Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy was reportedly lobbying for an honorary Oscar for Bob Iger, but The Academy had other plans. LW Ghost breaks down the who, what, and why of these special Academy Awards.
The Oscars (and indeed all of showbiz on screens or in theme parks or anywhere else) are not just Big-P Political. The same kind of personal office politics you probably experience at work happen in Hollywood, too. And a new and fascinating scandal within the Academy Awards hierarchy that’s now come to light makes the point in ways all readers of this website might want to dive a bit deeper into, so here we go.
Conan O’Brien hosts The Oscars – YouTube, ABC
We all know what the Oscars are…or think we do. They recognize specific talents such as acting, directing, cinematography, editing, songwriting, and other interpretive creative arts AND they have a host of scientific awards for tech innovations and other fun stuff (which get presented at a different ceremony and only quickly summarized at the big show to try to keep its endless run time a bit less of a marathon for home TV audiences around the world.)
Let us remember that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, aka AMPAS, was created by the industry to try to give it some polish, status, and a patina of serious art in a day when actors had trouble getting hotel rooms, joining country clubs, and generally were looked upon by the “Establishment” as a bunch of tramps and thieves at best.
Kieran Culkin in his Oscars acceptance speech – YouTube, ABC News
But while the membership that votes on the various craft and skill awards numbers sit officially just shy of 10,000 people, the “Board Of Governors” (and even THAT designation was intended to make the whole shebang seem more like an ivy-covered campus of scholars than a corporate business trade association) is only a top-tier of 55, and THEY give out—or don’t—some very special awards that are (a) officially non-competitive and occasional, and (b) aimed at individuals of special merit across the various professions of the biz.
Like any group where the definitions of qualification are a bit vague and the people awarding them are a relative handful, there is even more lobbying for these not-always-given-every-year “special” awards than for the better known obligatory ones. Campaigns by studios and prominent folks are rampant behind the scenes every year to make a bigshot even more special by giving them such an award…but the public almost never hears of such politicking and often doesn’t even recognize some of the recipients of these unique honors.
Until this year.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
The story broke (from an anonymous source of course) a few days ago that Lucasfilm Girlboss Kathleen Kennedy was actively approaching those 55 Academy Board of Governors members to try to swing a special Oscar for her boss, Disney CEO Bob Iger. The word was that she was being pretty blatant, obvious, and public about it and that the reaction inside the Board was mostly negative because they don’t like their doings made public that way and felt it was to some degree an attempt to force their hand. We here on the channels reported this “leak” and, since it involved two of our frankly least-favorite Mousefolk, took a certain degree of “schadenfreude” in it all—shame on us…but not much.
Dolly Parton rings in the 40th anniversary of Dollywood in person – Photo Credit: That Park Place
HOWEVER, the issue of whether it would work or not was then still in doubt. No longer. The official press release about this year’s “special” awards is out, and while it contains everyone from choreographer/director Debbie Allen to production designer Wynn Thomas to mega-star Tom Cruise to beloved musical performer AND serious charitable giver and helper Dolly Parton for the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Award (named for the Danish-American actor who headed the Academy’s charity programs for decades)……there is one name conspicuously absent—that mogul named Bob.
These awards happen irregularly. They’re given at a special luncheon not part of the main Oscar show, and unless they include famous folks they are routinely ignored by the public and seldom, if ever, are those who are considered-but-not-awarded ever known to any of us. Unless…..well, unless somebody with an axe to grind within the Board who’s been made aware of backstage campaigning of the kind KK seems to have done wants that news out there and KNOWS it will be a failure because they know in advance the real list of honorees.
Bob Iger | 2019 Disney Legends Awards Ceremony | D23 EXPO 2019. Photo Credit: nagi usano from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Look: Not all bigshot movie moguls and corporate chiefs of entertainment companies are liked by their peers. Even my own namesake was hated by the competition and some aspersions cast about his cozy relationships with the underworld folks who ran nightclubs back when he was merely a super-agent for live performers had some truth to them. But in THIS day and age when everyone tries to “play nice” for public consumption and usually keeps the actual back-stabbing under wraps, the fact that this came out is an open act of aggression against both Iger and Kennedy that bears noting.
Bob Iger via CNBC Television YouTube
Let’s just say that the audiences who’ve felt cheated and betrayed by the movies, the theme park moves, and the rest of what some would call the decay of Disney’s family-focused entertainment have some unknown industry insiders on their side we were not aware of until this fracas… That’s not going to get better as both KK and Big Bob head towards the last roundups of their respective industry careers.
Are you surprised that Bob Iger won’t be getting an honorary Oscar? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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