Oscar mood turns dour
THE 90th Oscar race. No race. It’s more like a limp.
Why? Harvey.
Hollywood’s halo is feeling tight.
Replacing pre-Oscar fever, moviemakers are now comatose. It’s black crepe over actors, used-to-bes, moguls and blaah blaah. Knowing what lay behind those cameras, everyone’s feeling lousy.
The Harvey thing won’t cool down. Nobody’s talking awards or hyping films. Once the prime hyper, Harvey was the industry’s object. Now he’s the subject. His last years weren’t easy. “Lion” got some juice but, lacking big-time money to push it like days of yore, his company wasn’t a contender.
Until it happened, what he hoped for was
his Indian-territory murder yarn “Wind River” starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Nice, but doesn’t seem to pros like this could be Harvey’s year.
So for people who create scenarios, it’s now a Weinstein free-for-all.
Result? Nobody’s hustling choices or statuettes. Or even predicting. The Harvey subject sucks up all the air in the room.
My ears being even larger than my mouth, apart from Harvey, here’s what I hear:
Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut “Lady Bird” is a maybe contender. Also the star of her film, Saoirse. Don’t ask “Saoirse who?” Like anybody know anybody else named Saoirse?
There’s Streep, who’ll get nominated even if she recites the phone book. Her movie about the Pentagon Papers is Spiel
berg’s “The Post,” due next month and her first co-starring with Tom
Hanks, who’s also ready for sainthood.
Another could-be Best Actress is “Wonder Wheel’s” Kate Winslet. Full disclosure: On the Coney Island set, Woody
Allen bought me a $5 hot dog. And though he never sprung for a hot dog,
Gary Oldman, who plays Churchill in “Darkest Hour,” might grab Best Actor. Everybody’s doing Churchill. Ten minutes ago, John Lithgow got an Emmy for immortalizing Winston in TV’s “The Crown.”