Sandra Bullock shouldn’t be the first person to return an Oscar
Responding to allegations made by Blind Side subject Michael Oher, some believe Sandra Bullock should become the first actor to return her Oscar.
Aux News Oscar
Sandra Bullock is not responsible for Leigh Anne Tuohy. However, following allegations made by Blind Side subject and former NFL player Michael Oher against his estranged conservators, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, Bullock has been swept into the maelstrom. The actor won an Oscar for portraying Tuohy in The Blind Side in 2009. The white savior narrative was routinely criticized at the time, and one can certainly argue about whether or not she deserved the Oscar for the performance. But today, some argue that she should return the award. She is not obligated to do so and obviously shouldn’t. Moreover, she doesn’t need to be the first to do it.
No one has ever accepted and returned an Oscar
No one has ever surrendered their Oscar. After Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the Academy felt the ire of viewers demanding they rescind Smith’s Best Actor trophy or for Smith to return it in shame. Neither happened. People don’t willingly give up major awards like that. (Millie Vanilli did return their Best New Artist Grammy in 1991, though.)
Vogue wrote last year that there are three examples of people refusing their Oscars. Marlon Brando had his award collected by Indigenous actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather. This move angered John Wayne so vehemently that he had to be “forcibly restrained,” says Vogue writer Emma Spectre. George C. Scott and screenwriter Dudley Nichols also refused the award—though in a less bold fashion than Brando. Spectre also notes that disgraced filmmakers Woody Allen and Roman Polanski were asked to return their Oscars following their respective child molestation allegations. But that didn’t stop the Oscars from giving Polanski a Best Director trophy in 2003, which was delivered to him by Harrison Ford because he fled the country after being charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old. The Oscars rewarded Allen with four statues since the 1992 child sex abuse allegations came to light.
Bullock has nothing to do with the current Tuohy situation other than she played that woman in a movie over a decade ago. Sure, one could accuse her of perpetuating this myth of the Tuohys, but this is hardly the first time in the history of Hollywood that a film “based on a true story” turned out to be more complicated than the fictional portrayal. By this logic, maybe Ben Affleck should return his Argo Oscar or Evan Peters his Emmy for making Jeffrey Dahmer hot, too. It’s undoubtedly professionally and artistically disappointing for Bullock to have this scandal associated with her Oscar win, but she is an actor performing a role in the film. That is her job. Sandra Bullock is not Leigh Anne Tuohy and shouldn’t have to answer for her.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Roman Polanski never collected his Oscar. Actor Harrison Ford flew to France to deliver it to him in 2003. We regret the error.
241 Comments
After Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the Academy felt the ire of viewers demanding they recede Smith’s Best Actor trophy or for Smith to return it in shame.You mean rescind, right?
That’s how you know the ChatGPT rollout is still in progress.
ChatGPT would have not made the mistake.
That is precisely the joke.
I am a ChatGPT troll and do not understand humor.
They need him to gradually push it from one side of the shelf to the other, in conjunction with the phases of the moon.
Just as long as they don’t rescind my hairline!
Talking about hairlines is what got us into this mess in the first place!
Me: *reads comment, chuckles slightly**seconds later*Me: *starts to think I missed something, rereads comment**seconds later*Me: *realizes the underlying reference; cackles aloud, startling wife*
Wives are what got us into this mess in the first place!
I was fine with Smith getting his Oscar. What I wish the Oscars had done, was deny him from getting to go on stage and make a speech. They should’ve made him come to Academy HQ during business hours to pick it up.
Or have it delivered to his home…with COD shipping charge.
And make him sign for it so he has to be home to receive it.
The very least they could have done is taken away the official designation of this thousand years as “the Willenium”.
When we all know it should really be the Uncle Phillennium.
Your OSCAR will be delivered between the hours of 9am and 4pm. You must be home for delivery.
*rings doorbell once, immediately puts “Sorry we missed you” note on door and leaves*
The Oscar is already bald. It can’t recede any further.
Well, they also mentioned Millie Vanilli, so why not recede?
Tom Hanks. Will Smith. There are plenty of men who deserve to have the statue taken away. (Hanks, just because Forrest Gump is shit.) Leave Sandra alone.
“This move angered John Wayne so vehemently that he had to be “forcibly restrained,””
What an absolute loser.
Bullshit; I think she totally should if she wants to. If she personally doesn’t feel good about the story emerging, it would be a totally valid and respectable statement to make. If she wants to say nothing, that’s totally fine. If she wants to specifically come out in favor of the Tuhoys and say exploitation is a wonderful cornerstone of American life…well, weird move but okay then. It’s obnoxious that this article criticizes people telling Bullock what she should or shouldn’t do, while simultaneously telling her what she should or shouldn’t do.
Agreed. If she wanted to give her Oscar back as a statement, more power to her. But it’s certainly not a thing she should feel any pressure to do.
The problem is that once someone does it for the first time it becomes a precedent. Right or wrong, this then puts pressure on anyone else who finds themselves in the same situation in the future. It will still be their individual choice, but now they’ll have to deal with the chorus of “But Sandra did it.” comments as part of their decision-making process. I’m sure that Bullock is considering this fact regardless of what she decides to do.
I think we can all agree anyone should be free to decline or return an award if they want to. But we’re only having this conversation because some people are saying they want her to return it.
