Posted on 01/12/2017 11:31:17 AM PST by EveningStar
Paddy Chayefsky and Politics at the Oscars AWESOME!
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
ping
And Paddy Chayefsky was far from being a conservative.
Excellent reminder for the true purpose of award ceremonies.
He was a lot more low key than I remember him. I guess the truth has its own resonance.
I just read his wiki bio and it said he was political, but a liberal who despised other liberals was the way they put it.
Now Network looks like a documentary.
An absolutely brilliant playwright and screen/tv writer. He wrote the classic “Network” which predicted all of this.
Yep! I remember those days!
You and your ping list might find this item from 39 years ago relevant.
Semi off topic, but I will laugh my ass off if there are no black oscar people again. Second prize goes if there are a whole bunch of nominees whos performances were so mediocre and underwhelming that even a 5 year old would be unable to miss biblical level pandering which ends up being universally mocked
An excursion into the past.
Interesting to see Neil Simon pumping his fist in approval.
Simon wouldn’t dare try it now.
It was the AIDS crisis when Hollywood began to believe in its own PR and saintly goodness. Let us not forget that despite all the propaganda about it striking anyone at any time, the transmission of AIDS was largely down to IV drug users and gay males - two things in abundance in and around Hollywood and San Francisco but not so much elsewhere. Because the hated Reagan was in office suddenly AIDS became political.
The red ribbons were busted out and the preaching commenced. It hasn’t stopped.
Compare Streeps maternal lecturing to this acceptance speech from Lawrence Olivier.
Mr. President and Governors of the Academy, Committee Members, fellows, my very noble and approved good masters [these last seven words were from Othello], my colleagues, my friends, my fellow-students. In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation’s generosity, this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it—the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it—must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth and the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow.
From the top of this moment, in the solace, in the kindly emotion that is charging my soul and my heart at this moment, I thank you for this great gift which lends me such a very splendid part in this, your glorious occasion. Thank you.
Laurence Olivier
April 9, 1979
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Interesting to see Actress Marsha Mason and her then husband Neil Simon applauding in agreement.
Also at the end looks like Sid Cesear applauding meanwhile seated beside him is Looney Shirley Maclaine rolling her eyes.
That’s not Sid Caesar, it’s the legendary screenwriter and playwright Arthur Laurents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laurents
Does everyone know what Vanessa Redgrave said to prompt this response? She referred to ‘Zionist hoodlums’.
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