What I’m Hearing: Oscar Week! (Plus: The Bobs)

Welcome back to What I’m Hearing...

Happy Sunday, I’m mixing it up today and having some fun with the absurdities of possibly the longest and most painful Awards Season of the modern campaign era. I’ll have more on the Oscars on Thursday, as well as some fun discussions/debates on the podcast. (To sign up, just enter “The Town with Matthew Belloni” on Spotify or Apple or in your podcast app.)

Discussed in today’s email: Bob Chapek, Jeff Shell, Rachel Zegler, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, Sian Heder, Keith Olbermann, Pete Hammond and Metaverse Bob Iger.

But first…

SPONSORED BY

Who Won the Week: Mike Hopkins

The Amazon executive emerges with huge power after the closing of the $8.5 billion MGM acquisition, setting an interim leadership team of film chief Mike DeLuca, TV head Mark Burnett, and C.O.O. Chris Brearton, all reporting to him, alongside Amazon Studios head Jen Salke.

A little more on this: MGM was Hopkins’ deal, so it makes sense that Amazon’s Jeff Blackburn, S.V.P. of Global Media & Entertainment, is letting him run the integration. But few think this interim structure will become permanent. Salke, for instance, is currently on even footing with her new colleagues, which likely won’t sit well with her long-term. (Amazon declined to comment.)

Runner-Up: Sian Heder

The filmmaker’s CODA emerges as the best picture Oscar favorite (annoying brag: I called this weeks ago!) after a big win at the Producers Guild, which uses the same preferential ballot employed by the Academy.

Quote of the Week

“I don’t know what they wanted that they didn’t get.”

–Rachel Shukert, The Baby-Sitters Club showrunner, becoming the latest to voice confusion and frustration over Netflix’s decision to cancel a show after two seasons, adding: “I feel like Netflix’s internal metrics can change month to month. Something that was fine three months ago is suddenly not what they need.”

Behold the 2022 Awards Season Awards!

Puck’s first annual, totally subjective and partially grievance-based salute to the oddities and embarrassments of Hollywood’s interminable Oscar season.

MATT BELLONI

By the end, the months-long run-up to the Oscars can seem like a death march for the weary nominees, not to mention the “teams” around them, the marketers behind the elaborate campaigns, and the awards media that covers it all like it’s Biden vs. Trump. This year, with the late-March show and onerous Covid protocols, it’s even worse. When I was at The Hollywood Reporter, a few of us vented with an annual feature called Awards Season Awards, which chronicled the absurdities of the billion-dollar Oscars Industrial Complex.

Alas, that franchise died when I left a couple years ago, so I’m reviving it here as Oscar Week officially kicks off in L.A. So enjoy these 22 categories, all of which are presented here live and in full—unlike the winners on the actual show.

Most Emotional Plea for an Oscar Ticket

Rachel Zegler

The West Side Story star posted today on her Instagram that she’s hoping for “some last minute miracle” after being left off the invite list. A Disney insider notes she’s shooting the Snow White sequel in London and is No. 1 on the call sheet, and co-star Ansel Elgort isn’t attending either because they aren’t nominated. But let’s see how long this lasts. Spielberg hates to be embarrassed, and he could certainly pay for any production delays out of his very large pocket.

Whiplash Award

Jane Campion

Riding high after calling actor Sam Elliot “a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H” for his criticism of Power of the Dog, the filmmaker found herself apologizing days later to the Williams sisters for her “thoughtless” comment that they “do not play against the guys like I have to.” I’m not sure controversies like this change any voters’ minds, but the number of awards consultants and publicists who were charged with managing the situation is staggering.

Best Tweet About a Tragic Love Story Featuring Multiple Murders from the Golden Globes Twitter Account During an Untelevised Ceremony

“If laughter is the best medicine, @WestSideMovie is the cure for what ails you. Congrats on the #GoldenGlobe for Best Picture—Musical/Comedy”

Purest Vanity Campaign

Shawn Levy

The Free Guy filmmaker convinced Disney to run Best Director for-your-consideration ads for his work on the Ryan Reynolds action comedy. I’m sure he just missed the cut.

Most Hysterically Over the Top Reaction to the Academy Bumping Eight Categories Off the Live Show

Tom Fleischman

The Oscar-winning sound engineer and re-recording mixer announced he’s quitting the Academy in protest of the move.

Best Invocation of Historically Marginalized Groups to Defend the Academy Bumping Eight Categories Off the Live Show

Ava Duvernay

The Academy governor responded to the music branch’s complaint about being “excluded” from the televised show with this eyebrow-raiser: “…The word ‘excluded’ is a powerful one for many … I think it’s important to call things by their right name so as not to minimize the meaning of true exclusion in these spaces.”

