Oscar snub shocks Hollywood

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 10

Oscar snub shocks Hollywood

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles Hollywood has a new scandal on its hands since the Academy Awards nominations were announced on Thursday. The film industry’s biggest money-maker, Steven Spielberg, did not make the list Spielberg was denied the chance to win his first Oscar for directing “The Colour Purple,” which received 11 nominations, including one for best picture. He had “no comment” but the whole town was talking and Los Angeles newspapers gave the snub equal billing with the nominations. Some of the comments read like poster slogans for a new film: "Shocking,” “Vendetta,” “Snubbed.”

The Los Angeles "Herald Examiner” asked, "What did the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and • Sciences, which selects the nominees) think Spielberg was doing

when all this was being created — planning the next sequel to his 'Raiders of the Lost Ark’?” Spielberg, the director of “Jaws,” “E.T.,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” has never won an Oscar for best director because many in Hollywood thought his work was too geared to the youth market. The “Herald Examiner” said, “Perhaps the decision (not to nominate him) expresses nothing more than collective jealousy at Spielberg’s incredible financial success.” “E.T., The ExtraTerrestrial” has made more money than any other picture in history, and “The Colour Purple” is also a box-office hit. The “Los Angeles

Times” said the omission of Spielberg was shocking. Its Oscar headline read: “‘Purple’ 11, ‘Africa’. 11, ‘Spielberg’ 0.” Warner Brothers, which distributed “The Colour Purple,” said in a statement, “The company is shocked and dismayed that the movie’s primary creative force — Steven Spielberg — was not recognised.” Oscar nominations in the director category are made by the 230 members of the directors’ branch of the academy. Spielberg has never been accepted as a member of the “Hollywood establishment.” Some directors were said to feel he picked “The Colour Purple” because he felt it could win him an Oscar. It was his first attempt

at a "serious film.” The film, the story of a poor, ignorant black woman’s brutalising marriage to a cruel widower, tied with “Out of Africa” for most nominations. The film’s female star, the comedian Whoopi Goldberg, in her film debut, was nominated for best actress. The picture’s male star, Danny Glover, widely praised for his role as a brutal husband, was not nominated for best actor and was bitterly disappointed. “When you do a lead in a major film in a controversial role and put a lot of energy into it ...,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday, his voice trailing off. “But you move on.”