Proulx pens tirade over ‘Crash’ Oscar

Annie Proulx, who wrote the story that spawned the film “Brokeback Mountain,” has lashed out at members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for passing over that movie in favor of “Crash” for the best picture Oscar.

Writing Saturday in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Proulx said that she and others connected with the film had hoped to win the Oscar on March 5 after it was named best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards the day before.

“We should have known conservative heffalump academy voters would have rather different ideas of what was stirring contemporary culture,” Proulx wrote. “Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good.

“And rumor has it that [Lionsgate] inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of ‘Trash’ -- excuse me -- ‘Crash’ a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves and the debate over free silver.”

She concluded the article: “For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays.”