So a number of my fave entertainment sites today have linked to this fantastic interactive article published by Slate on who Oscar winners thank most in their speeches. It's amazing.
Go here and then come back and let's discuss...
Isn't it so interesting the differences between the men and women's speeches? I mean, I am not surprised by the trends--that women thank more people and the people who helped them early in their career, and men don't--but it's fascinating to see the stats. See, gossip isn't fluff, it's anthropology!
Here is where I struggle with speeches: despite being a hardcore feminist who appreciates the sentiment behind women's speeches a whole lot (and generally just like women better), I feel like overall, I enjoy men's speeches more. Why is that? Maybe it's because I don't know any of the people the women tend to list by name (and men don't do this as much) because I find that boring and awkward, and I'd rather hear a general statement about the movie, the experience, acting etc (which men tend to do more). If I were up there however, I know I'd be thanking every person I knew by first and last name too, so you can't win!
I always thought it would be a good idea for all the nominees to submit a list of names of people they wanted to thank ahead of time so that they could be played across the bottom of the screen while they talked, and then they could just focus on saying something nice that didn't involve reading from a list. But what do I know? I doesn't even matter that every single year the person producing the Oscar's gives a presentation at the Nominee's luncheon on what a good and bad Oscar speech looks like (i.e. no reading lists), people say whatever the fuck they want anyway!
My brother Alex can't stand the emotional speeches. When people start crying, he leaves the room. I'm of 2 minds about emotional speeches. B/c I'm a secret softy, sometimes I love the choked up speeches. For example: I love Jamie Foxx's speech when he got choked up about his grandmother. But I can only stand the emotion sometimes. Example: You couldn't pay me to watch Halle Berry's 4.5 minute speech ever again.
What are your favourite and least favourite Oscar speeches?
Off the top of my head, favourites:
Tom Hanks for Philadelphia
The two singers from the movie Once who won best original song for "falling slowly"
Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine--b/c it made people uncomfortable
Sandra Bullock (despite the fact that I will never watch that movie, she is just such a gem)
Least favourite:
James Cameron "I'm the king of the world"-barf.
Begnini's lunacy (I know Norah will be mad about this, but he needs to settle the fuck down)
Melissa Leo dropping the F bomb-get it together Leo, you are such a try-hard!
Halle Berry - one particular line of it makes me insane--
Sally Field's "you like me, you really like me" b/c it is INSANE, and actors are supposed to at least try to keep a lid on how insecure they are
What am I forgetting?
But seriously, try not to smile during this moment:
Go here and then come back and let's discuss...
Isn't it so interesting the differences between the men and women's speeches? I mean, I am not surprised by the trends--that women thank more people and the people who helped them early in their career, and men don't--but it's fascinating to see the stats. See, gossip isn't fluff, it's anthropology!
Here is where I struggle with speeches: despite being a hardcore feminist who appreciates the sentiment behind women's speeches a whole lot (and generally just like women better), I feel like overall, I enjoy men's speeches more. Why is that? Maybe it's because I don't know any of the people the women tend to list by name (and men don't do this as much) because I find that boring and awkward, and I'd rather hear a general statement about the movie, the experience, acting etc (which men tend to do more). If I were up there however, I know I'd be thanking every person I knew by first and last name too, so you can't win!
I always thought it would be a good idea for all the nominees to submit a list of names of people they wanted to thank ahead of time so that they could be played across the bottom of the screen while they talked, and then they could just focus on saying something nice that didn't involve reading from a list. But what do I know? I doesn't even matter that every single year the person producing the Oscar's gives a presentation at the Nominee's luncheon on what a good and bad Oscar speech looks like (i.e. no reading lists), people say whatever the fuck they want anyway!
My brother Alex can't stand the emotional speeches. When people start crying, he leaves the room. I'm of 2 minds about emotional speeches. B/c I'm a secret softy, sometimes I love the choked up speeches. For example: I love Jamie Foxx's speech when he got choked up about his grandmother. But I can only stand the emotion sometimes. Example: You couldn't pay me to watch Halle Berry's 4.5 minute speech ever again.
What are your favourite and least favourite Oscar speeches?
Off the top of my head, favourites:
Tom Hanks for Philadelphia
The two singers from the movie Once who won best original song for "falling slowly"
Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine--b/c it made people uncomfortable
Sandra Bullock (despite the fact that I will never watch that movie, she is just such a gem)
Least favourite:
James Cameron "I'm the king of the world"-barf.
Begnini's lunacy (I know Norah will be mad about this, but he needs to settle the fuck down)
Melissa Leo dropping the F bomb-get it together Leo, you are such a try-hard!
Halle Berry - one particular line of it makes me insane--
Sally Field's "you like me, you really like me" b/c it is INSANE, and actors are supposed to at least try to keep a lid on how insecure they are
What am I forgetting?
But seriously, try not to smile during this moment:
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