Last night, the great and the good of the film industry - well, those that the newly paranoid inhabitant of the White House was prepared to let in to the USA - gathered in Hollywood for the 89th Academy Awards. This was an opportunity for the real stars of the silver screen to collect gongs, make speeches, or just be seen at the ceremony and after party. It was also an opportunity for shameless nobodies to piggyback a little attention.
(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014
And there is no-one more shameless among the ranks of nobodies than the loathsome Toby Young, who has inexplicably been gifted the editor’s position at Spectator Life magazine, which still features a regular column from a career racist and anti-Semite. Tobes had clearly decided beforehand to use the Oscars to score More And Bigger Self-Promotion Opportunities For Himself Personally Now.
So it was that Spectator Coffee House readers were subjected to “The most politically correct Oscars ever?” with Tobes telling “this year’s Oscars will be even more politically correct than usual – not so much the 89th Academy Awards, as Hollywood’s First Annual Diversity and Inclusion Awards”. And there was, regrettably, more.
“African-American actors have been nominated in each of the four acting categories. Six black actors have been nominated in total, a whopping 30 per cent. Four of the five nominees in the Best Documentary Feature category are people of colour, while Barry Jenkins, the African-America writer and director of Moonlight, has been nominated in two different categories”. Er, Moonlight did get the Best Picture award. Minor point, eh?
Tobes was too busy sneering to realise that there might be a good reason for the nominations: “In case you don’t get the point, the Academy has nominated the black playwright August Wilson for Best Original Screenplay for Fences, even though he’s been dead for 12 years. I don’t recall William Shakespeare being nominated for Macbeth last year. Perhaps that’s because he’s ‘too white’”. Who let those bleck cheps in hyah?
And don’t forget, good right-leaning Spectator readers, “This year’s four-hour telecast, due to be broadcast tonight, will be a tsunami of virtue signalling. No self-respecting Oscar winner will be able to leave the stage without letting the audience know just how much they really, really dislike Donald Trump”. That’s because Trump is a weapons grade, sexist, misogynist, bullying, sexual molestation practicing, dishonest, intolerant shit.
But enough of the “I’m white and straight and I’m in a minority AND IT’S NOT FAIR” whining. Best Actor and Best Director - that would be two key awards in any Oscars ceremony - went to white males. Make that white STRAIGHT males. This has proved such a humiliation to Tobes that he has deleted his Tweets sneering “And the Oscar goes to … anyone provided they’re not white, heterosexual or male”. But he was too late.
Toby Young’s whining, entitled twattery might gain him some attention from the right-leaning part of the Pundit Establishment. But from out here in the Real World (tm), the only thing his amateurish snivelling merits is ridicule. Away with you, Tobes.
Er, Tobes, Shakespeare might not have been nominated for "Best original screenplay" on account of him not having written one.
ReplyDeleteYou know, what with being alive a couple of hundred years before anyone needed a SCREEN play,
Wasn't this pea-brain in charge of some kids' education?
ReplyDelete"...Toby Young, who has inexplicably been gifted the editor’s position at Spectator Life magazine..."
ReplyDeleteI love pisstakes, Tim, especially at the expense of loony ranting righties like Toby - it would be a "Toby" wouldn't it - Young.
But what would have been immeasurably funnier is if the gang of Little Englander neofascists who run that minor propaganda rag had told him, "Sorry fuckface, but you're not far right extremist enough for the post."
Now that would have been a real thigh-slapper.
Equivalence of the Day: No 1
ReplyDeleteSpectator = Spearhead
Here's a novel idea: How about we just give out Oscars to those who made the best films and gave the best performances? Maybe sometimes it just so happens that many of those are white and sometimes more of them may happen to be black.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't this idiot pass comment on the actual films instead?
Errm... wasn't "Fences" nominated for best ADAPTED screenplay?
ReplyDelete