Halle Barry made a big deal about her race in her absurd "acceptance" speech. She turned the entire thing into a race issue with her speech, trumpeting herself for having "knocked down a door." She didn't knock down any doors. The door was open, she just happened to be the first black woman to walk through it. I will say Denzel Washington was a class act. He got up there and accepted the award like anyone else would have, tipped his hat to Sidney Poitier as was appropriate, and generally came across as the intelligent and grounded guy I think he is.

If you know anything about Poitier, you know that he was never really interested in being "The First Black Actor...” There was a time when he found the attention paid to his race quite irritating. He has always wanted to be known for his art, as a man, not a black man, not his black art. So I wonder how completely thrilled he was with what he said himself last night, and even more that it's 37 years later, and it's STILL a big issue.

Maybe I'm overly sensitive and unrealistic, but to me, under it all, there was still an echo of Hattie McDaniel's wince-worth words of half a century ago: "I hope to always be a credit to my race." Wouldn't it be great if the fact that Halle and Denzel are black was not something that would even be remarked upon?

But I guess you can't get there without going through here first.

Peace.

Like it or not, there is still racism in hollywood.

I do not claim to know everything about the system, but I do know that there are some damn good black actors (of both genders) in hollywood; and they aren't given enough roles, salary or awards. We should be playing on an equal playing field - and we're not.

Halle berry was the first ever black woman to win 'best actress'. Maybe she did overreact; but I don't think that females overreacting is anything new. I personally didn't see her acceptance speech as overly race-based; maybe I missed something.

I agree with the idea that black people don't want to be seen as black - but what does it say that for the first time in 74 years, a female has won? I deny that black people are worse actors - which means that unless it's fantastically unlucky, the system is against them. I don't think that Halle won based on the colour of her skin - maybe in spite of that; but the beauty of our era - the beauty that Halle was celebrating - was that this effect is lessening.

Cheers

Bill

Goofyfish, generally I agree. It's just annoyiong when people go on and on and on about race. I wish people would just get over it and get busy making movies or whatever else they do.

BUT!!! "The Oscars were cheapened"??? HAHAHAHA!!! That whole thing is inherently cheap and tacky. It's like saying the Oscars were more Oscar-ish. Sorry, I'm just being very silly now. :)

Silly? Absolutely not. Youre dead right.

1) There are fewer black actresses
2) There are fewer lead roles in dramatic movies based on african-american situations as seen by american public
3) halle berry acted like a moron and I lost all respect for her

where was memento?
that was an awesome movie,
if you've seen it you probably agree,
and if not you must have heard of it.

so where in hell was it?
corporate america fester deep with my soul
how sad.

What did Requiem For A Dream win? How about Pi?

Two brilliant films (though I would say Pi was better), neither was really acknowledged. Know why? Because they're not movies the normal public would go see.

many good movies are not included,
the american media, a very small amount of media firms,
control 80% of what we see.

so many of these movies are never heard of...
the public is given very little oppourtunity to see obsolete movies,
seeing as all the hollywood companies have advertising arangements with the american cinemas.

im going to bed, except there is no sleeping smiley face

I hate these awards shows. I avoid them like the plague. I could really give a shit about who wins what award. If I like a movie, I like it, not because someone directing or starring in it wins something. I dunno, I just don't like the hollywood-esque productions of these kinds of shows. *shrug*