Yesterday, Kris pointed you to Gregory Ellwood’s report on various Oscarcast developments, most of which either elicited a “wait and see” response from me or went over my head completely.
(As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)
Still, one of the tidbits did get a rise out of me, and a slightly concerned one at that. After initially deciding against a repeat of last year’s five-presenter format for the acting awards, producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have had a change of heart — and have added a slight twist.
The Best Actor and Best Actress awards will now be presented not necessarily by former winners, but by “friends” of each nominee.
Assuming that by “friends,” the producers mean professional peers rather than non-famous drinking buddies, the idea still makes me somewhat nervous. Admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of last year’s presentations, but the tributes within them that worked most effectively were the ones where the kinship between presenter and nominee was unexpected or even subliminal — Shirley MacLaine on Anne Hathaway, for example, or Kevin Kline on Heath Ledger.
A tribute to an actor from a vested interest could be touching, but not necessarily as insightful — and the risk of it all feeling a little too “inside” for the viewers at home is high. (Plus, call me a stickler, but I like the prestige inherent in former winners presenting.)
I’m not saying it won’t work before seeing it, but I hope Shankman and Mechanic put some thought into keeping the combinations interesting.
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44 responses to “Call it, friendo”
(As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)
I feel stupid asking, but is that a joke. LOL
I’ll leave you to decide.
As if the last presenters weren’t gratuitously panegyrical ENOUGH. Excuse me while I puke….
(As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)
I actually laughed out loud here, and only because I think you’re serious. In Guy’s defense, he got pretty close. I just like the irony of him talking about how he understands who s/he is.
Oh, and bring back the last year’s winners presenting. I like that better than listening to former winners or the nominee’s bff ramble on about how amazing they are. Just show me a clip to remind me how amazing they are.
Exactly, Matt T.
Show the audience a FREAKING CLIP! For us In Contention fans who have seen all of the nominated films, we don’t need to see a clip (but most of us even prefer clips, oddly enough).
The average viewer is looking for reasons to go see these movies and wants to be entertained by the show, and a monologue vaguely stating why the performance was good isn’t enough to a.) keep them interested in the telecast or b.) make them want to see the film.
Just give us a freaking clip. This isn’t rocket science, producers. You don’t actually have to reinvent the wheel every year. Just make the wheel look awesome and interesting.
Wow, Taylor Lautner. I guess if Helen Mirren is nominated then he’ll be there to support her. Makes sense.
Why not do the clips and the tributes? Speaking as someone who LOVED the tributes from last year, but also as someone who always looked forward to the clips during Oscarcasts, I’d be happy if they had both.
Obviously that might risk overkill and redundancy, and of course there are time constraints, but for the awards that frankly most people actually care about, why not invest a little more time?
Before people leap to conclusions, I don’t think there’s been any confirmation yet on whether or not clips will be used.
That new “format” sounds… bad. I liked last year’s changes, it looked different and some of the presenters gave touching speeches about the nominees -except Adrien Brody- but now this sounds just so desperate. It’s like the year they decided to have the nominees standing on stage as if it were a beauty pageant. Yikes.
I actually had to look up who Taylor Lautner is, because I didn’t get the joke. And I’m only 22… I seem to be living in a bubble.
I wasn’t too keen on last year’s acting awards presentations, but this doesn’t sound any better. I mean, who are Gabourey Sidibe, Christoph Waltz or Carey Mulligan’s “friends” going to be? I’m sure there can’t be much star power behind them unless you take somebody from their films’ casts to present the award. And we know that they are looking for star power.
But still, if Matt Damon gets on stage to talk about George Clooney, I’ll probably be sold.
I think the talky bits are boring no matter who’s doing them.
I didn’t like the disproportionate amount of focus given to the actors compared with everyone else last year, either. It’s sad they’re keeping that up.
I don’t like that idea at all. It’s even worse than what they did last year, which was a shame because the show was overall very, very good. I just don’t see the need to be THAT self-congratulatory. Honestly I felt it was cringeworthy, so I can’t even imagine how it will be with “a friend”. I have always thought that one of the many good things about the Oscars are to see last years acting winners present the awards in the acting categories. I don’t get why that’s suddenly a big no no.
Oh, and by the way, when I read recently that one Taylor Lautner would be given a crapload of money to be in a film with Tom Cruise, I had no idea etiher who the kid was… :D
Didn’t that whole five presenters thing get ripped to shreds by everyone last year? What makes them think this will work any better?
Call me old fashioned but I thought the clip and the award presented by last years winner of the opposite sex worked just fine.
Oh I forgot about the five presenters thing. That was fromage.
The only thing worse was that one year–and I forgot when–when the winners had to give their acceptance speech from their seat. I can’t remember what year that was–not that long ago.
That had to have been the shittiest thing, ever.
Having two friends make a lot more sense just because it’ll seem more genuine, and kind of like at the Governors Awards where (most of) the speakers who gave toasts had some kind of connection with the one honored.
What I didn’t care for last year was just that some of the speakers had no connection to the one they were saluting, just reading off of a teleprompter.
It does beg the question though, for potential nominees like Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan, who would their two friends be since they probably aren’t buddy buddy with that many Hollywood stars who the Academy would put up on stage. I imagine co-stars, like Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey for Sidibe, and Sarsgaard and Molina for Mulligan.. maybe?