This is why I know I liked you. Sure, if she wants to, not if she’s pressured to. this falls on the side of pressured.
I also clicked through the link to see who actually is calling for her to return it. It is, as usual, a bunch of Twitter nobodies with their posts being picked up as clickbait by TMZ. Bullock should just ignore this.
I’m like 90% certain she doesn’t even know about this.
I hope not. She doesn’t deserve to get tractor-beamed into this shit show.
I’m like 90% certain she doesn’t even know about this.All of this stuff came out ten years ago in mainstream news. It was at the center of the discourse around The Blindside for a year. People aren’t stupid, they’re just aggressively entitled when it comes to their designated entertainment products.Next thing you know we’ll have hot takes in 2025 about Zero Dark Thirty where people act like they thought torture worked this whole time and are shocked and appalled that the movie lied to them. LOL
Especially considering her partner just died – I hope she has no idea about any of it
She surely knows about the new controversy around the story. She may not know anyone suggested she give back the Oscar, but if that’s the case, she should fire her publicist who should’ve at least warned her by now that it might come up.
How many of them were blue checks?
Twitter/Tik Tok nobodies flinging their inane commentary on legitimate subjects with no background knowledge is the primary engine behind content mills like these sites now.
The one thing I can think of that comes close to this situation is when Harold Russell hocked his Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives due to his dire financial situation, which got him a lot of undeserved flack from the industry. Hopefully there will be more understanding now.
Sure, but this article is specifically talking about and to people who are yelling at her to do so. They don’t get to make the decision for her or bully her into it, which is also reasonable to point out.
“Bullshit; I think she totally should if she wants to. If she personally doesn’t feel good about the story emerging, it would be a totally valid and respectable statement to make.”I’m kind of with you but personally I’m more worried about what the difference would be between her genuinely feeling bad or her being Twitter-bullied into feeling bad. To be clear, I don’t think she should give the award back but I’m concerned this is gonna be some thing where people hound her about it for way too long as though she and Tuhoy are one and the same, until she does and the Twitter mob can all jerk themselves off as though they fixed a great injustice.
her winning BEST ACTRESS for that mid movie was a joke
I agree. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked when Bullock was getting Oscar buzz for the award and then she actually won. Even taken that it wasn’t a great year for Actress performances (give it to Sidibe, probably), it’s a ridiculous decision.
Winning an award for a “mid movie” is literally what the Oscars is all about. Any time someone wins an Oscar for a legitimately “great movie,” it’s an exception to the rule.
I suppose so. But I was thinking less about the movie than the performance.
She should have won it for Gravity, not this piece of crap. It was something interesting and new, instead of the Woody Allen Oscar-bait that Blanchette won for.
She definitely had to carry almost the full 90 minutes of Gravity, with tons of close up acting. It seemed way more risky and grueling for her than Leo eating organs from a butcher.
Not only that, but she was essentially demo-ing a new technology. For most of the filming she was strapped into a light box, acting while cameras were spinning around her, sometimes inches from her face. She was acting against machinery, she didn’t see any of that stuff that was in the final movie that we saw. When she was floating through the Soyuz, she was being operated like a puppet by actual puppeteers and made it look natural. She doesn’t get nearly enough credit for what she did in that movie. If I was her, I would trade the Blind Side Oscar for an Oscar for Gravity any day.
But today, some argue that she should return the award. “Some” can fuck off.
You can tell AVClub thinks she should because they’re even humoring it.
Its a bullshit argument that shouldn’t even be considered.Its like asking Meryl Streep to return her oscar for The Iron Lady because (here is a shock) Margaret Thatcher was a douchebag.Should Charlize Theron give up hers because Aileen Wuornos was a psychopath?
C’mon, I don’t think people should tell Bullock what to do but you know you’re blurring the lines deliberately; unlike your examples the whole thing is in response to new developments. I think if someone won an award playing say Lance Armstrong in a movie and then the doping scandal came to light, they might return the award in protest against Armstrong and because they don’t like propping up the myth that Armstrong succeeded through sheer talent and determination. But, like in my example and above comments, I think the entire thought process and conversation is best left to the performer.
She is not obligated to do so and obviously shouldn’t. Moreover, she doesn’t need to be the first to do it.What a bizarre thing to say. This whole piece reads like Schimkowitz gave the bot two incongruent prompts and it shit this out.
It’s the “shouldn’t be the first” phrasing that gets me. Bullock should, potentially, return her Oscar, but it’s very important that she not be the first to do so?
What I wish is for Hollywood vets to return or just not accept their make-up Oscars when everyone knows the performance they’re winning for wasn’t the best of the year. I’m thinking Al Pacino winning for Scent of A Woman when I think everyone knew Denzel should have won for Malcolm X. Pacino should/could have won years before for The Godfather or Dog Day Afternoon, and he got the Oscar for Scent so the Academy could make it up to him. But at that stage did Pacino really care? He was already an icon and unquestionably among the greats, and I don’t know if his career really would have been hurt if he just said, “nah, this really doesn’t belong to me.”
Thing is, considering how much campaigning and gladhanding that goes into an Oscar win, by the time you’re up there with the statue in hand you’re probably not concerned about whether it’s a career award or not.
Pacino should/could have won years before for The Godfather or Dog Day AfternoonHell, Pacino should’ve won a few hours before, for Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross. The Academy chose the right year to make it up to him, but the wrong category.
