It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful to Heaven that I made it through February. That month was a bitch! If you don’t believe me, just as Tiger Woods. Did you see his nationally televised apology? President Nixon didn’t take that long to apologize to the country when he resigned from office back in the 1970s. HE owed me an apology. Tiger Woods didn’t. But that’s just my opinion. Halfway through Tiger’s mea culpa, I was hoping that Kanye West would stagger on and interrupt: “Tiger, I’m happy for you getting some help with your sexual addiction but former Senator John Edwards was the mack baby daddy of the year!”
Now we’re into one of my favorite seasons of the year — Oscar season. Movies are my passion. This year’s Oscar race coverage has shown me two things: 1) Entertainment reporters nowadays are lazy and do very little homework and 2) The field of national entertainment reporters and film critics seen on TV sorely cries out for racial diversity in this, the 21st Century. This is crystallized in how Tom O’Neil columnist for The Los Angeles Times has been covering Best Actress Academy Award nominee, Mo’Nique. I’m not accusing the Caucasian O’Neil of racism. I am charging a national journalist with laziness. O’Neil, in his column, expressed that Mo’Nique was being uncooperative by refusing to “campaign” for her Oscar. Not granting interviews following her nomination and focusing on her talk show duties. Screen legend Katharine Hepburn never campaigned after her Oscar nominations. She steadfastly refused to attend any ceremony when she was nominated. Yet, she won four Oscars® for Best Actress. To Vanity Fair magazine, O’Neil said that no one knew who Mo’Nique was before Precious. He marginalized her to being solely a comedienne and a talk show host who slammed across one of the most galvanizing dramatic performances of the year out of nowhere. He pretty much said the same thing last night in a prime time Oscar-related special hosted by Deborah Roberts on ABC. Again, O’Neil was lazy, uninformed and unimaginative on a national platform.
Cloris Leachman, Sally Field, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams and Ron Howard all have something in common in Mo’Nique. We got to know them every week on TV sitcoms. They went on to earn Oscar nominations for big screen dramatic work. Ron Howard’s was for directing A BEAUTIFUL MIND. All those performers won Oscars. I hope, come tomorrow, that Mo’Nique — who starred in the sitcom “The Parkers” for five seasons — will be a winner too. Mr. O’Neil should’ve keyed into the history of actors who gained sitcom popularity then got Oscar nominations for dramatic acting chops. Mary Tyler Moore did. So did Will Smith. Jamie Foxx had his own sitcom.
When I experienced PRECIOUS for the first time, I was not surprised at Mo’Nique’s performance. I marvelled at it but I was not surprised. Sounding like Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, I felt it was “nothing more than a promise fulfilled.” That’s because of what I saw Mo’Nique do in 2005’s Shadowboxer. The drama stars Helen Mirren as a terminally ill hit woman in a torrid love affair with a younger hit man, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Mo’Nique is a revelation as the working class crack addict who has an unrequited love for her young doctor. Her character’s name is “Precious” and the movie was directed by Lee Daniels. I have yet to hear one national reporter ask the actress about or mention that prior dramatic outing with Daniels. She was profiled today on CBS Sunday Morning. No mention.
This, to me, underscores the need for racial diversity in the field of film reviewers/commentators on TV and also underscores the need for the established critics in the somewhat “Whites Only” boys club to pay more attention to the outsiders, shall we say. Last night, O’Neil said on ABC that Mo’Nique has appeared in comedy films that critics really didn’t care about. Can’t we say that same about David Spade and Pauley Shore? When Hustle & Flow, was released and brought Terrence Howard a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 2005, I heard David Edelstein review him on National Public Radio and in his movie critic spot on CBS Sunday Morning. Edelstein raved about this “new” actor who has the intensity of a “young Samuel L. Jackson.” I thought ..”wrong!” He has the intensity of a middle-aged Terrence Howard. Before playing a pimp in HUSTLE & FLOW, Howard had played three historical characters in TV biopics — Jackie Jackson of the Jackson 5, boxer Muhammad Ali and civil rights advocate Ralph Albernathy in a bio mini-series about Dr. Martin Luther King. He had an important supporting role as a no-rhythm high school student in 1995’s Mr. Holland’s Opus, starring Richard Dreyfuss, and he was a key character in the box office hit Big Momma’s House. This body of work dates back to 1992. But to Mr. Edelstein he was “new.”
OK. Enough about race. Do I have predictions for tonight? I’ve not seen Sandra Bullock in THE BLIND SIDE. I hear she’s terrific in it. I’d love to see Meryl Streep win for a brilliant job in a comedy/drama. My big wish is to see Kathryn Bigelow win for Best Director and for her film, THE HURT LOCKER, to get the gold for Best Picture. Will you be watching Hollywood Prom Night? What are your predictions? Who did your dress? Leave me some comments.