Meryl Streep needs to clear another spot in her trophy case
Another honor for Meryl Streep. An underwhelming response to the latest movie from an Oscar-winning director. And a 91-year-old academy member wondering why he can no longer vote for the Oscars.
Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season leading up to the Oscars.
I’m Glenn Whipp, The Times’ awards columnist and your newsletter host.
Yet another award for Meryl Streep
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Wednesday that Meryl Streep will receive its Cecil B. DeMille Award, a career prize honoring her for, I guess, the blank spaces between the eight Golden Globes she has already won during her celebrated career.
Streep figures to earn yet another nomination this year for her sly comic turn in “Florence Foster Jenkins.” If she does, it would make it an even 30 for her resume. The 67-year-old actress last won a Globe in 2012 for playing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.”
Streep will receive her award at the Globes ceremony on Jan. 8.
‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ faces troubling reviews
In the last update to my Oscar Watch predictions, I wrote about the disparate reactions that Ang Lee’s latest movie, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” has been producing since its New York Film Festival premiere. The drama, which uses innovative technology to tell the story of an Iraq War hero’s homecoming has a 55 rating with the movie review aggregator Metacritic. It’s going to need a vocal champion when more reviews hit before its Nov. 11 opening. For now, I’ve removed it as an Oscar contender across the board.
Academy moves members to emeritus status
One element of the film academy’s sweeping membership changes announced in January was a plan to thoroughly review the credentials of current members. Guidelines were established, and if members didn’t meet them their status would be shifted from active to emeritus. They would keep all their membership privileges save for one: They would no longer be able to vote for the Oscars.
The academy has completed the months-long review, estimating that between 60 to 70 members have been moved to emeritus status. That’s a small number compared to the 335 academy members culled under Gregory Peck’s similar directive in 1970. But it still feels like an injustice if you’re one of the people affected. I spoke to one such member, 91-year-old screenwriter Robert Bassing, in this story, which also outlines the academy’s position and the historical context.
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