How would that work, exactly? Does Denzel Washington really want to have Al Pacino make a big public fuss about the fact that Washington lost? And if that happened, wouldn’t it just make it weird when actors did accept their Oscars, because they’d basically be saying to the other nominees, “Yeah, I agree with the Academy that I was better than you. the Tragedy of Macbeth was kinda meh, Denzel.”
I guess that’s fair. There’s no easy way, but I imagine it’s also a little weird to accept an award for Scent of A Woman.
Hoo-ah!
Scorsese got an Oscar for “The Departed” for directing “Raging Bull,” the same way O.J. got heavy jail time in Vegas for…well. You know what for.
Yeah. I would think he really fucking cared.
I’m thinking Al Pacino winning for Scent of A Woman when I think everyone knew Denzel should have won for Malcolm X. But then Denzel would have to give up the Oscar he got for his scenery chewing (one might even say Pacino-esque) performance in Training Day to… (checks list of nominees)… Will Smith for Ali.It’s turtles all the way down.
Malcom X is a terrible movie. So no.
When you said “make-up Oscars”, my first thought was the year ‘Suicide Squad’ beat ‘Star Trek: Beyond’ for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and I was like, “Right on, that was a travesty.”
Maybe one year, the Oscars should just be a big ceremony where former winners swap with other winners for the year/project they should have actually won for.
Did marlon brando count as returning his oscar or just not accepting it in the first place?
The movie sucked when it came out and sucked now. The Oscars are a joke. Sandra Bullock has been in like 2 good movies out of 50. Impressive in a way.
2.5 good movies – I give half credit to Demolition Man.
Speed and Speed 2: Cruise Control?It’s Speed and Speed 2: Cruise Control, isn’t it?
The only reason someone should return an acting award is if it turns out it’s not actually their performance, somewhat like Milli Vanilli and their Grammy. This obviously hasn’t happened yet, and isn’t likely to any time soon, but I suppose we could get to a point where actors are replaced with computer generated images, just like how shitty websites are replacing their writers with computer generated copy. Extremely shitty websites that I keep going to out of some misplaced feeling of nostalgia for when it was good.
I feel like you’re implying something.
To be clear, this article was obviously written by a human being. Most likely a very underpaid human being who probably didn’t particularly want to write it. But not every article on this site is written by human beings now, and that’s fucked.
He’s saying that Marisa Tomei was a super-advanced animatronic.
Take my money!
Ah, like the Marisa Tomei realdoll that I… definitely don’t have in my closet.
Is its non-biological clock ticking like this?
Which model did you get? There are plenty of the ‘Spider-Man’ era ones, but try getting your hands on a ‘My Cousin Vinnie’ era doll? Forget it.I mean … so I’ve heard.
Fuhgeddaboudit was right there dude!
I mean, I’d go “The Wrestler” era…
‘A Different World’ era Marisa Tomei?‘Cousin Vinny’ era Marisa Tomei?‘Aunt May’ era Marisa Tomei?
There is no way anyone could make an animatronic that looks like Marisa Tomei – either then or now. Even the Disney Imagineers wouldn’t stand a chance.
“You’ve failed again! When the animatronic smiles, it’s meant to make you feel giddy and powerful at the same time, as if you were young again and could take on any challenge! That’s what the real Tomei does!”
If anyone was the super-advanced animatronic, it was the supposedly old man doing one-armed pushups.
What exactly are you inferring?
I recently saw a fairly well known British comedian do a stand up show which was essentially “I told Chat GPT to write a joke about…” before then reading out whatever it had come up with. It was the worst comedy set I’ve seen in my life, but it was still more interesting and better written than the above piece about Sandra Bullock.
This sounds familiar. Which comedian?
Arthur Smith. It feels like he’s been around forever, and I first saw him on tv in the 90s, though I’d never seen him live until now, and won’t be making that mistake again.
From what I’ve heard there are a lot of comedians doing AI themed sets up at the Edinburgh Festival this year and not many of them are any good. I’m not against the idea either, Connor O’Malley’s show Research and Development Comedy was amazing, but it seems some comics are trying to get by without writing any material and it’s really disappointing to hear.
Nope, not someone I’ve heard of. I definitely remember seeing or reading “We had AI write the following joke,” but I think the whole point of it was that the joke was terrible.
It sounds to me that they’re quite similar, but Smith had nothing to say other than “Well that was shit” before moving on to the next bit. If he’d deconstructed the material, and maybe rewritten it so it was funny then I think there’s mileage in the idea, but he didn’t go anywhere near that idea.
Arthur Smith’s greatest gift to comedy was challenging Tony Hawks to the bet that led to Hawks’s excellent book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis.
I’m with you there, I really enjoyed that book, and One Hit Wonderland as well.
Also, Round Ireland With a Fridge. But the Moldovans book is my favourite. I bought it at an airport while waiting for a delayed flight, and came very close to finishing it before my plane took off.
I guess it’s a choice to come out on stage and admit you’re both creatively and ethically bankrupt.
dramatic AIrony!also, same.
Extremely shitty websites that I keep going to out of some misplaced feeling of nostalgia for when it was good.You have the cover of Double Nickels on the Dime as your avatar, and it made me think how some day someone who used to frequent here back in the day could write a song like “History—Part II” about O’Neal, Tobias, Teti, Iggy… this site used to be amazing.
