Bruce and Will and Jada and Chris

 At the risk of annoying or boring Daniel Radcliffe, here I am with some opinions.

 First, regarding Bruce Willis’s retirement due to aphasia::

 It’s truly sad he was apparently trotted out for two day jobs (at $2 million per extended cameo/co-star/support) to provide income for a dependent entourage.  Variants of this happened with the latter-day careers of Glen Campbell and Tony Bennett—and air freshener remarks like “he loves to perform’  and “look how he still has muscle memory” are sprayed about to neutralize any comments about the dubious ethics of making a performer work under diminishing physical and mental conditions.

As for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock:

Jada Pinkett Smith could have easily confronted Rock about his history of jokes at her expense somewhere besides the Dolby Theater.  

It’s a stunted, should be outdated, vision of manhood for Will Smith, aware of the certainty of winning the Best Actor Academy Award, to hit Chris Rock over a joke and then for Smith to use his acceptance speech to justify his behavior and link it to Richard Williams.

Yes, Smith has apologized publicly.  

And, yes, the Academy is figuring out ways to defuse Sunday’s fallout on the way to what looks like a mild censure with the likelihood that no Academy personnel will have their employment terminated.

Of course, Will and Oprah are likely to have a CBS summit meeting.

And Will’s autobiography will go to paperback with a bonus chapter mixing rationalizations and apologies.

Frank Rich on 2019 Academy Awards

Excerpt from Frank Rich’s recurring column for NEW YORK magazine:

At some level I must say I just don’t care [who hosts the Academy Awards]. Old media, especially print media, still think the Oscars are a big deal and cover them as if they matter culturally and commercially. But it’s not clear the public cares much anymore. The precipitous decline in Oscar ratings says as much about the decline of Hollywood movies as a centerpiece of American pop culture in the digital age as it does about the tedium generated by the awards show itself.

It certainly doesn’t help the cause that the Academy is about as well run as the Trump White House most Academy members despise. A particularly bizarre move was the attempt — now rescinded — to create a new category for “popular” movies that would have had the effect of segregating a blockbuster like Black Panther from the other contenders at the very time the industry is trying to address its many shortfalls in racial and gender diversity. No wonder it is as hard for the Oscars to recruit a host as it is for Trump to find a chief of staff.

Given that a campaign has been brewing on Twitter for a Muppets-hosted Oscars, I would propose as an alternative Triumph the Insult Dog, whose riotous, Joan Rivers-esque appearance as a commentator on the red carpet at the Tony Awards a decade or so back was as enjoyable an awards-show entertainment as I can recall. Meanwhile, the deposed Kevin Hart might yet be a candidate to succeed John Kelly in the White House. With his history of homophobic tweets, he would fit right in.