Oh boy does the Academy have a public relations problem and that problem is the guy they hired to produce the show Brett Ratner. One of the problems they have with him is that he has become the story and that is going to dog the whole awards season. People are going to be waiting to hear what sexist, racist or homophobic thing that will come out of his mouth. And he is such an equal opportunity offender that it won’t take too long for him to fuel the fire. Hey he’s batitng three for three having made a homophobic, sexist and racist remark all in the last couple of days.
This must be killing the Academy powers who thought they were making a great decision bringing in a commercial comedy director to lighten up the ceremony. But I don’t have any pity for them. They knew what they were getting into. And as of now, they are standing behind him but they have made it clear that this cannot happen again. Good luck on that.
In case you haven’t heard the details, the news broke yesterday that at a screening of his new film Tower Heist over the weekend, Ratner made a disgusting homophobic comment about rehearsals. He said “rehearsing is for fags.” Of course that makes no sense because rehearsing is part of acting but it just illustrates his multitude of problems.
Ratner is very comfortable acting like the Hugh Hefner of the film business and his attitude towards women has never been an issue that caused any problems like his homophobic comments did. II’m not saying one is worse than the other. They are both unacceptable. But we know it’s ok to make sexist comments and be a sexist. As Mark Harris said yesterday in a post on Why The Academy Should Fire Brett Ratner “You don’t get a mulligan on homophobia. Not in 2011.” Totally agreed.
But he also shouldn’t get a mulligan on his sexist comment either. I want bloggers to be as pissed off about those comments as they are about the homophobic comments. This guy is an all around offender and has no business being the producer of the Oscars.
This is a guy who went on TV on a show called Attack of the Game to promote his latest film and talked about “banging” actress Olivia Munn and he said it was “before she was Asian” and called herself Lisa. He remarked that she got pissed that he didn’t recognize her when she came in and auditioned for him for a TV show. This is the Oscar producer talking about who is “banged.” Keepin it classy. What a prince.
And also I read this weekend that he is assembling a staff of comedy writers for the Oscars and surprise! the team does not include a single female writer according to the LA Times.
Please put us all out of out misery before this gets even uglier. The Academy should get rid of this guy for all his offenses.
New crop of writers for Oscars indicates a sharp focus on comedy (LA Times)
Why the Academy Should Fire Brett Ratner (Grantland)
Watch Brett Ratner Talk About Having Sex With Olivia Munn (Vulture)
Academy Backs Oscarcast Producer Brett Ratner, But There Is No Room For Screwups (Deadline)