“We learned pop culture in Chicago. We were fucking corndogs.”
Don’t forget about Keith Phipps. He was a fantastic Editor-in-Chief as well as a great writer in his own right. The day he left was the beginning of the end.
COTY
This. If it was fraud, as you say. The documentary category is particularly vulnerable in this regard, and if a non-fiction film was found to have concocted aspects of the story, it should be stripped.On a moral level, I’d love to see some recipients stripped of their honors for actions that disgrace the award. I’m talking Harvey Weinstein, who absolutely should not be allowed to keep his honors or continue to be regarded as an Oscar-winner.
I prefer letting guys like Weinstein keep their awards because I like the idea of them having to sell them off after they settle all their civil suits.
Problem is in the case of the Oscars you’re not allowed to. If a recipient wishes to part with their award, the Academy has the right of first refusal, and for a token sum (1 dollar, I believe). That’s why so few Oscar statuettes come up for sale, and when they do, they’re from the 1940s or earlier, before the rule was in place. Personally I think it’s rather onerous, because if I won an Oscar, hell yeah I’d sell it. You could get five to six figures for one, depending on what category it is.
I wonder if any and how many Oscars have been sold under the table.
I don’t think you’re allowed to sell an Oscar.
I mean I still come back and look at old reviews of shows I’m catching up on/rewatching, like Gravity Falls and Mr. Robot, but it’s sad to see their communities so vibrant in the comment section under well-written companion pieces by the authors. I want to join in, but I don’t think many commenters are still around from 2012 or 2015.
Misplaced feelings of nostalgiaThe AVCub
Possibly the reason Linda Blair didn’t win for The Exorcist was that it came to light that Mercedes McCambridge did the “possessed voice.”
The Milli Vanilli case is an interesting on in that the producer had success in Europe with an act where everyone knew the lead singer was just miming someone else.
He was crazy like a fool…
The elephant in the room is, should she return the Razzie she got (and collected in person, a truly baller move) for the same role?
Sandra Bullock is not responsible for Leigh Anne Tuohy.Also her partner just died. Lay the fuck off. Jesus Christ.
She didn’t deserve the Oscar that year, but that’s besides the point. She is not under any obligation to return the award, which she won for her portrayal of a character based on a real life person. What we’ve learned about Leigh Anne Tuohy and the story is irrelevant. The Internet Morality Police doesn’t get to take an Oscar away just because we learned that the character someone played in a movie turned out to be a piece of shit in real life, or because we learned the story was bullshit to begin with.
We shouldn’t have lauded the movie when it came out.Kinda gross to take a story about a young black man rising to the top of his field, and making about a white woman (while also portraying the young man as a complete dumdum, even though he wasn’t).
If playing a bad person disqualifies you, do we get to take away Forrest Whittaker’s award too?
Anyone whining about “The Internet Morality Police” is an obnoxious douche
During the “Oscars so white” situation a few years ago I realized two things:1. that Jada Pinket Smith was probably right about the Academy under serving actors of color at the Oscars, and 2. that I had somehow gotten hoodwinked into caring about the distribution of trophies amongst already rich and famous people.
1. that Jada Pinket Smith was probably right about the Academy under serving actors of color at the Oscars, and Well, maybe, but her complaints were obviously about her husband not getting nominated for his mediocre Oscar-bait movie. Jada was using terms like “representation” and “diversity” to distract from the fact that she was just engaging in good old-fashioned whining about not getting a nomination/award.Chris Rock rightfully made fun of her about that back when he hosted the Oscars in 2016. Fortunately, the three of them resolved the issue with a conversation, and we never heard about it again.
But who should be the most rich and the most famous? We should care deeply about this.
Whoever gives the highest portion of their income to charity and other good works should be, really. It never works out that way, though.
The AV Club has rioted for less.
That’s not true! How dare you say that! Let’s riot!
The “BoaTS” part of the movie may be BS, but Bullock portrayed the script handed to her exceptionally well. Let her keep the golden baldie.
scandal/drama aside, aren’t most biopics exaggerated and nowhere close to being accurately portrayed?
You mean some scenes in Bohemian Rhapsody were maybe exagerrated?
Film: Freddie Mercury ejects his manager in a fit of rage from his limousine for suggesting he goes it alone in his career and fires him.Interview with said manager: Says he was managing both Queen and Elton John and Queen asked if it was OK if they got a dedicated full-time manager instead and he said sure.
It was definitely weird seeing that and Rocketman in the same season and realizing they were talking about the same actual person.
Next you’ll tell me that Weird Al biopic wasn’t 100% accurate, right?
No I totally believe he was dared to do a Queen revision of Another One Bites the Dust by Wolfman Jack at a Hollywood Pool Party attended by Andy Warhol, Alice Cooper, Divine, Pee-wee Herman, John Deacon, Gallagher, Tiny Tim, the B-52’s, Devo, and Salvador Dalí and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Yes. Real life doesn’t chop from moment to moment every 1.5 seconds like the editing of that film would suggest.
Mine does.I can see SOMEONE has clearly never suffered editosis before!
Yes.
Yes, and this is precisely why I want Hollywood to make a biopic on Mad Jack Churchill already.That psycho was so over-the-top badass that you’d have to downplay some of his feats, not exaggerate, and people still wouldn’t believe half of that shit.
