I mean, of course, The Oscars.
This time every year, we take a day off from work, we skip classes, we drop whatever it is we’re doing and sit in front of the TV set, and together we once again live the magic of movies as The Oscars unfolds with such drama, such fantasy, such romance, such action, such pathos and such spectacle that leaves you and me gasping for more, feeling alive and positive again, certain that all is right with our world.
The 2002 Oscars the other day, beamed "live" from the new Kodak Theater in Hollywood, had that kind of effect – and impact – on you and me, hadn’t it? It was magic and magical from the time Tom Cruise opened the show, telecast through a giant screen on Times Square in New York, to the time Whoopi Goldberg closed it. It is, as ever, my kind of show. Goodbye, Harry Potter! Move over, fellows of the Ring! I’ll have my Oscars anytime.
Oh, yes, Whoopi Goldberg, that dynamo of delight who again hosted the party (as some star guests fittingly call it), spicing it up with her unique brand of wit and humor, making you want to hug her and kiss her and right then and there declare her an Oscar winner as The All-Time Hostess with the Mostest (sorry for that, Billy Crystal, the other favorite Oscar host).
Whoopi was a show within the show, a livewire who burst onto the awesome stage dressed a la Satine (played by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge), lowered from the ceiling on a flower-bedecked swing, yelling, "Come and get me, boys!" the way Nicole did in that lush musical. Hinting at the fierce pre-Oscar campaign, Whoopi delivered her first witticism for the night, "So much mud has been thrown this year that all the nominees are Black!"
She could have said, "All the winners (will be) Black!" because before the night was over, Black proved to be beautiful and award-winning, too, with former Miss World (1986) contestant Halle Berry making history by being the first colored actress to bag the Best Actress plum in the Oscar’s 74-year history, for her role as a death-row widow involved with her husband’s executioner in Monster’s Ball; and Denzel Washington duplicating Berry’s feat by himself winning as Best Actor (for his role as a corrupt cop in Training Day), first won by a Black actor (Sydney Poitier) in 1963 (for Lilies of the Field), his second Oscar (after his Best Supporting Actor win for Glory).
Herself an Oscar awardee (Best Supporting Actress for The Color Purple in 1991), Whoopi, reacting to Berry’s thank-you speech about opening a door for colored actors, quipped, "It has been a very large door and I’m glad she’s the one who kicked it down."
Among the "artists of color" in the audience were Will Smith (nominated as Best Actor for Ali) and his wife Jada Pinkett, Vanessa Williams, Puff Daddy and Berry’s actor-husband. And, of course, Sydney Poitier, who got an honorary Oscar, with his family. When he received his Oscar, Poitier was honored with a standing ovation and reverent silence as he delivered his speech marked by unmistakable humility, praising his fellow Black actors for rising above themselves and reaching that unreachable star, making true that impossible dream, against all odds.
Maybe, local award-giving bodies can learn a thing or two about giving tribute to acting stalwarts (like FPJ who got the first-ever Golden Reel Achievement Award in the recent FAP Awards) from the Sydney Poitier segment which traced the man’s career with choice clips from his films, highlighted by his classic scene in In The Heat of the Night where he returned the slap of a white cop (Rod Steiger) with a bigger, more resonating slap. "They call me Mr. Tibbs!" Remember Poitier’s unforgettable line from that scene?
I’m sure many of us felt... nostalgic?... when the Cirque du Soleil did a breath-taking number to dramatize "the magic of movies" because the Cirque was here for a limited performance at the Big Dome only a few weeks ago.
What I found very touching was the feature on New York, still reeling from the 9/11 attack, introduced by limelight-shy actor-director Woody Allen who sets all his films in his beloved city. With Liza Minnelli’s song New York, New York as background, the segment showed clips from films shot in and around New York which made me misty-eyed because I actually stayed – and briefly worked – in The Big Apple for four months after the EDSA I, and those scenes were as familiar to me as the lines on my palm.
Now, isn’t it hard to imagine New York without those twin towers looming amidst the skyscrapers, one of which (The Empire State Building in Manhattan where my friend Raoul Tidalgo holds office as Entertainment Editor/Columnist of The Filipino Reporter) was immortalized in An Affair to Remember (and, later, Sleepless in Seattle)? Still and all, The City That Never Sleeps stands tall and Liza Minnelli is right: If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere... notwithstanding what happened on 9/11.
The Oscars has a way of honoring the dear departed (In Memoriam), this year including Jack Lemmon, Aaliyah, Anthony Quinn and George Harrison whose song While My Guitar Weeps was played as The Silent Beatle’s smiling face was flashed on the screen.
Every year, after every Oscar event, the images (cartoon characters like those from Monsters, Inc. and Shrek mixing with the well-heeled audience, faded photographs and clips from movies of yesteryear, etc.) linger as beautiful memories do, and we remember the sounds, too, and the witty/humorous remarks delivered both by guest speakers and winners, and, but of course, Wonderful Whoopi.
Introducing a presentor from Australia for the Achievement in Live Action/Animated Short Film Whoopi said, "That phrase (Down Under) always makes me think passionately of Russell Crowe," the llamado bet (for A Beautiful Mind) who lost to Denzel.
Commenting on Hugh Grant, who presented the trophy to the winner of the Best Musical Score, Whoopi said, "I’m glad that he’s scoring again," eliciting mild laughter from the audience.
At one point, somebody from the balcony let out a scream, rudely interrupting Whoopi who hardly lost her poise. She said, "Wipe up when you’re done!" (You got the joke, didn’t you?) But Whoopi was generally "well-behaved" throughout the ceremony, perhaps bearing in mind critics’ reminders for her to "make it clean" when she turned too green for comfort in past Oscars.
When the four-hour-plus show was over, the words of Sydney Poitier I’m sure echoed in our minds, celebrating the triumph of Black actors: I arrived in Hollywood at the age of 22 in a time different than today’s, a time in which the odds against my standing here tonight 53 years later would not have fallen in my favor. Back then, no route had been established for where I was hoping to go, no pathway left in evidence for me to trace, no custom for me to follow.
Yet here I am this evening at the end of a journey that in 1949 would have been considered almost impossible and, in fact, might never have been set in motion were there not an untold number of courageous, unselfish choices made by a handful of visionary American filmmakers, directors, writers and producers... I benefitted from their effort; the industry benefitted from their effort; America benefitted from their effort; and in ways large and small the world has also benefitted from their effort...
"...I accept this award in memory of all the Afro-American actors and actresses who went before me in the difficult years, on whose shoulders I was privileged to stand to see where I might go..."
And on that note, let’s cheer the Oscars right on. See you at the 2003 Oscars. Same time, same place.