Tom O’Neil asked a few of us to send in our thoughts on this idea that the Gothams snubbed Precious and that somehow Oprah was involved. Or maybe there are two different ideas being floated – one is that Oprah and Tyler Perry are making it uncool to like Precious and the other is that the Gothams snubbed Precious and what that might mean for Oscar.
The Gothams snubbed Precious? What does it mean to Oscar? Squat. That’s what it means.
Here is the NY Post’s Lou Lumenick:
The total snub of “Precious” in the Gotham Award nominations yesterday, which Tom O’Neil calls “shocking” in the L.A. Times, tends to confirm my suspicion that awards-wise, the film could¬†suffer a backlash because of its high-profile¬†endorsement by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.
This would be known as the reverse-Oprah effect, which seems to only apply to movies she’s either involved with or films she hypes — like Australia. The thing is, and I’m fairly sure I’m right about this, the movie itself is what makes the difference. I really don’t think, sad to say, that Academy members pay that much attention to Oprah (or anyone else for that matter). If she loves and promotes Juno, people see Juno and love it so it keeps right on going. If she loves and promotes Australia – people see it, hate it and it goes nowhere. People have already seen Precious. That is the part of the equation that reverses the premise of a backlash. The only reason the Gothams went a different direction is that, at this time of year, awards groups like to distinguish themselves from one another.
So when everyone was lining up behind No Country for Old Men, one group decided to honor There Will Be Blood instead. It kind of made a difference for that film. Honoring Precious at the Gothams isn’t going to do much for that movie that it doesn’t already have; honoring The Hurt Locker helps a movie that really does need to be back in the spotlight and doesn’t have Oprah and Tyler Perry pumping up its potential box office returns.
Anyway, please click on over to The Envelope to read what others have to say — people like Steve Pond, Jeff Wells, Gregory Ellwood, etc.