Yes, but there’s a difference between, say, making one ‘band manager’ character represent all the band’s managers… and telling a heartwarming story about adoption that may have actually been a story of financial exploitation.
Sounds like you’ve never seen Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
People are mad and want action, but Bullock’s Oscar has nothing to do with this. It’s an award for her performance. Returning her salary from the movie makes more sense to me than returning her Oscar.
She shouldn’t do that either. It’s not her job to cover any money Tuohy scammed. She has zero responsibility in any of this mess.
She did a job. Why shouldn’t she be paid for that job? Sandra Bullock is not part of this scandal.
I’m not saying she should, but I can at least understand the logic of returning money – or donating it directly to Michael Oher – on the basis that she profited off the exploitation of Oher. There’s a straight moral line that’s easy to grasp even if I don’t agree with it.To your point about Sandra not being part of this scandal, what does her Oscar win have to do with anything? She played a lady that might have made up a story? Sandra Bullock is an actor. She plays made-up people in made-up stories for a living. Even if you argue that the movie was marketed as a true story, people need to understand what “based” on a true story really means. No one should treat any narrative retelling of a true story as more than entertainment. If it encourages audiences to educate themselves about the real true story, then great. But don’t confuse movies with documentaries. Let Sandra keep her Oscar.
I don’t think we need one millionaire to give another millionaire money because the second millionaire was maybe ripped off by an entirely separate millionaire.Michael Oher’s perfectly capable of seeking whatever relief he’s entitled to, all on his own.
I don’t think “we” need that either. I’m just pointing out that it’s a form of restitution that has a logical and moral consistency – regardless of whether it’s “needed” or not – whereas giving back an industry award doesn’t even meet that low bar.
I’m just pointing out that it’s a form of restitution that has a logical and moral consistencyIt really doesn’t.
There is no logic to it. Nobody intelligent cares, its all Twitter garbage trash nonsense and nobody intelligent pays any attention to anything on twitter. Twitter is not real life
Ooooh, maybe Charlize Theron should return her Oscar. I heard that Aileen Wuornos was a bit of a bad egg IRL!
By that standard, shouldn’t ANYONE who won an Oscar for a movie that wasn’t based on actual events have to return theirs?
No. Congrats for managing to somehow present logic more tortured than this silly article.
Return it? For what? Based on accusations (no proven facts) that she had nothing to do with?Apparently, it’s stupid time now.
It’s been stupid time for a long, long time…
Very briefly interrupted by Morbin’ time.
Accusations???You literally can’t adopt someone over 18. It’s literally a conservatorship.What makes you immediately side with the white family?
Marlon Brando had his award collected by Indigenous actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather. “Sacheen Littlefeather” was a fraud and a liar. Stop repeating the same old garbage. That doesn’t discount Brando’s good intentions; kind of like an actor winning an award for a performance that ultimately was based on a lie.Littlefeather said her father was of Apache and Yaqui ancestry and her mother was of European descent. Shortly after Littlefeather’s death, Navajo writer and activist Jacqueline Keeler interviewed Littlefeather’s two sisters, who said that their family is not Native American and that Littlefeather fabricated her Native American ancestry. They also said that their father, who was born in Oxnard, California, was of Spanish-Mexican descent and had no tribal ties.Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather
I remember reading years ago that she wasn’t actually Native American. This was long before she died, but somehow that factoid got erased from the collective memory over the years.I think a lot of the furor that she supposedly faced the night of the Oscars has also been debunked. Such a bizarre incident.
I fully believe she faced hostility and pushback over that speech for years to come; if you watch the video of it, you can hear audience members booing in the middle of it, with other audience members quickly starting to applaud and cheer in a show of support. The director of that telecast said in an interview a year later that Wayne was “in an uproar” but that he calmed him down by talking to him, no mention of Wayne having to be physically restrained. It was only 15 years after the fact that he started talking about Wayne being held back by a half-dozen security guards.
Keep in mind that, in 1973, Wayne was 65 years old, and down two ribs and half a lung from surgery several years prior; would it really take six security guards to keep him backstage?
Yeah, the stuff about Wayne wanting to run on stage and attack Sacheen Littlefeather, only to be tackled by six security guards is obviously bullshit on 3 or 4 levels.Like you say, it wouldn’t suprise me if he was pissed off, but that whole narrative is nonsense that even a 12 year-old (i.e. smarter than a GMG writer) would see through.
Yeah. I was only talking about what happened at the ceremony. There is murmuring which I guess could be boos, but it’s mostly cheers. And after her speech I only hear cheers. And the Wayne stuff seems to have been very much exaggerated. I don’t know anything about what happened to her after though.Found the really long article I read about it last year… https://selfstyledsiren.substack.com/p/john-wayne-and-the-six-security-men
Yes. The John Wayne thing hasn’t been confirmed. I think Brando refusing the award and having a Native American speak was a baller move. Too bad she was a liar.
Jacqueline Keeler isn’t exactly a reliable source and has made accusations against so-called “pretendians” that were proven false.
Her family is saying it, though. From the same article: As the 50th anniversary of Littlefeather’s appearance at the Oscars neared, her sisters reiterated that Littlefeather had faked a Native American identity for all that time.