We’re making investments in safety and security—and seeing results

Facebook has invested $13 billion over the last 5 years to help keep you safe. Over the last several months, we’ve taken action on:

62 million pieces of explicit adult content
51.7 million pieces of violent and graphic content

See how we're working to help you connect safely.

Best Use of Martin Scorsese as a Campaign Tool

A Tie!

Nightmare Alley, for the well-timed Scorsese op-ed in the LA Times on Jan. 21, entitled “Martin Scorsese wants you to watch Nightmare Alley. Let him tell you why.”

And Power of the Dog, which enlisted Scorsese for an effusive intro speech at the New York Critics Circle ceremony that brought Campion to tears—right before Phase 2 voting began.

Superspreader Award

BAFTAs

The London gathering apparently infected Belfast director Kenneth Branagh, actor Ciaran Hinds, and dozens of others now quarantining.

Honorable mention: Every other show.

Best Artsy Explanation for a Spotty Accent

Lady Gaga

The House of Gucci star, to British Vogue: “I started with a specific dialect from Vignola, then I started to work in the higher class way of speaking that would have been more appropriate in places like Milan and Florence. In the movie, you’ll hear that my accent is a little different depending on who I’m speaking to.”

Most Relentless Campaigner

Phil Lord

Netflix’s Mitchells vs. the Machines producer has been plugging his animated feature non-stop on Twitter, and occasionally attacking Disney, which happens to have three movies nominated in his category.

Runners Up: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Garfield for seemingly 24-7 event appearances and media hits.

The You’re Nominated For What?? Award

Diane Warren

The songwriter scored another nomination (her 13th; she’s never won) for a song from a movie nobody has heard of: Four Good Days, a Glenn Close-Mila Kunis heroin drama.

Best Timing

SAG Awards

Thanks to loosening Covid restrictions, this year’s event felt like an actual awards show, and attendees kinda, sorta had fun.

Worst Timing

Critics Choice Awards

The event took the old Globes slot in January and was forced to postpone amid spiking Omicron cases. Then the only viable date was the same as the BAFTAs, which caused about half the film nominees to no-show.

Least Edible Food

Critics Choice Awards (double winner!)

Per USA Today (I did not attend): “Though viewers may imagine lavish meals at ritzy Hollywood award shows, the only food served at the Critics Choice Awards were three slices of bread, a plate of hummus and two macarons for each attendee.”

The Christine Lahti Potty Break Award

Michael Keaton

The Dopesick star was in the bathroom when his SAG Award win was announced.

Best Use of an Interpreter

Marlee Matlin

The CODA star employed her longtime sign language translator Jack Jason to take tons of pictures of her with other stars, including seemingly dozens of shots at the Oscar Nominees lunch.

Dumbest Forced Apology By a Contender in a Leading Role

Rachel Zegler (a double winner!)

The West Side Story star, after taking down a video in which she dramatically “monologued” some of Britney Spears’ recent messages about her father. “I should have thought about how this could be perceived, and I’m so sorry for upsetting or disappointing anyone.”

Best Use of an Owned-and-Operated Platform for Incongruous Campaign Ads

Three-Way Tie!

Amazon’s Being the Ricardos branding at Whole Foods.

Disney’s ABC airing a rerun of Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Lin-Manuel Miranda spoofing Encanto on the Friday of Phase 2 voting.

Apple’s CODA messaging on all of its platforms.

Humblebrag Honoree

Josh Gad

The actor felt the need to tweet that he was asked to host the Oscars but “passed because it didn’t feel right for me.” OK…

Biggest Flex

Beyonce

She picked up her first Oscar nomination (for Be Alive, from King Richard), and is again co-hosting the hottest-ticket afterparty, without campaigning at all for her song.

Related: Music stars who did campaign and got nothing: Kid Cudi, Lady Gaga, U2, Camilla Cabello and Bey’s husband, Jay-Z.

The Maybe Awards Season Is Too Long Award

Benedict Cumberbatch

The Power of the Dog star, during his tribute at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, launched into a spot-on impression of interviewer Pete Hammond.

And the winner of the 2022 Awards Season Is…

The PCR Test.

Congrats to everyone! Did I miss something? Email me your own Awards Season Awards and I’ll include a few good ones in Thursday’s email.

