THB #91: Oscar Ass Covering w/ Dawn & David

I wasn’t planning on writing about this. But when I read Pete Hammond’s happy laydown of whatever Dawn Hudson wanted him to publish to cover her ass (and that of her weak but well-liked president of the year), it demanded deconstruction. All quotes (except when noted) are from Pete’s transcription of the publicity event that this “interview” was.

But let me just say before the deconstruction… I am not against changes in the Oscar show. But if there are going to be changes, they need to be transformative, not simplistic and dismissive of some parts of the industry in the fantasy belief that no one really watches the Oscars for anything but the 4 speeches from actors and to see who wins Best Picture.

There is a reason why Oscar is still the highest rated award show by a significant margin. Some of it may be old habits. But at its heart, there is something special about Oscar and that something is being eroded.

It is recurring theme in my work and thinking that we are all too caught up in …