The Hollywood Reporter – 28.02.2018

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 32 FEBRUARY 28, 2018

ROUNDTABLE: CHARLES W. MURPHY. KRUGER, CAREY, BLIGE, ROBBIE, GYLLE

NHAAL: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC. BIEL, KIDMAN, BROWN, V

IKANDER: STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE. ROSS: VENTURELLI/WIREIMAGE. JOHNSON, SPENCER: FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY

IMAGES. BRITTON: GEORGE PIMENTEL/WIREIMAGE. WINFREY: PAUL DRINKWATER/NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY IMAGES. MOSLEY: JASON MERRITT/GETTY

IMAGES. FURSTENBERG: JAMIE MCCARTHY/WIREIMAGE. BEAUCHAMP: MARK A. VIEIRA. BARCZYK: COURTESY OF SUBJECT.

Editor’s Letter

I

t doesn’t take a 200-page issue of

The Hollywood Reporter to tell you that

this Oscar season was different. The

Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct claims

broke in early October, just as the awards race

was beginning to take shape. As the guild and

critic accolades arrived, they competed for

headlines with disturbing harassment allega-

tions and calls for industrywide reform. By

the time THR’s annual Producer Roundtable,

shot on Oct. 7, ran in print just a few weeks

later, Ridley Scott’s laudatory comments about

his All the Money in the World star Kevin Spacey

had to be edited out because Scott had disap-

peared Spacey from the movie.

Throughout this reckoning (and no, I don’t

think it’s nearly over), prominent industry

figures have used the global platform of the

Oscar race to bring attention to these serious

issues. Sure, politics at awards shows is noth-

ing new, but this year — whether it’s #MeToo,

Time’s Up, gun control or other causes — it

feels more important, more urgent and, yes,

more impactful. Watching Oprah Winfrey

pledge that “a new day is on the horizon” in her

inspiring speech at the Golden Globes (I’m

no presidential pollster, but she won the votes

of everyone at my table at The Beverly Hilton),

it was hard not to feel that this wave of activ-

ism is different.

It’s with this climate in mind that THR edi-

tors put together the annual Oscar Issue, the

biggest magazine we’ve ever produced. There’s

a candid conversation among the only four

African-Americans ever nominated for best

director (page 142), a searing examination of

Weinstein’s formative years before he became

a feared and admired mogul (page 164) and a

look at the so-called “Year of the Woman” in

1993 and the progress that’s been made (or

not) since (page 178). We even asked 11 promi-

nent artists to reconceive the Oscar statuette

— that very manly embodiment of excellence

in Hollywood — as female (page 140).

It is a new day. Maybe the Academy should

change the award’s name to The Oprah.

OSCAR, OPRAH AND THE PROMISE OF

A ‘NEW DAY ON THE HOR IZON’

↑“For too

long, women

have not

been heard

or believed if

they dared

to speak

their truth,”

said Winfrey

at the

Golden

Globes in

January.

↑ Canadian illustrator

Eddie Guy imagined

the Oscar statuette as

a woman.

Stars from

Diane Kruger

(far left)

to Alicia

Vikander

(far right)

wore black

to show

solidarity

for the

Time’s Up

anti-

harassment

movement

at the Golden

Globes.

Novelist Walter Mosley,

66, considers the legacy

of In the Heat of the Night

(page 174) 50 years after

its best picture win. He says

his recent book, Down the

River Unto the Sea, catches

“the spirit and the hope

for freedom,” not unlike,

say, Heat in 1968.

Fashion icon Diane von

Furstenberg, 71, previews

her annual lunch honoring

female Oscar nominees and

discusses Hollywood in

the midst of the Time’s Up

movement (page 52).

Says von Furstenberg of the

March 3 event, co-hosted

by Salma Hayek, “We have

a lot to talk about.”

Matthew Belloni, editorial director

On its 60th anniversary,

documentarian/author

Cari Beauchamp, 67, looks

back at the first Governors

Ball in 1958 (page 114),

when such stars as Paul

Newman and Joanne

Woodward attended the

dinner dance. “It was a

smash success,” she says.

For the cover, conceptual

illustrator Hanna Barczyk,

34, depicted women break-

ing barriers in Hollywood

with an image of a female

shattering the Oscar stat-

uette. “It conveys patterns

of patriarchy cracking and

women fighting in unison to

be heard,” she notes.

BINGE THR ROUNDTABLES

SundanceTV’s Close Up With The

Hollywood Reporter is now stream-

ing on Hulu. Our award-winning

Roundtable series features candid

discussions with top talent in the

Oscar and Emmy races. More than

30 episodes are available to stream,

with new ones going up the day after

airing on SundanceTV. Enjoy! — M.B.

Contributors