God doesn’t get much credit for helping Academy Award winners get their golden Oscar, according to a review of who was thanked in 1,396 acceptance speeches archived by the Academy.
In fact, God ranks sixth, with 19 thank yous, less than half of the leader, director Steven Spielberg of ET fame.
For the record, Jesus received one mention said the survey. The list of speeches in the Academy’s archive goes back to 1939. The 87th Academy Awards takes place Sunday.
The website Vocativ, which mines the Internet for unusual trends and stories, looked at all of the speech thank yous for the big shots who get a shout out. The Academy itself was the top winner with 43, but Vocativ in it’s study provided to Secrets looked at actual names singled out by winners. Their list:
1 – Director Steven Spielberg, 42 times.
2 – Producer Harvey Weinstein, 34.
3 – Director James Cameron, 28.
4 – Director George Lucas, 23.
5 – Writer Peter Jackson, 22.
6 – God, 19.
7 – Writer Fran Walsh, 18.
8 – Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films, 17.
9 – Director Francis Ford Coppola and producer Barrie Osborne, 16.
10 – Director Martin Scorsese and the late producer Saul Zaentz, 15.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
