Best (and Worst) of Awards Season: Brie Larson's MIA, the Failed Lady Gaga Takedown
The Hollywood Reporter's fifth annual salute to the oddities and embarrassments of the unending Oscar season.
This story first appeared in the March 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
GREATEST MOMENT IN OPPORTUNISM
Critics' Choice Awards for reopening its best picture voting to consider Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which screened after its deadline. (Director J.J. Abrams later returned the favor and showed up at the telecast.)
MOST PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE RESPONSE TO AN ANGRY JOURNALIST
"Best regards and thanks for calling me an asshole a lot." — Tom Hardy, ending a lengthy open letter to film critic Drew McWeeny, who complained on Twitter that The Revenant star had made reporters wait four hours for an interview at a junket.
MOST BLATANT ABSENCE AT AN AWARDS CEREMONY
Brie Larson, Room, who agreed to be honored Feb. 8 at a Santa Barbara Film Festival gala but instead Skyped herself in. She was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that night.
BEST INSTAGRAM
Room's Jacob Tremblay
MOST QUICKLY RESCINDED TAKEDOWN ATTEMPT
Songwriter Linda Perry, whose Jan. 18 Twitter rant attacked Lady Gaga's best song nomination alongside Diane Warren: "Gaga contributed a few words. Is that writing? Not in my book." Less than an hour later, Perry relented: "My sincere apologies. I made a mistake to comment."
CROSSING THE LINE
"Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to an awards ceremony dressed as a bag lady." — Stephen Fry, presenting a BAFTA to Jenny Beavan, costume designer for Mad Max: Fury Road. He later disabled his Twitter account after being deluged with negative reactions.
MOST QUESTIONABLE CONFESSION BY AN OSCAR BLOGGER
"I thought the bear was real but afterwards in the Academy lobby was returned to reality when an awards consultant for the film set me straight." — Pete Hammond, on The Revenant
POP QUIZ!
WASTED PHONE-A-FRIENDS
Jason Segel enlisted the following people (pictured below) to host screenings or events for The End of the Tour (then failed to get an Oscar nomination).
TOO MANY YES-MEN AWARD
"It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don't want to be relevant ever." — Vin Diesel, Furious 7
MOST UNCOMFORTABLY HONEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
"We haven’t seen it yet. Hope you like it." — Kurt Russell, accepting the Hollywood Ensemble Award with the cast of The Hateful Eight on Nov. 1 at the Hollywood Film Awards
QUIZ!