Unless people at the Oscars had used a time machine for a really dumb reason… things said 50 years later had not bearing on the reaction of people at that time.
She and her family apparently weren’t on good terms.
So they conspired to hide their Native American heritage to make their sister look bad? Most people in the modern age who lie about their heritage do so to claim something that isn’t theirs. It would be very odd that someone would lie to hide it.The simplest explanation is often the correct one. It’s not rocket surgery.
The sisters, or at least one of them is a right winger who subscribes to Ben Shapiro. Like I said, I’ve seen a lot of Native Americans defend her.
So because one of the sisters is a right-winger, they are all lying about not being Mexican-American and in fact really are Native American? Walk me thought this thought process. Please.
They weren’t booing her and angry because they thought she wasn’t authentic.They believed she was indigenous and that’s why they booed.That she may not have been indigenous doesn’t change the reaction people had. Because again, no one knew who she was. They weren’t booing her at the time for the reason (usually racists) like to bring up about knowledge we only gained YEARS later.
You are misunderstanding my point. I think the protest was awesome. I think Brando giving her his time to speak came from a place of sincerity and solidarity with the cause. But she was a fraud. This is like saying the “Crying Indian” commercial is good because the message discouraging littering is good. We all agree that people shouldn’t litter. But some of us also think it’s gross to use an Sicilian-American to play the part of a Native American, in which he plays an exaggerated stereotype to a (mostly) white audience.
Marlon Brando had his award collected by Indigenous actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather.
Except Sacheen Littlefeather’s sisters say she was a “pretendian” named Marie Cruz, with zero evidence of any Indigenous heritage in her family.
Sacheen Littlefeather was the Native American Rachel Dolezal of the 70s.So she should return her refusal to accept an Oscar. Or something.
The person who claimed this about Littlefeather has made numerous allegations against “pretendians” that turned out to be false.
But her sisters should know.
I haven’t seen any tribe jump to her defense and show her supposed native heritage. You’d think at least her sisters would have known.
I’ve seen a number of Native Americans defend Littlefeather and condemn Keeler, who herself is not very popular among Native Americans for her disproven accusations.
On a side note: Did she really deserve an Oscar for that portrayal? Gabourey Sidibe was nominated too. Anyone could play a white football loving mom.
Marlon Wayans was available.
Leave Sandra alone! She is an excellent actress and seems like a lovely person. Her partner also just died from ALS. Step off Sandy!
Considering her longtime boyfriend died from ALS earlier this month, I’m pretty sure Sandra’s not really keeping tabs about some he said/they said that doesn’t really concern her.
Partner.
She should return it, so it can go to its rightful owner: either Meryl Streep, Gabourey Sidibe, or Carey Mulligan!
This article is real bad taste.
A) Sandra Bullock has no obligation to return her Oscar for playing a woman over 10 years.
B) Her partner just died of ALS. Maybe lay off the woman.
This is the stupidest take I’ve ever heard. Find new work.
Sacheen Littlefeather was “indigenous”? I was under the impression she lied about it and was actually Mexican-American.
I find it adorable that, to writers of the AV Club, one person criticizing a particular narrative once = routinely criticized.
What bothers me more than this dumb article is the number of times I click on a site link and I get a fucking Verizon ad instead. God damn, get your fucking site sorted. Fuck.
Or the links to the comment sections that freeze. Or the pages that refresh when you’re trying to type a comment…
You wrote an entire fucking article based off THREE tweets, out of the billions sent the same day. Keep up the amazing work.
Fuck you. Fuck all of you who thinks she should return the Oscar. The character on paper was Bullock’s to bring to life and make her own; and she did it well enough to win an Oscar. The white privilege power couple who commissioned an athlete-slave has fuck-all to do with Bullock and her acting abilities.
Counterpoint: Signing on to a movie that intentionally takes the story of a young black man and turned it into a story about a white woman is entirely something Bullock is accountable for.I don’t think she should return the Oscar. Who cares. And obvioulsy she shouldn’t be held accountable or someone else’s actions. But your love of Bullock doesn’t mean she’s blameless in all things.
This move angered John Wayne* so vehemently that he had to be “forcibly restrained,” says Vogue writer Emma Spectre.
*I think you mean Marion Morrison. If there is one thing the kind of people who still love Marion Morrison these days keep telling us it’s that people are only ever to be known by the names they are given as newborns.
What an absolute bullshit story. Restrained by whom, exactly? What, he was going to physically attack her? You’d think his bio would be a lot more violent if he was prone to assaulting activists.
What, you’ve never known one of those “somebody stop me” guys? You know, those tough guys who are always threatening people, but only when their friends are around to “restrain” them.
Like Jim Carrey in The Mask?
Also, whatever else you might be inclined to say or think about him, in 1973 John Wayne was a 66-year-old cancer survivor with one lung. He could have almost certainly been ‘forcibly restrained’ by gently breathing in his general direction. By Sacheen Littlefinger herself.
Huh. A Marion Morrison apologist in 2023.
He was restrained by security backstage in front of many witnesses. Is that confusing?
This seems like a stretch. Sandra Bullock didn’t lie to Michael Oher. Arguably, if the allegations are true, she was lied to as well. The allegations against the Tuohys don’t negate her performance and as of right now, the Tuohys are also pushing back on the allegations.
