How to Make the Oscars Suck Less: Model Them After the SAG Awards

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by editor Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.

This week:

• A PR disaster like I’ve never seen.

• Maybe the Oscars won’t suck this year!

• The funniest/most traumatizing clip of the week.

• Another iconic Jennifer Coolidge moment.

• Something lovely for the ’90s kids.

The Oscars Should Learn a Lesson

The Academy Awards are coming in just over a week, after Titanic-it’s-been-84-years.gif of campaigning and arguing over snubs, surprises, and broken systems within the industry. Even film and award-show fans have become disillusioned with the ceremony’s telecast in recent years, reflected in poor reviews and dwindling ratings.

But there’s good news! There is at least one thing that the show’s producers can and should do ahead of the Mar. 12 ceremony to help make the proceedings more watchable and less infuriating: view this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.

When SAG announced that its annual awards ceremony would not be presented this year on TV, but in a livestream on Netflix’s YouTube account instead, I felt a little bit of a second-hand embarrassment for the organization. How janky-seeming! How un-prestigious! Then I watched the telecast on Sunday night, and came to the conclusion that it was the best award show I had seen in years. (Sorry for pre-judging you, livestreamed-on-YouTube SAG Awards!)

While I doubt the Academy would ever give up on a televised broadcast, there are some tips that I think it could glean from last Sunday’s event.

To begin with, the ceremony was refreshingly devoid of insecurity. Each year, in a panic to attract young audiences or viewers who may not be familiar with smaller films in contention, the Oscars puts on a manic, disjointed spectacle filled with cringe-inducing bits, production numbers, and errant displays of bombast that have little to do with the purpose at hand: to honor the year’s best movies. It’s the awards themselves that are often sacrificed for this, with categories siphoned to commercial breaks or winners played off during speeches.

This year, the SAG Awards went without a host. The presenters’ banter was brief and pithy, and therefore far more successful than the stilted exchanges the Oscars has become notorious for. The speeches were all incredibly touching and, in the cases of winners like Michelle Yeoh and Jennifer Coolidge, went viral. A key reason for that: No one was played off. The winners were allowed to say what they wanted and really make a point, entertaining us while doing so.

And because there was such a collegial spirit, with everyone in attendance on the same page of celebrating their peers and great cinema, even the more frustrating upsets didn’t sting the way they usually would. Would I have given Jamie Lee Curtis the Best Supporting Actress win? Definitely not. But it was such a wonderful moment for the veteran actress, capped off with, again, a spectacular speech.

Mostly, the show had good vibes, something I can’t say about most awards telecasts in recent years. Oscars: Be like the SAGs!

The Weeknd’s New Show ‘The Idol’ Already Pissed Off the Whole Internet

The Destiny’s Child Clip That Haunts Me

There’s a clip that resurfaced and went viral this week of Destiny’s Child being interviewed at the 2001 BRIT Awards that made me laugh hysterically, until the giggles eventually devolved into traumatized tears. In the video, the group is being interviewed on the red carpet, when the reporter inexplicably asks them for their opinion on what the government should be doing about the foot-and-mouth epidemic happening at the time.

Why in the world would anyone be asking Beyoncé, Kelly, and Michelle about this on the red carpet for a music awards show? Welcome to my hell.

Everyone has different entry points into this business. My first real, exciting job was doing research during the day and then red carpet reporting at night for a major celebrity magazine. For about a year, I felt my soul leave my body, skin cell by skin cell, nearly ruining this pop-culture beat that I love.

On a red carpet for his new single release, I asked Terrence Howard what he thought about Sarah Palin. (My first print magazine credit!) I’ve asked random-ass CW stars for the advice they’d give Rihanna following the horrific incident with Chris Brown. At the opening of Padma Lakshmi’s charity, I was told by my editor to ask her how she felt about Madonna dating much younger men.

The worst is when the people don’t dismiss the questions, thinking long and hard for a good answer. Even more alarming, though, was that the celebs didn’t blink an eye, because this sort of horseshit was what they expected and had been prepped for by their team.

When you see a photo of Jennifer Coolidge beaming on the red carpet, know that as often as she has been asked about her turn on The White Lotus, she has been asked her take on Lisa Marie Presley’s death, her five spring fashion musts, and what she would say to the people of Syria and Turkey. This is heinous! Why must we do this!? I have tried my whole career to evade that nonsense, while still finding the balance of what’s fun and what’s important. I hope I’ve done it. At the very least, I know that I never asked Beyoncé about foot-and-mouth disease.

Another Flawless Photo Shoot

Speaking of Jennifer Coolidge, the actress is on the cover of W magazine this month, and the corresponding photo shoot is predictably iconic.

The shoot was directed by the Daniels, who are favored to win Best Director at this year’s Oscars for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and lensed by Lenne Chai. The whole shoot is an homage to the Japanese Tokusatsu genre, which is known for heavily relying on practical special effects. (Nineties kids, think Power Rangers.)

There is a lot that I’m not too stoked about with the world right now. But that we’re in an era of Jennifer Coolidge adulation that features amazing photo shoots like this as an accompaniment is at least one reason to be happy to be alive.

Important Nostalgic News

There is a population of people for whom this is incredibly important, meaningful information: Lisa Ann Walter, who currently stars on Abbott Elementary, brought former co-star Elaine Hendrix as her date to the SAG Awards. The two were in Lindsay Lohan’s 1998 version of The Parent Trap together, Walter playing the kind nanny and Hendrix the conniving fiancée, and have remained best friends ever since.

I said “aww” when I saw the photos; I said “aww” when I watched this touching interview they gave about it; and I said “aww” just now while typing all of this up. Some heartwarming news we could all use!

What to watch this week:

Creed III: Gazing at Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors respectfully. (Now in theaters)

Daisy Jones & the Six: Or, if not watch, at least listen to the great music. (Now on Prime Video)

Top Chef: The greatest reality series there is, and I will not hear otherwise. (Thurs. on Bravo)

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre: Aubrey Plaza showcase alert! (Now in theaters)

What to skip this week:

Children of the Corn: Already one of the worst-reviewed movies of the year. (Now in theaters)

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