The 91st Academy Awards lacked a host, a theme, a frontrunner, or even a fandom ardent enough to convince anyone that the Oscars posited any real stakes. Yet, somehow it managed to stumble on stage.
But if the sham of celebration made one thing abundantly clear, it’s that time sure as hell ain’t up.
Harvey Weinstein and select members of his cadre may have fled the court of Hollywood, but the empire of rape, shame, and exploitation he and his others built in the hills still reigned supreme over a night gilded by garish, cotton-candy styled “couture” and pithy ploys to present a facade of wokeness.
On the back burner, there was the simple fact that the entire evening was produced by Donna Gigliotti, a former Weinstein underling who left Miramax only to return to the Weinstein Company after she had fielded complaints from the movie mogul’s victims. But at the forefront, just consider the elephant in the room: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the anodyne, whitewashed biopic of Freddy Mercury, directed by serial sexual predator Bryan Singer.
To call Singer’s reign of terror an open secret wouldn’t be an understatement; it’d simply be a lie. Singer, one of our generation’s most prolific (read: profitable) directors, has faced civil suits alleging sexual assault and pedophilia for decades. As early as 1997, a child actor sued Singer for orchestrating a group nude scene for the film “Apt Pupil.” Documentarians and journalists spent the next 20 years attempting to tell the stories of boys alleging that Singer had raped them, and lawsuits continued to follow without so much as a blink or a frown from the media elite. Singer went on to direct a multitude of “X-Men” films, “Superman Returns,” “Jack the Giant Slayer,” and then, of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
On Oct. 5, 2017, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey dropped the story that tipped the first domino on Hollywood and Harvey Weinstein’s entire life. Within two months, and more than four months into the principal photography of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Singer abandoned ship, citing his mother’s alleged illness as an excuse for 20th Century Fox to terminate his contract in the final weeks of filming, and lacquer his departure as an “unfortunate situation.”
No matter the blind eye-batting from silver screen executives, Singer’s body count casts a shadow as heavy as a mountain over “Bohemian Rhapsody’s” undeserved victories. The cynical among us might see the wins as a tip of the hat to Hollywood’s rapey ways.
Sure, the Academy maintained radio silence over Singer’s directing credit of the biopic, but voters were more than happy to gift John Ottman the award for Best Editing, the same John Ottman who edited “Apt Pupil” and dozens of other films directed or produced by Singer.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” ultimately won four of the five Academy Awards for which it was nominated. Not one victor, presenter, or even standby commentator acknowledged the simple fact that Singer’s name was still stamped on the film by the Director’s Guild of America. The final award for the film came with the announcement of Rami Malek, who won Best Actor for cosplay of the rock legend. As he’s done with every other accolade garnered this award season, Malek conveniently ignored the existence of Singer, who directed the overwhelming majority of the film that launched him to cinema stardom.
Unlike Ottman, who spent decades working with Singer, Malek perhaps has an air of plausible deniability. But given a platform to condemn Singer’s criminal conduct as well as the industry cabal which enabled him for years, Malek instead stuck to the script
As sheer dumb luck would have it, karma kicked in. Malek didn’t simply leave the stage once he accepted his statue. Instead he tumbled off the stage, leaving “Green Book” to accept its much reviled reward of Best Picture and bring the Oscars to its pitiful end.
[Related: Trump hits Spike Lee for ‘racist’ Oscar acceptance speech]
