lady_daemon

I realise this is a little late, but I was just sent the link by a friend with the title 'I agree with Spike Lee'.

Apparently Spike Lee is a little miffed with George Clooney for his acceptance speech at the Oscars (tm), particularly the moment when he made reference to Hattie McDaniel winning a gold statue for her role in 'Gone With the Wind'. For those of you reading this, and from the responses I've been getting there are none of you, Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen presented the two best performances in the movie. It must have killed them to do it, but it WAS a period piece about the civil war.

Spike thought that George was speaking in poor taste (my words, not his) when he made reference to Hollywood giving the award for playing a slave. (Did I mention it was a period piece about the civil war?)

I remember being introduced to a young actress by the name of Hallie Barry in a movie called 'Queenie' and an actor named LeVar Burton in 'Roots', both from books written by Alex Hailey. Excellent performances both. Do I need to mention Oprah Winfrey in 'The Color Purple'? It's okay to play a slave so long as Hollywood doesn't give you an award for it?

I saw the Oscars (tm) that night and I think what Mr. Clooney meant was that at a time when African-Americans were still being shuttled to the back of the bus, if they were allowed to ride at all, and being treated like, well let's face facts, dirt, Hollywood rewarded a black actress for her performance, no matter the subject. If there's a problem with anything it is not with Mr. Clooney's words, it's with the scripts that were being given to African Americans in the early thirties. Once in a while the Academy could see the real talent.

I wonder if little people would have been just as angry if Mr. Clooney had mentioned 'The Wizard of Oz'?

Excellence is excellence no matter what race, creed, color, religion or height.

George was right.

She was good.

It was her material that was small.

Lady D.