Hey, Kate, Next Time ‘Waive’ The Speech
by Veritas Obviam
As we move into the overpraise season in Hollywood, here’s a new rule for nominees. If you come to the podium, have something to say. Anything. Thank a list, tell a joke…SOMETHING. You’re a professional performer, for goodness sake. The completely shocked gasping for air charade we got from Miss Winslet at the Golden Globes was a disingenuous farce. You can’t believe it? You mean during your 5 hours of hair and makeup or your multiple gown fittings it never occurred to you that you MIGHT POSSIBLY WIN? It’s not like they pulled you in off the street and plonked you down next to Leo. You had some time to mull it over. You couldn’t scratch out a few notes during the mud treatments while they changed your eye cucumbers? Your publicist didn’t mention that you statistically had a 20% shot in two different categories? You wouldn’t go on Leno without half rehearsing some shtick about your dog or the bad salad you made at your dinner party. But on an awards show with thirty times the audience you want extra ‘cute’ points for pretending to be so humble you never dreamed you might be called upon to waddle up to the mike?
Kate, come on. You’re in the only Holocaust movie. Can you say ‘lock’?
Here’s an option for all nominees going forward: you don’t have to go up there and be a nitwit. (“Gather…”) You can rise royally from your seat, pose and luxuriate in the applause and then park your clueless fanny back on the plush. We’ll DHL the dopey trophy to you and you can give it to your…whoever. The next winner will pick up the slack and you may even grab some Garbo mystery gloss.
It’s like a fair catch in football. Wave your arm and you don’t have to run it back. Just sit back down. No foul.
Or here’s an even more radical idea: you’re the master thespian…ACT like an award winner.
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53 Comments
Here’s a tip: DON’T WATCH AWARDS SHOWS IF YOU DON’T LIKE TO HEAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
She is just another Hollywierd dingbat. All these award shows are so fake its not funny. What a waste of airtime.
Kate Winslet was almost as convincing playing the role of “flummoxed awards recipient” as she was playing the suppressed and depressed suburban house-wife in Revolutionary Road. Gawd she is awful. I wouldn’t cast her in a community theater production of “A Chorus Line,” much less give her two big-time awards.
Well, if you’ve seen old films of early Oscar speeches, from the 30s and 40s, they used to just walk up to the mike and say thank you. That’s it. The elaborate thank yous and speeches is something that kind of evolved.
Frankly, I could have done without half the Oscar speeches I have heard in my lifetime. I stopped watching Awards shows a couple years ago since the picks are either predictable or bogus.
They are acting even when receiving an award..that’s Hollyweird.
Yes, Stinky, you’re absolutely right. Winslet is a joke of an actress. She’s got no talent. Yeah. Her work in Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Eternal Sunshine, Little Children, Sense & Sensibility, Holy Smoke, Heavenly Creatures and Hideous Kinky was just god-awful. She’s just the worst out there.
Um….are you for real? I mean seriously…what planet are you living on? Do you even like movies? Do you appreciate the art that is acting?
I mean seriously….is this website a joke or what? Mindless attacks against Hollywood and its players. Yikes. I’m outta here…
Thank goodness I missed this “show”. yawn Appears many other people have tuned out Hollywood…the ratings are in.
ACTIONMAN
Perhaps if you don’t have any explanation for your remarks you should leave. Mindless attackas against mindless Hollywood “actors” seems fair to me.
Kate Winslett is a fine actress.
The fact, based on her acceptence speech, that she’s also a ditz is another matter.
One can only hope that ActionMan will keep his word…”Yikes, I’m outta here…”…but I have a terrible feeling that he will be back. Please advise if troll-feeding is prohibited on this site.
Most people need to realized that they are “actors”. Most of them can’t hold a real intelligent conversation unless there are lines written for them.
Interview show are funny (and sad) to watch because the actors can’t usually hold a good conversation. The hosts have to drag a good sentence out of them.
“Or here’s an even more radical idea: you’re the master thespian…ACT like an award winner.”
I think that is precisely what she was doing. Acting like how she thinks a winner should act.
New rule for awards season: if the acceptance speech stinks, rescind the award and give it to the second-highest vote-getter.
Actors used to be the lowest rung on the societal ladder… just sayin’
Is it something to do with the concept of adulthood today? To be adult in a more traditional way, to behave in public a certain way, wear a suit, wear a hat, have a speech prepared, it’s just so dull, I suppose. Maybe this is all part of a kind of dumbing down of adulthood and adult responsibilities and behavior (says anonymous commenter on blog…..I know, I know).
I like Kate Winslet, though. She’s a lovely, warm actress.
*Oy, and what’s all this about Slumdog as the first pic of the Obamatimes or Obamanation, or whatever? Hey, it’s film that could just as easily be seen from a right of center perspective as left, like any good film, it could go either way! Why this need to grab everything for one side?
BACK OFF!
Kate Winslet is a wonderful actress. She’s one of the few “movie stars” I’ll drop a dollar on.
If you want to diss on someone, try Tracy Morgan and Tina Fey. He’s a talentless boob and she’s a one-note control freak. If it weren’t for Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock” would suck.
Kate Winslet is a very talented, charming and entertaining actress who has a resume full of fine performances. Yeah, her acceptance speech was dumb, as are most of them. The attacks on her, and on practically every other actor in Hollywood, on this website are just sad.
If the actors can dish it out. They can very well take it.
Stumpy I agree so much I’ve just started Conservatives4Winslett.
Okay so she has a mile wide restraining order out on me (in every direction including up) –but that’s totally unjustified and all a misunderstanding over a clothing malfunction.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a conservative say, “If it weren’t for Alec Baldwin, this would suck…”
Did I miss something, or did the devil finally get his mink coat?
Veritas Obviam might just be a high school girl in disguise.
Count me as another Winslet fan. And she’s not dumb at all. She’s very smart.
I didn’t see what she did on the Globes, because I didn’t watch. But everything an actors does in front of their peers isn’t necessarily phony. Of course, this could have been an act. Maybe she thought it was charming.
I enjoyed this item very much, V.O., especially the shout out to football. In keeping with the theme, I have a new idea about the format for these awards show that might possibly increase ratings. I think all the people nominated should carry those red challenge flags. When the winner is announced and they give their speech, the others nominated in that category can throw the flag if they feel their acceptance speech would have been more worthy of the statue/trophy/record player…whatever. We would need judges but wouldn’t that be great! Reality TV comes to the awards show. Imagine if Jolie threw the challenge flag. We could really see which performance is indeed worthy of the award.
New rule for awards season: if the acceptance speech stinks, rescind the award and give it to the second-highest vote-getter.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think Angelina Jolie would be happy to take Kate’s sloppy seconds. Kate Winslett is a very good actress but she needs to have her PR person (who is probably more witless than she is) go over the do’s and don’ts. Here is an idea, watch an awards show from 1954. Get some class.
At least she didn’t pull the “go to the bathroom while your name is called” act. Now that was a farce.
Winslet can act, she just needs a few takes which don’t exactly work on live TV.
I tell you, I get no respect, no respect at all, I congratulated her on her wonderful pair of Golden Globes, and she slapped me.
(insert drum-shot)
But seriously folks.
People take the award shows waaaay too seriously.
I blame Method Actors.
Before them actors were viewed as just people with jobs that afforded them a lot of wealth and fame. They had a certain amount of adoration, but no one really took them that seriously. Then Method Actors came along and suddenly people started praising them for their “depth” and “insight” because of their ability to use the night their goldfish died to help them cry on cue.
Suddenly actors then thought every one of their brain-farts was some incredible piece of insight into the human condition whether they knew what they were talking about or not. And that pretty much ruined awards shows, and ultimately Hollywood.
Here’s what I don’t get. Many presenters are actors, yet they come up and read from a teleprompter. It’s often a lame and unpleasant ‘presentation’.
Don’t they memorize oodles of dialogue for roles? It seems incredibly lazy on their part. Their awards, their appearance, and their parties; that’s what it’s about. God forbid actors should tap into their skills for the show.
‘You couldn’t scratch out a few notes during the mud treatments while they changed your eye cucumbers?’
Great line.
I hope Kate or some member of Team Winslet is reading here in the event she does win on Oscar night.
“Gather”
-Priceless/Clueless
James Cagney’s acceptance speech when he won the best actor is the way to do it:
“I’ve always maintained that in this business, you’re only as good as the other fellow thinks you are. It’s nice to know that you people thought I did a good job. And don’t forget that it was a good part, too.”
Seriously guys, if you want this website to be taken seriously as a legitimately different take on arts and entertainment, then bashing on Kate Winslet is a seriously dumb move. I’d like a show of hands from the room, exactly what Kate Winslet movies have you ACTUALLY SEEN? She’s only been making movies for 15 years, and has put together an impressive body of work, including five Oscar nominations. But don’t let the concept of an “informed opinion” distract you from this site’s apparent mantra: all actors=bad people.
p.s. At least rent Heavenly Creatures, which remains both Winslet’s best performance and Peter Jackson’s true masterpiece.
I think you are being too hard on Kate. She is an actress, she’s at an acting awards show, she won, not once, but twice. I think she was genuinely overcome. Yeah, she could have been a little more poised, but she just came off as real to me. Also, I guess I’m being easy on her because she isn’t one of those overly political actresses. She seems to act and keeps her mouth shut about stuff no one really wants to hear. For the record, I did not watch the Globes. What a time waster! I saw her speech later online.
Honestly, the fact that ANY nominee or winner can even halfway convincingly pretend like they regard the Golden Globes as being worth anything (third least-credible tv/film award on the planet – only the People’s Choice Awards and Ted Baehr’s outfit are bigger jokes) is amazing in and of itself.
Kate Winslet should ALREADY have enough small golden men to recreate the battle of stalingrad in 1/12th scale, were there justice in the world. I don’t care if she got up there and started reciting Cher lyrics – she’s earned it.
I felt very ashamed for this ham-actress stunt…
TX, if you don’t mind me asking, if an actor like, say, Kelsey Grammar talks about politics, do you also want him to “shut his mouth”, or does your request for the suspension of the First Amendment only apply to people you disagree with? If this site is going to complain about your political voices being “silenced” in the entertainment industry, you don’t really do your cause any good when you demand that YOUR opponents be silent. Just sayin’….
Great post. I like Kate Winslet as an actress, and perhaps she deserved both awards. Having said that, I think that a professional grownup thespian-type should have the presence of mind to simply walk up to the mike, smile broadly and graciously, and say “thank you” without babbling away and gasping in “surprise.” Critiquing her grotesque parody of an acceptance speech is hardly silencing the “chill wind of dissent” over political discourse.
The only speech I found remotely interesting was Steven Spielberg’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omIVMsXR3Jo . I might be imagining things but I felt like his speech took some of the air out of the balloon of some of the celebrities’ lofty pointless rhetoric at 5:00 on. Spielberg talks of the “hard economic times,” the impulse to “make more movies for a broader audience” and that we shouldn’t forget that we are “an audience of individuals.” (!) That had to have rubbed some of the “high-minded” actors wrong. I got the sense that some felt it was condescending and like they were being lectured to by their dad. I think it was sage advice and a glimpse at the philosophy that has made Spielberg one of the most beloved, and one of the most politically unbiased, directors in the history of cinema.
I didn’t think it was all that bad. She was quite obviously genuinely overcome, and so sounded a bit silly at first. But once she gathered herself, she was basically fine.
I have seen several of Kate’s films, she is not bad, just over-rated she is not a Juliette Binoche, or even a Adrey Tautou this being just my opinion. Heavenly Creatures gosh I could not even say what the gist of that film was it is so unremarkeable not even sure I finished it, Titanic was her best that I have seen, Sense and Sensiblity ughh she just ruined it for me all she did was read her lines no acting to pass judgement on. Will not see reveloutionary road looks a lil too pretentious for me. The Reader no just no to that one.
As for her acceptance speech good grief you would have thought she cured cancer by her reactions, but that is what I like about the awards their perception of self worth is priceless and enviable it should be bottled and given to the masses it is just that good.
