Oscars: I Am Not Your Negro

Here is the website.

And here is the trailer.

Released in the US February 3rd - not sure about the UK.

Great to see this and Moonlight nominated.

Owen Jones: The History Boy

Owen Jones, Guardian Online.

Yet another journalist inferring they could deffo name all the previous out Oscar winners - or knew who Howard Ashman was.

Not sure how well OJ would do on a quick quiz of gay history...

Sam Smith: Even If This Isn't The Case

He should be bathing in Oscar glory right now, but instead Sam Smith has woken up to a huge backlash after suggesting he might be the first openly gay man to win an Academy Award.

He’s since followed that up by asserting – wrongly – that he is the second.

Picking up his Oscar for Best Original Song for Bond theme Writing’s On The Wall, Smith said: "I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellan and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar.

“If this is the case – even if it isn't the case – I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world."

What McKellen had actually said, in an interview in January, was that no openly gay man had ever won Best Actor.

While Smith’s heart might have been in the right place, social media is an unforgiving world.

The singer was quickly slapped down by those watching the awards on Twitter, who posted pictures of previous openly gay Oscar winners.

Among them was Dustin Lance Black, winner of Best Screenplay for Milk in 2009, who didn’t hold back.

The screenwriter, who is engaged to British diver Tom Daley, tweeted a clip his own Oscar acceptance speech, and said: “Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé. Here's a start.” ...

Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé. Here's a start: https://t.co/8hGTRtIaMK

— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) February 29, 2016

Smith is not the first or second openly gay man to win an Oscar. He’s not even the first or second to win best original song.

Stephen Sondheim and Elton John both picked up the same award, in 1990 and 1994 respectively.

Disney lyricist Howard Ashman, who died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 40, won two – for Under The Sea from the Little Mermaid in 1989 and a posthumous honour for Beauty and The Beast.

If we’re talking about people and not just men, then singer songwriter Melissa Etheridge also won for Best Original Song in 2007 for I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth.

Outside of his own category, Linda Hunt, Sir John Gielgud, John Schlesinger, Scott Rudin, Bill Condon and Alan Ball are all Oscar recipients.

But the list is not exhaustive and it is perhaps unfortunate that the crux of what Smith was trying to say will get lost amid the outrage...

The Independent.

Love all the journalists getting on their high horses about this, when they clearly had to Google who are the other (out?) gay Academy Award winners.

Oscars: Straight Acting

The Advocate.

Oscars: And The Award For Biggest Victim Goes To...

Ian McKellen, the veteran British actor who found global fame through the Lord of the Rings movies, has cautioned that homophobia is as much of an issue among Academy voters as racism. Commenting on Monday on the current row over the lack of diversity among both Oscar voters and this year’s nominees, McKellen suggested prejudice was the reason no publicly out man had ever received an Academy award for best actor.

He expressed sympathy with black actors angry that they were “being ill-treated and underestimated,” but said the issue was a wider one.

“No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance,” he said, with the implication that he felt it tended towards the former.

Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn have all won best actor Oscars for playing gay men. “How clever, how clever,” said McKellen. “What about giving me one for playing a straight man?" ...

Guardian.

It's chance really, isn't it, dear?

Actually, I'm not sure you could even call it 'chance'.

Can you name one out leading gay actor (out of the six) who you could genuinely say was cruelly snubbed?

Maybe the American Academy Of Motion Pictures could just invent special categories every year so no-one feels left out?

Best Old Poove Playing A Wizard etc.

Update: For some reason it looks like every media outlet on Planet Earth has picked up on this interview. I'm not interested enough to do anymore, but Google some combo of 'McKellen gay Hollywood disregarded'.

Oscars: No Moore

[Graham Moore shared] with the millions of telecast viewers that at the age of 16, he tried to kill himself “because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt that I did not belong. And now I’m standing here, and I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do. … Stay different, and then when it’s your turn, and you’re standing on this stage, please pass the message to the next person that comes along.”

I wish that Moore had drawn a clearer line between his comments about Turing—a man who was persecuted and prosecuted for his homosexuality—and his “it gets better” message to teens who are merely weird and different. For one thing, overemphasizing the connection between queer teens and suicide can be dangerous. But it’s also important to note that being gay simply isn’t the same as being a “geek.” Moore may see them as comparable (and, though he has identified himself as straight, his affect may have opened him up to homophobic bullying), but the truth of the matter is that the social force behind anti-gay prejudice is far stronger and more pernicious than the animus against social outcasts. Moore’s heart was surely in the right place, but I wish he hadn't conflated these identities.

June Thomas, Slate.

Well said.

Can't see why some people are gushing over this boo hoo squish squish patronising gay death cult guff.

Update: Though he appears to be absolutely screaming, Graham Moore has reiterated to BuzzFeed News that he is not gay. Deffo.

Update2: Oops! - thanks to Nick. x

Update3: More from Slate's J Bryan Lowder, Is It “Weird” to Be Gay? What Graham Moore’s Speech Really Means.

Correction Of The Day: Guardian Film Blog

Guardian.

Bit ironic when you start by mocking getting someone's name wrong.

Obviously Fagburn never makes any mistakes or hilarious fuck-ups like this - hell no!

Doomsday Diaries: 75 Best Supporting Actresses

LOL! etc etc.
I think I'm in love...

The King's Speech: If These Walls Could Talk They'd Moan

A story that some of the scenes in The King's Speech - sorry, "Oscar front-runner The King's Speech..." - were filmed in the same London building as a gay porn film has gone viral and global.
The story was broken by gay smut site, QueerClick, yesterday.
Today you can read all about it everywhere from Guardian Film to something called CarRentals.co.uk ("The Car Hire Comparisons Search Engine").
Though the journalist for CarRentals.co.uk may have been moonlighting from Psychic News; "When people think of the Academy Award winning movie The King’s Speech, most people do not think of gay porn..."
I guess it must be a delight in the incongruities that's made this such a popular story - posh and porno, king and queens, high versus low, middle-brow meets gutter.
And the fact that few words in English are guaranteed to drive more traffic to your website than "gay" and "porn" is of course a massive boner bonus.