Hollywood

The 2022 Oscars drew more viewers than last year’s record-low ceremony, but still fell well below prior years as award shows struggle to attract primetime attention.

The nearly four-hour telecast drew 15.36 million viewers according to time-zone-adjusted fast national numbers from Nielsen, Variety reported Monday. The audience figures show a 56% improvement over the 2021 ceremony, which drew an all-time low of 10.4 million viewers and prompted the Academy and ABC to shake up the program in an attempt to woo more viewers.

After years of declining viewing figures, the Academy were desperate for more people to watch the 2022 Oscars.

They tried all kinds of ways to boost ratings – big stars, live performances, charismatic hosts, a new category and cutting the craft prizes down to edited highlights.

But in the event, a comedian telling a joke and a Hollywood A-lister’s furious over-reaction to it would ultimately be what seized the world’s attention.

UNCENSORED EXTENDED VERSION of Will Smith smacking Chris Rock from Japanese TV pic.twitter.com/s9BZoRyrrm

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 28, 2022

Today’s dull filmstar scolds have turned a must-watch event into a hypocritical bore-fest.

The Oscars used to be massive, didn’t it? A few decades ago, it was a proper big deal in the TV calendar, a seismic cultural event.

You’d read the newspaper previews and predictions for weeks ahead of the air date. You’d have your favourite films and actors, rooting for them with a fan’s fervour as if this was the Premier League (of course, it was the Canon League Division One back then, but I digress).

The morning after the prizes were handed out, you’d try to avoid all mention of who won – mam, turn off the radio! – so you could enjoy that evening’s highlights on terrestrial telly. In the pre-internet days, that was relatively easy. But regardless of knowing the results, you’d tune in later anyway and enjoy every minute.

Hollywood heavy hitters terrified of a dramatic spike in crime are laying out millions for panic rooms, a new report reveals.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, well-heeled denizens of the movie colony and other posh areas in southern California have become increasingly paranoid over a worrying spike in homicides and high-profile robberies.

Talent alone couldn’t keep the lights on

Of all the downfalls in Hollywood history, Michael Cimino’s haunts me the most, destroyed by his artistic ambitions in a corporate town whose rules he didn’t want to play by. Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich may come close, but they never ruined an entire movement or destroyed a film studio. In a single stroke of hubris and artistic obsession, Cimino burnt down the New Hollywood that created him with just one movie: Heaven’s Gate (1980).

“He affects unselfishness, but is in reality fanatically, even maniacally, self-centered…. He is childlike in his pursuit of pleasure, but shrewd and willful in his studied neglect of responsibility. His sensibilities are exquisitely tender, and yet he has a talent for causing pain…He professes universal tolerance and sweetness to all, though is willing to put his friends through shame, fear, and harm rather than see his own comfort threatened.” No, this quote does not refer to Alec Baldwin, apt though it may seem. It is drawn from an essay about Harold Skimpole, a character in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. Revisiting the novel, I was struck by the similarity between Harold Skimpole and Alec Baldwin.

The armorer for Rust is not letting Alec Baldwin off the hook for last year’s tragic on-set shooting in New Mexico that killed one member of the Western film’s staff and injured another.

Responding to Baldwin’s recent court filing in which he tried to evade liability, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed insisted he violated gun safety protocols.

In the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins at his hands, Alec Baldwin knows who is to blame: Halyna Hutchins.

In jaw-dropping court documents filed on Friday morning, Baldwin says she’s the one that asked the gun be pointed at her; that the production was a smooth, well-oiled machine; that her widower, Matthew, has inexplicably gone from amenable to vengeful — and oh, how confusing and upsetting this is to Baldwin; and that hey, no matter what, Baldwin’s contract indemnifies him for any damages.