Whoopi Goldberg decided to chime in about the story of the week: Greta Gerwig’s Oscar snub in the director category and Margot Robbie’s Oscar snub in the lead actress category. Weirdly, Whoopi doesn’t see a problem with the snubs. Whoopi is one of only nineteen people in history to have secured the elusive EGOT – Whoopi won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Ghost, a Grammy for a comedy album, a Tony for Thoroughly Modern Millie (in 2002) and two Emmys, one for The View and one for Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel. Whoopi knows about awards and she’s hosted the Oscars four times. Here’s what she had to say:
Whoopi Goldberg is an Oscars legend, having won an Academy Award for “Ghost” and hosted the ceremony four times and served as an Academy board member. So perhaps moviegoers might want to listen to Goldberg when she says there are no such thing as Oscar snubs amid the uproar over Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie missing out on nominations for best director and best actress, respectively, at the 2024 Oscars.
“The message of all of that is not lost on me, but one question I have — and maybe Whoopi is the only one that can answer this — when does it become a snub?” Sara Haines asked Goldberg on “The View” (via Entertainment Weekly). “I know the film, I know the greatness and the money, but that assumes someone else shouldn’t be in there.”
Goldberg answered by saying “everybody doesn’t win” and “you don’t get everything you want to get.”
“There are no snubs,” said added. “That’s what you have to keep in mind: Not everybody gets a prize, and it is subjective. Movies are subjective. The movies you love may not be loved by the people who are voting.”
What’s slightly funny about this is that most people agree that Robbie and Gerwig’s snubs happened because Oscar voters thought Barbie was too light, too funny, too girly, not serious enough, not about important man things like war, bombs or whatever Bradley Cooper’s comically offensive prosthetic nose was about. And Whoopi is one of the rare actors who won an Oscar for a mostly comedic performance. Anyway, Whoopi isn’t wrong – it’s all subjective and not everybody gets a prize. Not to mention, many people win Oscars for everything but their performance that year – Al Pacino winning for Scent of a Woman, simply because he never won for The Godfather, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, etc. You might even say Whoopi won for Ghost because she didn’t win for The Color Purple.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Warner Bros/Barbie.
-
- Whoopi Goldberg attends The Revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” Broadway opening night at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre on October 13, 2022 in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 730441708, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Whoopi Goldberg, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
-
- Whoopi Goldberg attends The Revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” Broadway opening night at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre on October 13, 2022 in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 730441711, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Whoopi Goldberg, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
The conciliatory Oscar win is further proof that the Oscars don’t really mean much beyond the marketing aspect. Not everyone gets a prize and not everyone gets a prize for the film/role that they most deserve it for. But hey, you might get a concession statue next round lol.
What a farce.
Thank you. There are no snubs going on and they should stop going on about it – they look very spoiled and privileged. And they should cease making out it’s a reflection on how women are treated. Some people, inc women – shock, horror – didn’t rate the film.
I dont care about barbie and whether they win or not. I think if people find there’s always a snub, it’s because there are categories missing. I mean for barbie and other movies to have such massive success, that are beloved from so many viewers, that become cultural staples without being recognized is kinda wtf. I don’t approve of tom cruise religious choices, but when is the dude going to get recognized for his work? He’ll be the first to say he’s never looking forward to it.
Preach Whoopi! I agree! If I was an an Oscar voter both Maestro and Barbie would not get one vote from me. All the other nominees I agree with because they are good. I think I might vote for Margot in Barbie. Personally, I do not care how great Greta is in everything. I dislike her and her husband due to my love for Jennifer Jason Leigh. I am very subjective in that situation, I admit.
Ooh, I want to know more about the JJL issue! Spill friend!
I hate to be this person, but in a weird way the way the nominations came down for Barbie really illustrated all the themes of the movie, and thus is keeping it in the public discourse. It’ll never make up for taking home a statuette, though.
Like I said, I am a big fan of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Greta and Noah union might be a match made in heaven but I will never forget how their relationship started.’
https://www.celebitchy.com/850453/greta_gerwig_noah_baumbach_got_married_this_year_at_new_york_city_hall/
Oh yikes, I didn’t know any of that. How distasteful. Thanks for the link, @chantale.
