Not One Black Person Among Golden Globes’ 87 Members?

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences turns out to be a worthy sequel to the Golden Globes, held in March, offers James Freeman in the WSJ. Sunday’s Oscars could turn out to be “absurd fodder for a Larry David production.”

This week’s Oscars turned out to be a worthy sequel to the Golden Globes. On Sunday there was much earnest talk about the entertainment industry’s vital work in the time of Covid, and of course the festivities presented the picture of responsibility.

From Hillary Lewis in the Hollywood Reporter:

A new location, socially distanced seating and nominees appearing remotely were just some of the pandemic-inspired elements at the 2021 Oscars.

While some of the 2021 Oscars aired from the awards’ longtime home, Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, the ceremony largely took place at Los Angeles’ Union Station, with the set looking like a banquet dinner, with small, separated seating areas and tables…

Only nominees, their guests and presenters attended the show — and they were cycled in and out of the main room and into one of the two courtyards so that only 170 people would be in the main room at the same time.

“Looming over the event was the question of whether it could exceed the high signal-to-actual virtue ratio achieved at March’s Golden Globes awards show,” continues Mr. Freeman.

That ceremony occurred shortly after the Los Angeles Times revealed that America’s leading producers of diversity lectures toast themselves with help from a club containing 87 members, not one of whom is black. After the Times report, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association pledged to admit at least 13 black members.

Exposing the Virtual Signaling Hypocrisy

Kudos to LA Times’ Laura Nelson, reports Mr. Freeman

Pasadena officials on Tuesday canceled a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for senior citizens, grocery store employees and other essential workers after hundreds of people who were not eligible for the shots signed up for appointments.

People who did not yet qualify for the vaccine under state guidelines claimed about 900 of the 1,500 slots at a clinic that was designed for people older than 65 and essential workers who live or work in Pasadena, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

Many of the appointments were booked by people who worked in the media and in Hollywood, Derderian said, including at production companies, streaming TV services and news outlets and on the sets of soap operas.

Jessica Gelt Reporting for the LA Times:

While the likes of Glenn Close, Daniel Kaluuya and Zendaya were quietly escorted into Union Station on Sunday for the 93rd Academy Awards, a different kind of procession was unfolding around the corner: Angelenos struggling to find a COVID-19 testing site that had been relocated from the front of the transit station to the backside of the complex to accommodate Oscars festivities.

“It was hard for us to find it,” said Wendy Moncada, who was accompanying her boyfriend to the testing site about an hour before the 5 p.m. telecast kicked off. “The whole parking situation was difficult, and there was no drop-off or pickup.”

… A staff member for Curative, which runs the testing site and relocated it April 1, called the move “a fiasco.” (The employee asked not to be identified because the employee was not authorized to comment.)

… for those making the walk toward the COVID-19 testing site, the underpass proved cramped and smelly. A person or persons had relieved themselves on the sidewalk more than once and in more ways than one.