice of Alfred Hitchcock in your mind -- "I certainly hope so." The room exploded with laughter. A short while later, Greg wrote back to me. He’s done some searching on YouTube and actually found a CBS news story of the knighting event – and it included footage of it. But better…no, make it “more amazing” than that – they actually had footage of that question and answer!! The one thing I’ve remembered and told as a fond memory for over 40 years. And next best of all is that it confirms my memory from four decades ago. I got it right. The only difference is that he doesn’t say “certainly.” Proof that I wasn’t lying. Vindication. They really, truly did hold the knighting event for Alfred Hitchcock on the Universal lot, and he really, honestly had that great response. (He also has another great response with a tremendous, quick-witted pun that most of the people in the room miss. It comes when he's asked what does a maker of mystery do when he's been made a "Sir"?) And with thanks to Dr. Buzz, here is the video. I was tracking various videos the other day, and this caught my eye. It’s an episode of a series that was, I think, on Amazon Prime sponsored by Coca-Cola, called “The Santa Stories.” The show is made up of short films that deal in some way with…well, Santa Claus. This caught my eye because it’s directed by someone who I think has a great future as a director, even though she is flying a bit under the radar, and has a strong career as an actress. Bryce Dallas Howard. She’s directed four episodes in the “Star Wars” canon on Disney+, and directed the documentary “Dads,” as well as several nicely-done short films. This, too, as I said, is a short film, only 10 minutes. It features two wonderful actors – Colm Meaney is the star, and Fionnula Flannagan provides the narration. To give full credit, it’s written by Kevin Jakubowski. I find it thoughtful, whimsical, wistful, overloaded with charm, touches of whimsy and an eye for detail. It’s called, “The Note.” This is 22-minute collection of highlights from the BAFTA Awards on Sunday. It has a bunch of fun moments, topped by the opening five-minute sketch with host David Tennant and others (of whom I'll reserve mention for the fun of discovery). As well as a lovely, emotional surprise in the presentation of Best Picture. There's also a three-minute song which is a bit of a production number, though easy to scroll past if that's more to one's taste. On Friday, extreme-right, off-the-ledge commentator Candace Owens made some statements on her video podcast that were truly lunatic in every full sense of the word. "Delusional" gets used a lot these days when describing the MAGOP base, but it fits here in its literal meaning. By the way, I don't know exactly how Ms. Owens actually got known, but she did work for the Charlie Kirk's off-the-ledge extreme-right advocacy group Turning Point USA as its communications director. And she's founded some groups and done stuff and has a podcast where she lovingly spreads conspiracy theories. Also, Kanye West -- who has praised Hitler and said he hated Jews -- once tweeted, "I love the way Candace Owens thinks," which pretty much summarizes her. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Here's a screenshot from a tweet that got posted with her video. Yes, she really said that. "I am a big believer that Hollywood was created by the CIA. I believe that." This explains a lot about Candace Owens. A lot. A whole lot. I mean, my god, just because you "believe" something doesn't make it true! But that's today's extreme right. But reality is not a belief system. Climate Change exists. Vaccines save lives. Joe Biden won the 2020 election. When did MAGOPs give up on accepting reality? It seems to have come in -- or least took hold most strongly -- with Trump. Supported by Kellyanne Conway suggesting a world for them where "alternative facts" have a place of comfort. It's hard to express how utterly ignorant this is from Candace Owens. And for actual reality reasons not open to subjective opinion or debate. The first Hollywood movie was 1908. The CIA was created in 1947. Imagine how many thousands of Hollywood movies were made in-between that period that, according to the Delusional World of Candace Owens, never existed. And the thing is, her whole statement is even much more insane than this one quote. I'm sorry to do this to you, dear readers, but it pretty much has to be seen to be believed. Don't worry, it's short, less than a minute. And every second is spectacularly lunatic. She talks about her proof for CIA creating Hollywood as being "satanic" content -- something you'd think would be more proof of the Salem Witch Trials than Mickey Mouse, Charlie Chaplin and Gone with the Wind. The thing is, this evil content, which no doubt comes out of concern from her personal sense of morality about sex and violence and bad language and oh, God knows what else in recent film only, rather than the "creation of Hollywood," is actually proof of how crazy she is. That's because it completely ignores the reality of the Hays Code which came into being in 1934 specifically to require morality in Hollywood movies! A morality code for movies which even was active for a full two decades more after the CIA was created in 1947, until the late 1960s! And she further rants about Hollywood ignoring Russell Brand, who (from what she says) I can only assume has found God in recent years, following his wildly ego-centric, full-snarky, drug-addicted years. Well...Hollywood "ignores Russell Brand," not even remotely because he "found God," but because he had his chance and starred in several very big movies in Hollywood's attempt to make him a big star -- and they all flopped! Massively. Get Him to the Greek, the remake of Arthur, and Rock of Ages. So, like Hollywood does with all people who make a series of huge flops: they dropped him. And tried others instead. (Fun fact: Russell Brand still makes movies in Hollywood. Eleven of them and appearances in four series in the past decade. He's just not the star any more, but smaller supporting roles. Because audiences showed that they don't tend to like him as the lead character.) So, it turns out that -- not shockingly -- Candance Owens is totally wrong about that, too. Yes, I know MAGOPs don't accept reality. Or as political analyst Rick Wilson put it, in response to Owens' podcast video when it was posted -- "That’s because she’s a total chucklefuck. JFC." When I saw the video of Ms. Owens going far off the deep end about what she believed, really believed to be true despite reality, at first I thought that, aha!, this is what Kellyanne Conway meant, and Candace Owens just lives in her comfortable world of "Alternative Facts." A world that her listeners and the GOP base lives in and believes. But then I realized how freeing it is to believe in reality. So, I figured I might give it a go and see how believing in things that are maniacally untrue goes -- I'm a big believer Candace Owens is not a real human and instead was created by AI. (I mean literally, artificial intelligence.) I believe Trump eats Christian babies. I really believe it. I believe every MAGOP who says they hate Taylor Swift is actually hiding from admitting to other MAGOPs that they really love her and have all her albums. I really believe that Sean Hannity is a Chinese Communist who has been embedded on Fox through a psyops jointly run by the North Korea and Newsmax. I believe that the CIA was created by the Ford Motor Company as a way to distract from the debacle of the Edsel. I believe Rush Limbaugh is actually "Q" and runs QAnon from the grave, from where he continues to make up stories as a joke because he couldn't sell them to The Onion. I believe Aaron Rodgers is really 85 years old, but sold his soul to the devil, just like Joe Hardy did in the musical Damn Yankees. I believe that the musical Damn Yankees is a true story and is based on the life of a real baseball player named Larry "Skeets" Bondurant whose name has been erased from the record books in a conspiracy with the Ford Motor Company who got the CIA involved. I am a big believer, I really believe Trump, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And I believe...actually, no, I am absolutely certain that this is much easier and more fun than I expected. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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