Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Caution: Beware of Children and Awards


The holiday period was finally over and as the working world returned to its normal routines, I was in the kitchen listening to Q, with Jian Ghomeshi, who was interviewing two people with apparently different views on whether child actors should be eligible for acting awards such as the Oscars. I could only imagine how slow things must have been around the cultural news desk for them to hit the ground running with that hot news potato for the New Year kick-off. And I felt for Mr Ghomeshi, who earlier alluded to some of the nastier traits of a flu-bug that was biting him. Safe from Jian's gastrointestinal dilemma and removed from the raging debate, I poured another cup of joe and turned to a sink full of morning dishes.

That was when one of the guests mentioned how it would be unfair to expect a young child to embark upon the gruelling campaign required when vying for an Oscar or any of the other major movie business prizes. Yes, in the land that "elected" George W Bush twice(!), it's the best campaign that carries the day. And who would expect naive, but talented, young waifs to wrestle in the show-biz mud with the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Being on the eve of Oscar nomination day (Jan 10), I pondered just how many new spins can be put on that publicity machine that delivers the Oscars every year. Hmmm...kids vs adults--yeah, that oughta work. Oh well, with the dishes done I thought about how we might capitalize on some of the award season publicity that is generated by those campaigning adults. Let the kids think of Santa resting after a long Christmas eve and Oscars always going to the best.

Thursday morning I'll greet the nominations with a coffee and a dishtowel over my shoulder, ready to clean up before the campaign cage matches get underway.

  Peter

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