82nd Academy Awards telecast producer Adam Shankman took to Twitter tonight to address the concerns, outrage, and flat out irritation caused by his often bizarre, occasionally infuriating Oscar broadcast. Let’s take those concerns one by one, along with his responses to them.
The night’s biggest controversy is, without a doubt, their inexplicable decision to omit Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam segment meant to honor industry luminaries who’ve died in the past year. While Farah was primarily known for her work in television, she did have a career in movies and what’s more, was even a member of the Academy. As if to add insult to injury, Michael Jackson was featured in the montage even though his movie career was pretty much limited to The Wiz and, if you want to count it, Captain Eo. Shankman however, refuses to take any responsibility for it. He says, “Farah ommission: not us. The in memorium recipients R decided on by an academy committee.”
That may be true. But he’s in charge of the show. You’d have to think at some point he’d get a list of the names being featured. Didn’t he say anything? Moving on.
So what about that bizarre, horror tribute shoehorned into the middle of the ceremony seemingly for the sole purpose of courting Twilight fans, even though the Academy never nominates horror movies for anything? Shankman says, “FYI: the horror tribute was inspired by the Roger Corman oscar.” That doesn’t explain why it was introduced by the stars of Twilight (which is not horror) and featured clips from Twilight (which were also not horror). Maybe they could have had it introduced by, idunno, Roger Corman?
So what about that horrible, horrible number which replaced the Best Song performances? You know, the one where interpretive dancers re-enacted the most touching moments of Up by doing the robot? Shankman says, “How gorgeous wr all the dancers.” Yeah, but did anyone hear the music they were supposed to be highlighting? Probably not. Too busy rolling our eyes at all the ridiculous breakdancing.
Maybe this mess isn’t Shankman’s fault, I don’t know. He says he, “did the best i could last night with so many perameters.” Maybe that’s true. But even he seems to know that a lot of it was either boring or went horribly wrong. He sums up the night this way: “If I ever am asked to produce the oscars again, I would do them totally different.” Someone get this man a time machine.