While I’m certainly no fan of the Duke or his politics, the John Wayne/Sacheen Littlefeather story has been fairly roundly debunked.
Has it?Her identity has been debunked. But not in the moment or before the ceremony. People weren’t reacting to her negatively because she was pretending to be indigenous. They thought she was an Indian and reacted negatively to her as such.She can be a liar, AND the people outraged by here actions in that moment can also be (a bit) racist.I’ve never seen compelling evidence Wayne didn’t do what was alleged. And he’s had far more high profile instances of being a racist ass (Playboy interview).
Why drag Sandra into this? Is any of this her fault? No it isn’t. Keep it moving.
So is this something that is actually happening (demand for return), or is this someone riding unfortunate drama to drum up interest in whatever social media they are screeching from?
Additionally, these are ALLEGATIONS by Michael Oher – that’s all. If they’re proven correct, them MAYBE ‘they’ will have a case (a shitty case) for saying she should return it. Which she shouldn’t.But why is ANYONE talking about this AT THIS POINT? He’s claimed bad things about the Tuohys and it will go to court or whatever. But until that’s happened, it’s a case of “someone says that someone else wronged them” and no-one should ever do anything based on that.Likewise (and I fucking hate that this always gets brought up again) Woody Allen is another case of “he said, she said”. Except the vast majority of the evidence says that he didn’t molest good daughter and he’s not a sex offender.
(Per Variety) See what happens when you ‘write’ something and don’t just lazily repeat the actual work of actual writers, A.V. Club? ‘Regrettable’ errors. Get a paper round, children.
She’s a great actress, and just because, years later, that someone decides that the film is no longer politically correct, she’s supposed to give up her Oscar? Jeez, what BS!
I guess Charlize Theron should return hers for playing an actual, real-life person who killed people.
How are so many people not getting this?The (dumdums) calling for a return of the Oscar aren’t saying return it because ‘bad thing’.The movie presents the Tuohys has heros and loving people who embraced Michael. The reality may be that they exploited him for money. The movie told a completely inaccurate story. THAT’s what people are reacting, too.Theron’s movie didn’t present, essentially, the exact opposite of what happened. It presented a Hollywood So… it’s not even close to being a relevant analogy.If you can’t tell the difference between telling a completely different story (I killed a moose, when I caught a fish) and fudging the details (I caught 18 inch trout, when I caught a 10 inch trout)…
Bullock’s longterm boyfriend just died after a 3 year battle with ALS. Currently she couldn’t give a shit about this “controversy”.
(Millie Vanilli did return their Best New Artist Grammy in 1991, though.)
“But today, some argue that she should return the award.”Hmm…would the “some” in question be a handful of Twitter randos cherrypicked by lazy internet writers in order to manufacture some clickbait?[Clicks link]Why, yes, yes indeed! Also, you’re citing TMZ? Jesus.
Sandra Bullock is also grieving the extremely recent death of her partner of 8 years, they share her two young kids and his daughter – while this is a totally valid conversation to have, the timing is SO unfortunate. I hope she’s paying no attention.
Look, this is just one guy’s opinion, but nobody’s giving back any Oscars while the makers of ‘Shakespeare in Love’ are holding onto their Best Picture statue.
*The makers of Crash nervously lock their doors…
Yeah, asking her to give it back is just dumb. Sandra Bullock didn’t scam Michael Oher. She just acted in a movie. A movie that never claimed to be a perfectly accurate version of the events as they were understood at the time.
is Oher going return his high-school diploma and NCAA eligibility and NFL career too?
“Actor Harrison Ford flew to France to deliver it to him in 2003″Damn. Come on, Harrison.
I think at that time, you’d find more people in Hollywood defending (or at least sorta-defending) Polanski than calling for him to be shunned and/or imprisoned.
It wasn’t just Hollywood itself, but also the entertainment media that refused to treat Polanski as if he’d done anything REALLY, TRULY wrong. It was all, “That was a different time”, “Even the victim didn’t think it was big deal” kinds of bullshit. But once #MeToo arrived, their tunes instantly changed to, “Jail is too good for that scumbag pedophile!”
Ford starred in a Polanski film so it’s no surprise
Sacheen Littlefeather was not an indigenous person. Please stop pushing this bs.
Twitter(X) is nothing but Nazis and professional concern trolls now.
You guys made another mistake. Woody Allen has been nominated for four Oscars since 1992. He won best screenplay for Midnight in Paris. He hasn’t won four since 1992.
Thank you. I thought that sounded like a REALLY high number of wins. So, looked it up and see that it was reported inaccurately. Now have been scrolling to see if anyone else brought that up. Ooh boy.
I mean, why would the AV Club get pop culture facts right? It’s not like a site dedicated to writing about pop culture.
This is the epitome of stupid.I thought Dahmer looked greasy and gross the whole movie.
I dislike Sandra Bullock a lot. Who knows why, I just do. But I don’t understand the idea of her returning her award even coming up in the first place.
Who are the “some” that believe this cornpone notion? Looks like a lot of lowers to me.
I look forward to all of this being resolved in the sequel – -BLIND SIDE: B.S. TOO – Wrong Oher Right!
Awful timing for all of this as she’s grieving the loss of her long-time partner to ALS.
Oher is correct that she deserves to keep the Oscar. She did a job and perfomed well. Just like Oher deserves the truth to be told and his money from the people jerking him around.