Call me a snob, but Mariah Carey presenting Best Actress is not something I’m ready to see just yet.
I liked the five presenters thing and looked forward to getting some great former winners on stage instead of the same old faces (oh, it was fun seeing Sophia, Whoopi and so on) but this idea is absurd.
I’m a genuinely old lady (57) and any innovations to make the Oscar telecast more interesting are fine; however, I also fear the “friends” presentaions. This seems like a recipe for disaster. With the previous year’s winner tradition, we were reasonably sure we would be seeing someone with a little credibility and dignity. (not counting Cuba Gooding Jr.)
Sorry for the spelling error.
I was thinking the exact same thing for Gabby Sidibe. Mariah Carey would be disastrous. Maybe Oprah? For Carey Mulligan, what about Keira Knightley, Brenda Blethyn, or Donald Sutherland? They were in Pride and Prejudice together. Christoph Waltz could have Brad Pitt. Oh and I would love to see Julie Andrews for Christopher Plummer
Mike: This is only being done for the lead categories, apparently.
Does anyone else think that this is because the alternative would be the more traditional format, i.e. last year’s winner of the opposite sex presenting, in which case Best Supporting Actress might be so somber that it overshadows the winner?*
*Hereinafter “Mo’Nique”.
@Guy: Whoop, never mind. Then how WILL they do that one, I wonder?
The obvious solution — if’s he’s available, of course — would be for Javier Bardem to do it, since he missed his presenting opportunity last year.
But what do I know?
Anton Chigurh awarding Hans Landa does have a certain Marvel Supervillain Team-Up appeal to it.
@The Irishman: Wouldn’t he be doing Supporting Actress, though? I mean, if Christoph Waltz could win *both* awards, that would be sick, but…
Well, Mo’Nique’s Mary Jones is something of a supervillain herself, so…
I actually liked the way they presented the nominees last year. I, however, would prefer it if they did this after every so many years so I’m a little wary about this “friends of” idea.
Having said that, I am willing to keep an open mind as long as they somehow manage to get Kate Winslet to present. If not the actors, how about Best Director or Best Picture? Would be a big coup especially if Avatar manages to grab either prizes.
I’m 25. I only know Taylor Lautner because I have friends who either absolutely loves or absolutely hates Twilight. Either way, I’ve been made aware of the film and his existence.
We lose the honoray award to Gordon Willis and a beautiful montage of some of the most iconic images in film history. They hire the Solid Gold dancers and bloat the production up with some Vegas type of musical number. Maybe they can get more bang for their buck if they hire Levi Johnston to jump out of the cake.
I got the joke, because I’m well aware of my loathing for both Taylors in existence: the shrill ratface and the jailbait eyesore.
I still feel robbed that my favorite actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, didn’t get a chance to present to my favorite actress, Kate Winslet. However, as I have *epic* love for Marion Cotillard, it was the next best alternative.
“Anton Chigurh awarding Hans Landa does have a certain Marvel Supervillain Team-Up appeal to it.”
That would be so many kinds of bitchin’ that I wouldn’t even know what to do with myself.
*touches face incredulously*
I know that I am joining a chorus of people, I always found it special that they had the winner of the opposite sex’s complementing category present the Oscar (which makes sense), and that they actual showed clips that showcased the performance that is being recognized (which makes even more sense).
And even though I usually try to see as many of the films as I can, I really look forward to seeing exactly what kind of clip they will use. I always loved the anticipation if my favorite moment for the performance will be the one that they show to the masses who have yet to see the film, and may be enticed to do so.
C’mon producers, you seem to be as completely out of touch as studio executives.
“(As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)”
That is amazing and SPOT ON too. :)
So after last year’s awkward DeNiro “my friend” tribute to Penn they decided to do more of that, great.
Adam M: Glad someone got it…
Gabourey Sidibe – Lee Daniels
Meryl Streep – Glenn Close
Carey Mulligan – Keira Knightley
Helen Mirren – Taylor Hackford
Abbie Cornish – Rose Byrne
Emily Blunt – Anne Hathaway
Colin Firth – Stanley Tucci
Jeff Bridges – Tommy Lee Jones
George Clooney – Julia Roberts
Morgan Freeman – Clint Eastwood
Jeremy Renner – Sam Rockwell
Viggo Mortensen – David Cronenberg
Hal Holbrook – Dixie Carter
I hope they bring Oscar clips back. They were truly one of my favorite parts of the whole ceremony.
So did I, guy!
I feel robbed.
Sounds boring, Im only in to see Michelle introducing Jeff Bridges.
Guy, thank you for giving me the best laugh of the day with the Lautner mention.
Mariah Carey presenting Best Actress would be AMAZING. Preferably drunk! It would be TV Gold!
The only thing more amazing would be Celion Dion presenting. Yes! Fist pumps and leg lunges galore!
Maybe I’m not understanding the implications of this development correctly, but I’m just surprised no one else has brought this up yet.
The post above mentions that friends of EACH nominee will present the Best Actor and Best Actress awards – so presuming the Best Actress 5 that everyone is predicting gets nominated, friends of EACH of these actresses will present the award? Not just friends of the winner? Then, it would be sort of easy to determine the winner….
Kevin: Not quite sure what point you’re making. Obviously it’ll be friends of each nominee — no one’s been saying otherwise.