The 88th Annual Academy Awards in Black and White - Part III
A lot of people have a lot to say about the lack of diversity at the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony.
Jada Pinkett Smith said this on FB:
Spike Lee is NOT calling for a boycott of the ceremonies, nor is he boycotting by not showing up himself. He clarified his position, saying he has tickets to the Knicks game that night and that is where he will be. “I have never used the word ‘boycott,’ ” Lee said. “All I said was my beautiful wife, Tonya, we’re not coming. It’s like, do you? We're not coming.”
AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement:
"Aunt Viv" from Will Smith's TV show "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" also had a take on the situation:
On a personal level, I would be just fine with every single person of color in the entertainment industry choosing to boycott the upcoming Oscar telecast. Maybe seeing a completely Caucasian audience facing the presenters would accomplish something. Or not. In fact, not.
As for Janet Hubert, she's certainly free to say whatever she feels but claiming that a taking a position on the lack of diversity in Hollywood is silly when there are so many more important things going on in the world is ridiculous. Do we drop discourse on all other issues because of world hunger, ISIS and the like? Of course not. Her perception of the relative import of this issue is just that. Her perception.
Spike Lee went on to hit the nail on the head about the root of this problem. “It goes further than the Academy Awards. It has to go back to the gatekeepers,” Lee said. “We’re not in the room. The executives, when they have these green-light meetings quarterly, where they look at the scripts and they decide what we’re making and what we’re not making.”
The French word for king is "roi" and it bears mentioning in this discussion because there is an acronym known as ROI. It is known as Return On Investment and it is the real king in Hollywood. If the power people in Hollywood don't continue to generate a great ROI on the films they choose to green-light, their ability to turn the light green would disappear faster than Haley Joel Osmont's bankability did after A. I.
A good friend of mine (someone whose opinion I value very highly) and I were discussing this and this friend point out that one of the problems with Jada Pinkett Smith's rant is that she has the ability to make movies on her own. Estimates of the combined net worth of Mr. and Mrs. Smith range between $200 million and $300 million. That's enough money to go out and make any independent film you want to make. Several such films as a matter of fact. Tyler Perry makes his own movies and while they aren't winning Oscars, until the past few years, they were making money.
On the other hand, back in 2008 Jada Pinkett Smith was the executive producer of The Secret Life of Bees. Her husband was the producer. It was a terrific film. It had people of color in almost all of the main roles. It scored 78% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. I'd have given it at least 3 out of 4 if I'd reviewed it for Tailslate.net. Then she produced Karate Kid, a vehicle for her son, a television show that was a vehicle for her, and a couple of documentaries. Oh yes, there was that dog of a movie, After Earth for her husband. Then came 2014's Annie. It made money, audiences liked it but the critics hated it. Now she apparently has no productions in the pipeline.
Will Smith is currently involved in the production of a sequel to Hancock, a second Karate Kid movie and something interesting titled The American Can, the true story of a man's heroic efforts to save lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
So if the Smiths aren't happy with the types of roles that actors of color are getting in Hollywood, then in addition to calling for a boycott, maybe they should step up and attempt to be agents of change by providing the roles that minority actors currently don't get from those rooms that Spike Lee is talking about above.
In Hollywood, ROI is indeed King. The Academy's voting membership is 94% Caucasian and 77% male. Last year, in an effort to combat this problem 322 people were invited to join AMPAS, a record number. Considering that the number of voting members of AMPAS was more than 5,800 at that time, and that apparently the only way a voting member ever leaves the group is by passing away, even at that rate, change in the demographics of the voting membership will continue to be slow. Apparently in the room where films get the green-light, change is coming even more slowly.
Jada Pinkett Smith said this on FB:
Spike Lee is NOT calling for a boycott of the ceremonies, nor is he boycotting by not showing up himself. He clarified his position, saying he has tickets to the Knicks game that night and that is where he will be. “I have never used the word ‘boycott,’ ” Lee said. “All I said was my beautiful wife, Tonya, we’re not coming. It’s like, do you? We're not coming.”
AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement:
"Aunt Viv" from Will Smith's TV show "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" also had a take on the situation:
On a personal level, I would be just fine with every single person of color in the entertainment industry choosing to boycott the upcoming Oscar telecast. Maybe seeing a completely Caucasian audience facing the presenters would accomplish something. Or not. In fact, not.
As for Janet Hubert, she's certainly free to say whatever she feels but claiming that a taking a position on the lack of diversity in Hollywood is silly when there are so many more important things going on in the world is ridiculous. Do we drop discourse on all other issues because of world hunger, ISIS and the like? Of course not. Her perception of the relative import of this issue is just that. Her perception.
Spike Lee went on to hit the nail on the head about the root of this problem. “It goes further than the Academy Awards. It has to go back to the gatekeepers,” Lee said. “We’re not in the room. The executives, when they have these green-light meetings quarterly, where they look at the scripts and they decide what we’re making and what we’re not making.”
The French word for king is "roi" and it bears mentioning in this discussion because there is an acronym known as ROI. It is known as Return On Investment and it is the real king in Hollywood. If the power people in Hollywood don't continue to generate a great ROI on the films they choose to green-light, their ability to turn the light green would disappear faster than Haley Joel Osmont's bankability did after A. I.
A good friend of mine (someone whose opinion I value very highly) and I were discussing this and this friend point out that one of the problems with Jada Pinkett Smith's rant is that she has the ability to make movies on her own. Estimates of the combined net worth of Mr. and Mrs. Smith range between $200 million and $300 million. That's enough money to go out and make any independent film you want to make. Several such films as a matter of fact. Tyler Perry makes his own movies and while they aren't winning Oscars, until the past few years, they were making money.
On the other hand, back in 2008 Jada Pinkett Smith was the executive producer of The Secret Life of Bees. Her husband was the producer. It was a terrific film. It had people of color in almost all of the main roles. It scored 78% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. I'd have given it at least 3 out of 4 if I'd reviewed it for Tailslate.net. Then she produced Karate Kid, a vehicle for her son, a television show that was a vehicle for her, and a couple of documentaries. Oh yes, there was that dog of a movie, After Earth for her husband. Then came 2014's Annie. It made money, audiences liked it but the critics hated it. Now she apparently has no productions in the pipeline.
Will Smith is currently involved in the production of a sequel to Hancock, a second Karate Kid movie and something interesting titled The American Can, the true story of a man's heroic efforts to save lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
So if the Smiths aren't happy with the types of roles that actors of color are getting in Hollywood, then in addition to calling for a boycott, maybe they should step up and attempt to be agents of change by providing the roles that minority actors currently don't get from those rooms that Spike Lee is talking about above.
In Hollywood, ROI is indeed King. The Academy's voting membership is 94% Caucasian and 77% male. Last year, in an effort to combat this problem 322 people were invited to join AMPAS, a record number. Considering that the number of voting members of AMPAS was more than 5,800 at that time, and that apparently the only way a voting member ever leaves the group is by passing away, even at that rate, change in the demographics of the voting membership will continue to be slow. Apparently in the room where films get the green-light, change is coming even more slowly.
posted by me at 4:16 PM
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