Sure, one could accuse her of perpetuating this myth of the Tuohys, but this is hardly the first time in the history of Hollywood that a film “based on a true story” turned out to be more complicated than the fictional portrayal.I’m really surprised how blasé Schimkowitz is. Unlike other “true story” movies, The Blind Side was made only ~5 years after the events depicted in the movie. That both means the veracity of the story could be easily verified, and that getting facts wrong could impact the lives of the people the movie depicts (which is what Oher has alleged). Further, a major element of the film is that the Tuohys adopted Oher. Not only was this a lie, but in real life the Tuohys claim that the reason they didn’t adopt Oher and instead opted for a conservatorship was because Oher was too old to be adopted. That is also a lie. And then I could go on how wildly inappropriate it was for Oher to be in a conservatorship, which raises ethics questions about the attorney who put that together for the Tuohys.Michael Lewis and the filmmakers should take responsibility for getting such a crucial element of the story wrong, especially because it could have been easily fact checked. It’s undoubtedly professionally and artistically disappointing for Bullock to have this scandal associated with her Oscar win, but she is an actor performing a role in the film. That is her job. Sandra Bullock is not Leigh Anne Tuohy and shouldn’t have to answer for her.Bullock professionally and financially benefited from the movie, and continued to do so years after its release. To take no responsibility for how she profited at the expense of Oher is simply callous.
So, Other didn’t know until recently but others should have? There’s some stretches in your post, in my opinion.
“Marlon Brando had his award collected b.”
There, fixed it for you. As an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation I’m annoyed as shit that outlets still refer to her as “indigenous.” She wasn’t and it’s widely known at this point. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Sacheen-Littlefeather-oscar-Native-pretendian-17520648.php
Not for acting, but Stevie Wonder had to return his for Best Song, since it turned out he didn’t write it specifically for the movie.
This is an absolute non controversy and a part of the reason we can’t have nice things. Who gives a flying fuck, can we focus on the important things, ever?
“can we focus on the important things, ever?”You mean like the death of the black nuclear family or homicide being the number one cause of death for young black men? We apparently can’t talk about those things without you spazzing out about how racist it is to bring these topics up or claiming they aren’t happening in the face of undeniable evidence. And without posting any evidence for your claims. How about the simultaneous still raging suicide/opioid epidemics among young white people? Are those important enough for you? For some reason I doubt you shed a tear for that bunch.No, you just want to bitch about Trump/MAGAts, who are about to be thrown in jail forever.
You. Do. Not. Understand. How. Rates. Work.You. Do. Not. Understand. What. You. Type. What. It. Means. And. Who. It. Makes. You.
You putz. Rates are a measure, quantity, or frequency, typically one measured against another quantity or measure. For example, the rates of fatherlessness of the white community vs. the rates of fatherlessness of the black community.Guess which has community has a higher rate of fatherlessness, asshead?You have any evidence of your claim that whites have a higher rate yet?
I have evidence you do not understand how rates work. How about that motherfucking evidence you dunce, ha ha ha.
I just explained how rates work, dipshit. I initially said it would be reasonable for the rate of fatherlessness to be higher in a larger demographic. Enough.Dismissed for not providing evidence of your claims of fatherlessness.
Your kryptonite is basic math, and understanding of any kind.
Uh huh.The rate of fatherlessness is higher in the black community than the rate of fatherlessness in the white community.Your kryptonite is providing any. evidence. for. any. claim. you’ve. ever. made.
Rates. This clown claimed rates go up as populations go up, hahahahahahahaha. So, if 5% of a population of 1000 took this cretins lead and fucked their mother, according to him, if it was 2000, the rate would jump up to maybe 10% of the population fucking their mother like this little kid.We get it, you like fucking your mother, doesn’t matter. Rates hold true, in theory, as the net my bers go up, it’s basic, but you are dumb and you also like to fuck your toothless mother, so, well, go do that and stay off the root, pussy
Pure rooftop gibberish and dismissed as you provide no evidence for your claims about fatherlessness. You know the deal.
“No, you just want to bitch about Trump/MAGAts, who are about to be thrown in jail forever.”If only that were true. I would, and I mean this as literally as possible, trade every single maga moron for any immigrant that can get to any spot on the border.
That’s brilliant as every illegal immigrant drives down the cost of labor for black and Hispanic Americans, dildo.
Wrong. That’s what fu.mies who wuck rich dick say. “Illegal” (no such thing) immigrants don’t pay wages, they collect, so they don’t set wages, the payers do. Then they make up shit that dummies look like you spread to pit poor against poor instead of who is actually in charge. I get you don’t understand this, you don’t know how rates work.
If you don’t believe in legal and illegal immigration, you do not believe in borders, which means you do not believe in nations, which means you are on the side of multinational corporations and think tanks that don’t give a fuck about anyone but the global 1%.And wrong, illegal immigrants lower the cost of labor for blacks and hispanics.https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216/“Both low- and high-skilled natives are affected by the influx of immigrants. But because a disproportionate percentage of immigrants have few skills, it is low-skilled American workers, including many blacks and Hispanics, who have suffered most from this wage dip. The monetary loss is sizable.”
An article from TMZ based on nonsense from Twitter. The two companies I hate the most, have joined forces to platform the biggest bullshit I’ve heard all year.
People really need to fuck of with this.