My Reading List

This Week in Disney Bobs: Team Chapek definitely thinks Iger and his loyalists are behind the avalanche of negative personal media. (That whole self-inflicted Florida scandal may have played a role, too.) Alex Sherman pegs the implosion of the Bobs’ relationship to the Elder Bob’s April 2020 quote in The New York Times that he would be staying on during Covid and “actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it.” [CNBC]
More: Disney Imagineers were asked at a town hall to anonymously offer suggestions on how to fix problems associated with their planned relocation from Burbank to Florida. Their answer, flashed to the entire town hall? “Fire Bob Chapek.” [WSJ]
Most amusing of the (many) emails I got this week about who might replace Chapek as C.E.O.: “Has anyone asked Jeff Bezos if he’d want the job? He seems to be acting out in search of a new challenge in his life.”
Making the rounds in the music industry: This takedown of “relentless egoist” Scooter Braun from a couple weeks ago. "Scooter's most important client has always been Scooter." [Insider]
Wesley Morris explains in personal terms why Jane Campion’s on-stage insult of the Williams sisters cuts so deep. [NYT]
My colleague Dylan Byers got ahold of emails between NBCUniversal C.E.O. Jeff Shell and onetime MSNBC star Keith Olbermann about his possible return to the network. It’s an amusing window into how top executives placate talent over months and even years. [Puck]
My pal Adam Aron has topped himself, steering AMC Theaters into the gold mining business. It’s amazing. Why? Great question! It appears Aron, who was contemplating bankruptcy before retail investors on Reddit ran up his stock price, is now pimping out his services as a meme expert who can artificially inflate other companies’ stock. Just fantastic. [Bloomberg]
A note to Bron Studios: Nobody’s fooled when you agree to be named “international producer of the year” by one of the trades, despite your C.E.O. admitting to me last summer that the company had “serious cash problems” and was forced to “delay” paying some creative partners. [THR]

Now, a dispatch from producer David Friendly about a depressing trend he’s noticed in the movie world…

The Real-Life TV Series Is Killing Off Great Movies

A Hollywood producer reflects on how ripped-from-the-headlines streaming series are outcompeting box office rivals with faster turnaround, A-list talent, and better paydays. Being second sucks.

By David T. Friendly

A funny thing happened the other night as I was diving into the Hulu version of the Theranos scandal, The Dropout. Pondering how Amanda Seyfried mimicked Elizabeth Holmes’ voice so accurately, I began to imagine how Jennifer Lawrence would do it in Adam McKay’s upcoming film version, Bad Blood. Then I wondered if I would even feel compelled to see the movie on the heels of what is, to this viewer anyway, already a very fine telling of essentially the same story.

Bad Blood is not alone in feeling the pressure from the real-life dramas that have taken over streaming platforms. Francis and the Godfather, Barry Levinson’s film on the making of The Godfather, was sidelined by the upcoming Paramount+ limited series, The Offer. And just recently, a planned Chippendales movie starring Seth Rogen and Dev Patel was derailed by the similar Hulu limited series, Immigrant.

The fact-based series, it seems, could not be hotter…

CONTINUE READING

The Feedback

My Thursday column on the “total addressable market” for streaming video sparked thoughtful responses (and one guy who told me I was a “linear apologist;” I’m not quite sure what that means)…

“I have to disagree with your assessment. While TAM is a ‘best case’ metric, it is axiomatic that as broadband and mobile technology penetrates more of the world, those people will want entertainment. Who will serve it to them? My bet is on Netflix.” –An executive

“Good column. Important observation: ‘[Streaming] is also not one size fits all.’ Television is currently in a transition from ‘broadcasting’ to what might be called ‘e-commerce for programs,’ and a number of different versions of business models will likely co-exist for some time.” –An analyst

For more on streaming’s stock market problem, my Puck colleague William D. Cohan delves into the question of whether Netflix should sell advertising. (He thinks no.)

I also got a few notes on my Sunday breakdown of Disney C.E.O. Bob Chapek’s botched handling of the Don’t Say Gay controversy…

“It’s funny that Chapek is painting himself as the outsider who is uniquely qualified to steer Disney into the future. He was a corporate cog there for 30 years! Misreading the Florida and Scarlett [Johansson] situations shows he can’t make that step up. It’s OK, most executives aren’t suited for the C.E.O. role. The key is recognizing that.” –A producer and former executive

“Chapek is not a founder like Zuck[erberg] or Ari [Emanuel at Endeavor], or a proven visionary operator like [David] Zaslav [at Discovery]. Why, again, is the Disney board tolerating this performance? Just replace and move on.” –An executive

“I date back at Disney to the Eisner era, and Michael announced same-sex partner benefits long before gay marriage was legal. Southern Baptists got all over TV saying they would boycott forever. The stock dropped and people were scared, but Michael said fuck them, it’s about our employees. Forget about political posturing, if it directly affects employees, you gotta side with employees. This should have been a lay-up.” –An investor

Finally…

Doctor Strange 2 comes on strong in this week’s Quorum movie tracking chart. Get more intel here…

Finally (part 2)…

In honor of Bob Iger joining the board of the metaverse startup Genies, which allows users to create custom digital avatars, behold, Metaverse Iger: