With all of the hoopla over her win, the backlash that followed against Oprah in her own show was just as much. Her statements to the media were of course outrageous, but there are things that Oprah actually said that shouldn’t be ignored.
Oprah said, “I don’t think a black woman has ever won an Oscar.” This is not true. Of the four best picture nominees, three were white and one was white.
But perhaps the criticism of Oprah was that she didn’t give enough credit to the true “Oscar’s” nominees. Perhaps she didn’t mention how much better than expected white actors like Christian Bale and Russell Crowe did with their respective roles. Perhaps she didn’t mention that the two best actress nominations went to Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett. And perhaps she didn’t bring up the fact that Julie Andrews took home two best supporting actress nominations, for Blue Jasmine and the movie “Gone with the Wind”.
In fact, it might be more apt to say that when it comes to acting categories, Oprah did not nominate herself for best actress. That would have been to blatantly put herself above the rest of the nominees. Her comments, therefore, are probably best left forgotten. But just in case, let’s take a look at some of her other comments.
“When they call me for an award and say, ‘You won, you won,’ I get chills, but I’m not going to go to them and congratulate them on having such an enlightened and strong voice,” she said. Perhaps she missed that Oscar last year?
“I never go to them, so I don’t know what it’s like to be an African-American woman trying to be an award-winning actress,” she said. Apparently, there are other Emmy’s that she should be aware of. Maybe she missed those.
She also said, “It is very important to us, it makes us feel good, but sometimes the reality is very different.” Perhaps Oprah missed that time she married into the entertainment industry, or that this reality TV show evolved into her lucrative network of “The Apprentice.”
In any case, Oprah’s comments didn’t really help matters, but she may be wise to keep quiet for awhile. Who knows what the next controversy is going to be? Oprah has already caused quite a stir with her comments.
