Defamer
My goodness. What a night. We wish we could say we managed to get some sleep, but truth be told, we just wandered back in, having spent the last eight hours or so partying at Prince's new mansion—a stunning, 48-room villa he had constructed out of a rare purple travertine found only in Madagascar, which the Demonschlonged One had air-lifted and dropped at its current address of 3121 Mulholland Dr. Apparently, the glitter had yet to fully settle before a minor Oscars controversy erupted: You'll recall when Scott Rudin, whom viewers might have recognized from the classic Goya portrait "Producer Devouring One of His Assistants," closed his Best Picture acceptance speech with a special mention to "my partner, John Barlow. Without you, honey, this is just hardware." His spouse appeared nowhere on the screen—we pictured much mayhem in the control booth, with Gil Cates barking into a headset at a camera operator, "Not Travolta, you fool! Barlow! Check the legend! CHECK THE—oh never mind,"—but it was a tender moment nonetheless. Good As You now notices that the mention has been stricken from the official Academy transcript:
[C]heck out this official press transcript from the Oscars website and see how they chose to present Rudin's words:
UPDATE: The missing text has appeared!
CATEGORY: BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR SPEECH BY: SCOTT RUDIN, ETHAN COEN AND JOEL COEN FILM: "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN"======BEGIN TRANSCRIPTION======
Scott Rudin:
This is an unbelievable honor and a complete surprise. [...]I want to thank my friend, Sydney Pollack, who taught me that with the responsibility — with the opportunity to make movies comes the responsibility of making them good. This for him.
======END TRANSCRIPTION======
We'd be disheartened to think that a sweet declaration of superproducerly love for Rudin's loyal partner—always available to dispose of scores of assistants who "didn't work out," no questions asked—would be deemed inappropriate content by the Academy historians. We'll therefore chalk this one up to human error, and not to a small army of Sid Ganis-led standard and practices wonks, black Sharpies at the ready should a winner's acceptance speech give off even the faintest scent of fruitiness during Hollywood's most hallowed and rigorously heterosexual awards sacrament.
UPDATE: The transcript now contains the Barlow mention:
All is right with the Gays and the Oscars!
Comments
Isn't it better to pretend Scott Rudin isn't gay? Bitch be giving us a bad name. Works for me.
No Country For Gay Men
I hate to think of the uses of his new 'hardware' appliance, when he's alone.
Seth you went to Prince's Oscar Party? DETAILS! Next time take me with u.
Glad Rudin won. He largely does good movies. He works with good writers and directors. Top people want to work with him. He mentioned his loved one and I hope it was an oversight and does get in the the "official" transcript. Assistants? Watch Swimming With Sharks. Don't want to play. Don't. By the way...Wonder Boys is a terrific frickin movie.
Just like 2006, they'll supplant his worthy gayness with a lengthy diatribe about racism and auto accidents.
I'm sick of Hollywood types patting themselves on the back about how tolerant and progressive they are, when it's still taboo to talk about homosexuality. Stop cow-towing to what you think Middle America can handle. You're all big 'mos anyway.
For heaven's sake, no one censored him. Those transcripts are done backstage, on the fly, and sometimes, particularly with speeches given at the very end of the show, they don't have time to edit for accuracy.
But by all means, continue to fan the flames of paranoia!
@belltolls: Agreed. Whatever they say about him, he produces great movies. I met him during some initial work he was doing on the film adaptation M. Chabon's "Cavalier and Klay". I hope the adaptation holds up as well as Wonder Boys and NCFOM.
Hmm. They cut to this one guy when the Cohen's won the first time. He was up and cheering. I had no idea who he was. And when Rudin and the Cohen's won the second time, they cut to him again, standing up and cheering. After Rudin mentioned his partner, I assumed that was him. Does anyone know who that guy was?
Cormac McCarthy.
@aspiringexpatriate: That was Cormac McCarthy. He wrote the book NCFOM.
@thehmsbeagle: How can you be so sure about that? It wasn't a simple editing mistake -- it was a full line that was left out of the press transcript.
You of course might be right. However, it's unreasoned to suggest that it's "fanning the flames of paranoia" to ask questions. After all, since these are transcripts that are meant for pres usage, doesn't the press (especially those outlets focused on LGBT issues) have every right to say "WTF gives?"
Update: the transcript was just updated.
They're really afraid of Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis. Bastard homophobes.
I think it was because they were afraid that the thought of anyone having sex with Rudin would cause a nationwide projectile vomit.
No gay man in their right minds would want to be partners with that egomaniac!
@rosserfan: David Furnish might.
@GoodAsYou: Because I've worked backstage at awards shows. There's no conspiracy. There's three middle-aged ladies with headsets typing as fast as they can.
What I want to know is, was this heartfelt post-valentine's day kiss to his missus carried on the live closed caption feed? Anyone still got the show recorded?
I thought Cormac McCarthy was something a J.D. Salinger-style hermit.
@badhatharry: "... the book NFCOM." North Carolina Friends of Midwives? Fruity!
That's low.
Thanks for putting their feet to the fire.
3121 Muholland Drive. Right. What does one do in a home that large?! It's humongous. It's a gated community so that's a good thing. Any party that can go later than a Persian wedding is indeed a sunrise celebration.
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