I mean…she’s not wrong. No one is OWED accolades. But also…Whoopi also famously said during the first #OscarsSoWhite campaign that there was NOT a trend of a lack of Black nominees. Which we all knew then was utter BS. So yeah…make of that what you will
She also defended Mel Gibson because he was ‘nice’ to her. Whoopi lives in a bubble.
She’s a classic case of making it, then pulling up the ladder behind her because if the rest of us aren’t as tough/smart as she is, too bad. I’ve lost a lot of respect for her over the years…
While I agree with Whoopi – and I haven’t agreed with her about much lately – I think Steven Spielberg would beg to differ. Bc he was snubbed by Hollywood for several years despite producing some of its greatest and most popular and profitable movies. He also produced the original The Color Purple movie which despite being excellent, was largely snubbed – and I think Whoopi should have won Best Actress for her role. It’s surprising that he’s also one of the producers of this version of TCP and its being mostly snubbed again. Imo, they shouldn’t have remade it as a musical. But congrats to the talented and underrated Danielle Brooks for her nomination as Sophia.
There are some movies that Hollywood doesn’t take seriously and thus doesn’t nominate for major awards. Horror movies, most child actors and superhero movies are routinely shut out of the nominations, no matter how excellent the performances are. And some voters don’t even watch the movies they’re supposed to be voting on. They likely just saw Barbie as a silly movie about a doll, ignored Greta and all of the women in the movie and ignored its messages. Yet they had no problem nominating Ryan Gosling twice. And he’ll probably win one of those nominations…
Let’s not forget the NAACP LA chapter came out against TCP for its depiction of black men. Once that happened, it was a wrap.
I mean she also said roman Polanski was not guilty of “rape rape” so I cant pick and choose which of her statements to get on board with
I did not know this. It’s like Kim Cattrall, not only works with Polanski but publicly defends him on the rape issue. So, however much SJP annoys me, I’ll never get on board with the Kim sympathising.
I didnt know that about Kim. every day I learn something disappointing here.
I know. That’s why I tend not to comment on celebrities outside the UK because I largely get it wrong. And jumped on! I am never sure of the back stories and the details. I could google, but actually that doesn’t help much because it’s too broad brush. But with Kim C she did an interview on UK’s Channel 4 news (from distant memory) defending him. It was a real eye opener.
Let’s not forget her defense of then BF Ted Danson’s forway into blackface minstrelsy. Whoopy reminds me of C. Thomas, in the sense that I believe Black folks were not particularly kind to them growing up, so they are hardened to other people’s suffering since they “rose above” their treatment.
Enthusiast–yep, exactly. These folks never see that their sucking up to power and refusing to see others’ misery is what makes people disrespect them. They show no respect for anyone else.
I (mostly) agree with Whoopie on this. Barbie was the highest-grossing film of the year and has actually been nominated for a number of Oscars — best picture, costumes, screenplay, original songs (2 noms) production design and two supporting actors/actresses. Why assume Academy voters are mysogynistic and anti-female empowerment for not “giving” the film noms for best actress and director? Maybe they felt other actresses and directors actually just did a better job — taste is subjective. I hope Gerwig feels like a winner and empowered because (my opinion only) the screenplay was fantastic and the production design was original, imaginative and impressive. These two awards, coupled with ticket sales, say the film is a big winner. And Margot was the very heart of the film (a best picture nominee) and an executive producer.
Maybe I’m cynical, but should a film be rewarded for highlighting a social justice topic (female empowerment)? And does this snub movement almost feels like a PR ploy to get voters to award Barbie best pic so Gerwig and Robbie can walk away with Oscars in their hands? Again, only my opinion.
@enhusiast! What a great comparison to CThomas & Whoopi. My son has been studying CThomas’s life and has made me watch more documentaries on him and I know things about his life that I would rather not know. He definitely felt shunned by the black community and that may apply to Whoopi also. Great perspective.
I stopped agreeing with whoppi decade ago. There are snubs. I thought the barbie movie was cute. But not Oscar worthy. However the Oscar’s are biased. It is what it is.
There are people saying ‘I guess the movie directed itself’. But there are 10 BP nominees and 5 directors. You could make that same argument for Alexander Payne. The Holdovers is nominated for BP, 2 acting categories (actor and supporting actress), screenplay. Just like Barbie. But Payne wasn’t nominated for director. There just aren’t enough slots and a lot of good movies this year. Each category probably could’ve been 10 and not be fluffed.