Gold Derby by Tom o'Neil - The Envelope
Tom O'Neil gets it. His first paragraph proves it:
The reason gay people are so eye-popping furious over what happened to "Brokeback Mountain" at the Academy Awards is more than just disappointment that a gay-themed movie lost best picture. To put it in classic Hollywood terms, many gays believe that Oscar — ruthlessly, deliberately and mercilessly — plunged his sword into the backs of those who love him most.Exactly. Why did Hollywood turn its back on the biggest cheerleaders its biggest night has? And overturn every well-respected indicator (most nominations, previous awards, critical praise) to do so?
It's hard to fathom, but O'Neil says even folks whose careers have been built by gay men may have turned on us:
Perhaps we can no longer assume that apparently hip Sarah Jessica Parker isn't homophobic. She made a shocking confession to Conan O'Brien and his national TV audience: she voted for best picture at the Oscars without watching "Brokeback Mountain." Instead, she accepted input about it from her three-year-old son who watched about 20 minutes of the DVD screener out of curiosity. Presumably, Sarah ended up voting for something else.
How pathetic. Michael Patrick King, the gay man who executive-produced Parker's hit, Sex and the City, should bitch-slap her. O'Neil goes on:
How can gay people not feel betrayed by Oscar when so many voters publicly admit that they never even gave "Brokeback" a chance? Worse, that didn't stop them from giving "Brokeback" all of the other Oscars it was expected to get: best director, screenplay and musical score. But they just couldn't go that last step, just couldn't install such a historic milestone on a financially successful and critically acclaimed film — worthy of Academy Awards for writing and direction — and place it in Oscar's best pic pantheon.
Can gay people ever forgive Oscar? If not, just think of what the Academy Awards will be like in years to come without their cheerleading? Will anybody care?
It's hard to imagine. Could gays give up on the Oscars? And yet, there's a much more inviting show, the Golden Globes, poised to win our hearts. It honors film and TV in one splendid night, allows the stars to get drunk, and skips all the boring technical awards for the stuff people really want.
Oh, and best of all: the Golden Globes didn't give Crash a damned thing.
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