Damien Bona - Inside Oscar 2: 6 New Years of Academy Awards History: 1995-2000

INSIDE
OSCAR 2

BY DAMIEN BONA

BALLANTINE BOOKS * NEW YORK

Contents

In memory
of
Mason Wiley

Acknowledgments

Happily, an acknowledgments page is not like an Oscar acceptance speech. One doesnt have to rush through it all in forty-five seconds or risk being drowned out by the orchestra. Which is a good thing, because so many people were instrumental in Inside Oscar 2.

As always, thanks for everything to my family: my mother, Alma, and late father, Arthur, my sister Amy, brother-in-law Neil Cohen, and, of course, three very excellent nieces, Emily, Elizabeth and Claudia Bona-Cohen, as well as Jo Pea, Agnes Racadio and Olive Pea.

Bill Condon and Joe Smith have each been particularly integral parts of Inside Oscar from the very beginningand thats going back to the early months of the Reagan administration. Their support and generosity have been invaluable, and Im extraordinarily lucky to have been blessed with their friendship.

The great Rosanna Arce-Arriaga has also been there from day one with her unsurpassed warmth, high spirits and ardent encouragement. And she and her husband, Marco Arriaga, both know from Rhoda Borgnine. Umm, Rosy, Jill is looking for you.

Every writer should be so fortunate to have as great an editor as Joe Blades; besides, without his energetic and steadfast support, thered be no Inside Oscar 2. And my friend and trusty agent, Lynn Seligman, was tireless in making sure the book happened. Thank you, my wonderful pal Heather Smithan authors dream publicistand thanks also to the rest of the invaluable Ballantine team: associate editor Pat Peters, senior production editor Dave Barrett, and copy editors Heather M. Padgen and Nancy Inglis.

Im also deeply indebted to Spencer Beckwith for the amazing, extensive help he rendered by reading early drafts of the manuscript and providing insights and laughs. Very special thanks also to Helen Wiley, Marian Payson, Margo Wiley and Gilbert Cole.

Heartfelt gratitude goes to the staff of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the Library for the Performing Arts, who collectively make up one of New York Citys great unsung treasures: Bob Taylor, Karen Nickerson, Charles Squire, Roderick Bladel, Patricia Darby, Elisabeth Elkind, Christopher Firth, Christine Karatnytsky, Barbara Knowles, Mark Maniak, Annette Marotta, Jeremy Megraw, Brian OConnell, Dan Patri, Louis Paul, Mary Ellen Rogan, Olive Wong, Henry Pierre, Donald Fowle, David Bartholomew and the late Ed Sager. Also, Eydee Wiggins, Elmer Sampaga, Farah Belizaire, Junelle Carter, Jehira Concepcion, Larry Forde, Nialah Holmes, Ronald Limage and Louise Martzinek. My thanks also to Kristine Krueger and Jeni Giancoli of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

I tend to write late into the night, and Tiffany the Cat was great about staying up with me. Shes also the perfect diversion whenever writers block hits.

Ed Sikovthe best writer I knowhas, as always, been a terrific inspiration. Zach Campbells passion for film and his perspicacity did wonders for rekindling my enthusiasm about movies. Esteban Chalbaud and Ed Gonzalez provided valuable input on what I had wrought, and were great morale boosters. And all of the following people have helped me in a pleasing assortment of ways: Bob Montgomery, Mark Sullivan and Elizabeth Terhune, Susan Blair Ross, Gnarley OStain, Jack Morrissey, Bruce Finlayson, Jason Pomerance and Sam Destro, Tom Rhoads, Joel Cohen, Howard Karren and Ed Christie, George Robinson, Andy Dickos, M. Ira Hozinsky, Michael J. Giltz, Adam Orman, Jace Weaver, Jeff Zeitlin, Susie Day and Laura Whitehorn, Ron Fried and Lorraine Kreahling, Steve Garland, Lori Solinger, Rose Jannicola, Conrad and Tina Romanick, Irene and John Ofcharsky, Honey and Bob Hilzen, Lee Morrow, Judy Rhodes, Bob Hughes, Emily and Irv Fistorella, Margaret and John Galasso, Ann and Nick Vitale, George Callahan, Tom Phillips, Jane Croes, Julia Pearlstein, the San Francisco Giants, the gang at the Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board, Claude Daigle, Rhoda Penmark, Angie DeVito, Niambi Daniels, Tasha Guevera, Fr. Roger Fawcett, Eloise Eisenhardt, Lynn Kotula, Susan Davis, Doug Culhane, John Norwell, Ned Byrne, Dennis Russo, Vincenza Blank, Shelly Dague, Diana Shaw, Jim Nugent, Helen Kaplan, Kevin Dwyer, Sally Adams, David Beach, and M. Pache.

I must acknowledge all the people from newspapers, magazines, radio and television who have been fans of the original Inside Oscar and over the years have done so much to give it its long life. They are far too numerous to mention, but I hold them all in great affection.

And of course, most especially, the winner of my own personal Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award, Ralph Pea.

Introduction

Inside Oscar 2 picks up where Inside Oscar leaves off. Chronicling the Academy Awards for the years 1995 to 2000, it presents an in-depth look at what the late New York Times critic Vincent Canby called this most particular of American phenomenon.

When Inside Oscar was first published in 1986, the Academy Awards were unmistakably America'sand probably the world'spreeminent annual popular culture event. Yet now, a decade-and-a-half later, the Oscars as they were then seem positively small-time.

Enormous changes have engulfed the Academy Awards in the years encompassed by Inside Oscar 2. Most pronounced has been the extravagantsome might say obsceneamount of money expended on advertising and publicity in the quest for Oscar glory. Although campaigning for the Academy Awards is a venerable tradition, marketing has escalated to unprecedented degrees in the last few years, as epitomized by the extraordinarily prodigal, intensely ego-stroking rivalry between Miramax and DreamWorks.

The vast amount of money spent, the proliferation of trade paper ads to absurd levels, the ingenious forms of subliminal suggestion and intense jockeying for persuasive personal appearances would have seemed like Brave New World material just a few years ago. Now they are a given. Another development since Inside Oscar was first published is that weve been inundated with magazines, television programs (entire networks, in fact), and Internet sites dedicated to, and obsessed with, entertainment and all its attendant froth. As a result, coverage of the Academy Awards has reached proportions bordering on the epic. The most obvious by-product of these new venues is the obsessive attention paid to Oscar night fashions. While the public has always been curious about what guests at the ceremony were wearing, it is only recently that the Oscar telecast has become truly the worlds preeminent fashion show. The Awards are now as much a runway for the worlds leading designersand those newcomers hoping to join their ranksas they are a celebration of Hollywoods outstanding achievements in motion pictures.

Inside Oscar 2 charts all theseand otherchanges over the years. There is one constant, however: Hollywood itself is always in flux. With budgets spiraling and Hollywoods executive suites haunted by ever-greater paranoia regarding job security, mainstream American movies have continuedwith the occasional aberrant good yeartheir steady decline in quality. This, of course, has made it a greater challenge for Academy voters to find, within their purview, worthwhile movies to honor, and the results of their attempts are often quite amusing. There is more than one year detailed in Inside Oscar 2 that has been lambasted as the worst year ever for movies. The book examines the output of each film yearand its not always pretty.