Dear Gossips,
As Sarah wrote yesterday in her post about the Karla Sofía Gascón mess, the situation has had repercussions all over the award season calendar – and is definitely shifting momentum in the Oscar race overall.
Netflix is reshaping the Emilia Pérez Oscar campaign, minimising Karla’s presence as much as possible, and will no longer support her presence at any of the major events preceding the Oscars, and we’re going into a busy weekend. The AFI Awards luncheon is tomorrow. The Critics’ Choice Awards are Friday. On Saturday it’s the Producers Guild and the Directors Guild. And on Sunday, she was supposed to be at the Santa Barbara Film Festival to receive the Virtuoso Award – one of eight performers who were announced as honorees… including co-star Selena Gomez.
Sure, it’s possible that Karla could fund her own trip, but according to Variety she was only paid about $100K for her work in the film, her highest-profile work to date. That’s a lot of money for regular degulars but not much at all for a celebrity when you account for all the expenses required for weeks of campaign stops.
The impact of Karla’s controversy isn’t just limited to her career. Sarah mentioned in her post that Zoe Saldaña’s chance at the Best Supporting Actress Oscar could be affected. Variety’s most recent Oscar predictions list actually has Ariana Grande as the current favourite in that category. The Hollywood Reporter’s updated list still has Zoe in the lead but Emilia Pérez came out of Oscar nomination day with the most nominations and was expected to contend for Best Picture. Karla’s scandal has meant that A Complete Unknown is now surging.
Both Variety and THR are saying that A Complete Unknown is the current Best Picture frontrunner, with Timothée Chalamet sitting in the top spot for Best Actor. Timmy has made up some ground on Adrien Brody over the last few weeks. And it’s the job of Oscar strategists to know about these momentum changes, so it’ll be interesting to see what impact any of this will make on the contenders over the next few days as the campaign caravan moves from one event to the other, back to back to back.
And then there’s Demi Moore, the presumed favourite in the Best Actress category, who remains unbothered but not taking anything for granted. She and Pilaf were at Jimmy Kimmel Live! yesterday. It’s a really good interview, and if any Oscar voters were watching, it would have only added to the goodwill she accrued after her speech at the Golden Globes, which Jimmy asks her about. And we could all take something away from her answer. Because she frames that “popcorn actress” comment that she referenced into what happens when we allow other people’s words to have power over us. That idea also connects to the major themes of The Substance. Then, many of her greatest hits come out: GI Jane, Ghost, and St Elmo’s Fire! JULES FOREVER!
By the way, did you know that Demi Moore does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?! Won’t be long now.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