To “Pete”: Liberal actors are gonna shoot off at the mouth no matter what. We can’t force them to shut-up, I want them to choose to shut-up. The same old Bush-bashing tirades are played out after 8 years. The rest of us are tired of it. I saw “Titanic”. Winslet’s body of work never interested me. She works in genres I don’t care for.
Russ, Alec Baldwin’s performance on “30 Rock” is amazing. Donaghy is the most likeable character on the show, in part because it’s written by a cloistered-liberal as a send-up of right wing corporatist values. Liz Lemon is supposed to be the sympathetic character, but she’s an annoying complainer. If they’d get rid of Tracy Jordan and the blond woman from Ally McBeal, it might be “Must See TV”.
Listentomuse…Winslet has done films in genres including costume (Sense and Sensibility, Quills), Adult Drama (Little Children, Revolutionary Road), Comedy (Eternal Sunshine, The Holiday), Biopic (Iris), Psychological Thriller (Heavenly Creatures), and Epic Romance (Titanic), among others. That’s an awful lot of genres. So, are you saying that if she did a Western maybe you’d care?
She earned an Oscar for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but the academy didn’t pay up. Just pretending to be in love with Jim Carrey should get a nomination every time. I think she’s the strongest young (or does 33 count as “middle-aged” in Hollywood) actress; without a male peer, except maybe Robert Downey, Jr.— who’s no spring chicken…
Wow. Lot of bitterness here, huh?
I didn’t realize standing up for conservative principles also entailed taking mean-spirited, anonymous and semi-anonymous potshots at actors who displease with their concession speeches. I’d say “get a life,” but I’m leaving a comment here, so there’s some pot/kettle stuff attached to doing so. Think I’ll go for a walk.
hahahaha she’s a good actress, but that speech she made at THE GG was soooooooooooo fake! for some reason acting on Tv and acting for the film looks so different. she needs TV acting training
Winslet whined in a bunch of recent interviews about not winning an Oscar, so I’m not surprised she won the GG. I enjoy her performances, but it sure looked like she was “acting” when she accepted her award.
I wonder how self-important she’ll come across if she does win her first Oscar.
I won’t even watch these mindless award shows anymore. There’s to much blah, blah, blah..speeches..However, I’ve heard her acceptance speech was longer than everyone elses speeches combined. DANG…sorry I missed that!!! I do wish the woman would learn to keep her clothes on once in awhile though. Her children will be thrilled when they grow up to see mummy naked with all these men who aren’t their daddy!!!
Pete, none of those movies you listed looked interesting to me. Plus, nobody makes Westerns anymore. C’mon.
My GF, however, has seen all of those flicks.
Pete-All I’m saying is I’d prefer actors stick to what they know how to do, act. Of course they have a constitutional right to speak their minds and I’m not suggesting their rights need to be “suspended”. Frankly, I don’t really like hearing any actor, conservative or liberal, spout off their political views. I just want to be entertained by them. I’d prefer to go elsewhere for political views. I didn’t demand anyone be silent. I just like it when they are, that’s a big difference…just sayin!
So tell me TX Biscuit, how would you feel if all of your peers told YOU that “they didn’t like hearing you spout off your political views”? You’d be pretty insulted, no? But I guess that the free speech rights that you personally wouldn’t give up don’t apply to a subset of public figures that YOU happen to disagree with.
Listentomouse, just what movies do you actually watch?
Well said!!! They should have stripped her of that award right then and there for a horrible “live” performance. Self righteous dingbats!
Winslet was absolutely wonderful in Eternal Sunshine.
They pay huge fees to publicists to keep them in the news, they whine about not winning, the studios promote them – yet they do win they are breathless with surprise. Nothing is more horrifying than an actor without a script.
Morgan Freeman’s acceptance speech at the Oscars – that’s the way to accept an award.
I second that CBK, though I did like it when Maureen Stapleton said, quite succinctly, that she thanks everyone she ever knew in her life—she did not take our time to list them.
See how Leo is saying Kate is “overdue” for her Oscar? Well, to the Hollywood, she probably is…though she has not “done the frump” that guarantees an Oscar (see Cher, Charlize, Sally…) Would her win be the blueprint for the next Oscar bait role, the repressed, angry suburban female pedophile?
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