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Surprisingly, Joker leads the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards. A total of 11 nominations were piled onto the contentious film about the Clown Prince of Crime, which is more than any other movie. I mean, I like the film but … probably not 11 nominations liked. You know? Anyway,  eight other movies were selected to compete for Best Picture including - 1917, Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, The Irishman, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and Parasite. Three of those films, The Irishman, 1917 and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, received 10 nominations. 

I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees except for 1917 (but I’ll get to it, eventually) and my personal taste leans towards Little Women, a movie that I think is simply fantastic from beginning to end, but I suspect the night will belong to either Scorsese or Tarantino. Probably, Tarantino. 

As many pointed out there is a surprising (or maybe not) lack of women and people of color in the nominations. The two most glaring omissions are the lack of a Best Director nod for Greta Gerwig’s (Little Women) and the no nomination for Lupita Nyong'o for her devastating turn in Us. But, as I often say - the Academy didn’t bother asking my opinion. 

Last year the Oscar awards went hostless and the entire show was automated. At the time, people freaked out that the show was going to be a disaster. It wasn’t. And so this year the Oscars will once again go hostless. Which is fine. 

I have  yet to see all the major movies for several of the acting categories so I will refrain from offering further opinion. But I’m sure I’ll get around to that eventually.  Until then, the 92nd Academy Awards Ceremony will air on ABC on Sunday, February 9th. 

Here is a list of the complete nominees: 

BEST PICTURE

"Ford v Ferrari"

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Joker"

"Little Women"

"Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

"Marriage Story"

"Parasite"

"1917"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kathy Bates, "Richard Jewell"

Laura Dern, "Marriage Story"

Scarlett Johansson, "Jojo Rabbit"

Florence Pugh, "Little Women"

Margot Robbie, "Bombshell"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Tom Hanks, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Anthony Hopkins, "The Two Popes"

Al Pacino, "The Irishman"

Joe Pesci, "The Irishman"

Brad Pitt, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

South Korea, "Parasite"

Spain, "Pain and Glory"

France, "Les Misérables"

North Macedonia, "Honeyland"

Poland, "Corpus Christi"

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)

"In the Absence"

"Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)"

"Life Overtakes Me"

"St. Louis Superman"

"Walk Run Cha-Cha"

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"American Factory"

"The Edge of Democracy"

"Honeyland"

"For Sama"

"The Cave"

ORIGINAL SONG

"I'm Standing With You," "Breakthrough"

"Into the Unknown," "Frozen II"

"Stand Up," "Harriet"

"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," "Rocketman"

"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away," "Toy Story 4"

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

"How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World"

"I Lost My Body"

"Klaus"

"Missing Link"

"Toy Story 4"

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Little Women"

"The Two Popes"

"Joker"

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Marriage Story"

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"Parasite"

"Knives Out"

"1917"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Antonio Banderas, "Pain and Glory"

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

Adam Driver, "Marriage Story"

Joaquin Phoenix, "Joker"

Jonathan Pryce, "The Two Popes"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cynthia Erivo, "Harriet"

Scarlett Johansson, "Marriage Story"

Saoirse Ronan, "Little Women"

Renée Zellweger, "Judy"

Charlize Theron, "Bombshell"

DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese, "The Irishman"

Quentin Tarantino, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

Bong Joon-ho, "Parasite"

Sam Mendes, "1917"

Todd Phillips, "Joker"

PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"The Irishman"

"1917"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Parasite"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"1917"

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"The Irishman"

"Joker"

"The Lighthouse"

COSTUME DESIGN

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Little Women"

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Joker"

SOUND EDITING

"1917"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Joker"

SOUND MIXING

"1917"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Ad Astra"

"Joker"

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

"Dcera (Daughter)"

"Hair Love"

"Kitbull"

"Memorable"

"Sister"

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

"Brotherhood"

"Nefta Football Club"

"The Neighbors' Window"

"Saria"

"A Sister"

ORIGINAL SCORE

"1917," Thomas Newman

"Joker," Hildur Guðnadóttir

"Little Women," Alexandre Desplat

"Marriage Story," Randy Newman

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," John Williams

VISUAL EFFECTS

"Avengers: Endgame"

"The Lion King"

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

"The Irishman"

"1917"

FILM EDITING

"The Irishman"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Parasite"

"Joker"

"Jojo Rabbit"

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

"Bombshell"

"Joker"

"Judy"

"Maleficent: Mistress of Evil"

"1917"

A recently leaked ABC “hot mic” moment has “Good Morning America” co-host, Amy Robach, seriously spilling the beans that she and her team broke the Epstein sex trafficking news three years ago, but executives at the network killed the story. (Editor’s note: That link goes to the same video linked to the front page). 

Anchor Robach goes on to say that their news story “had everyone,” and specifically name drops Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew then claimed that Buckingham Palace threatened them a “million different ways,” and that the network was worried they would never have access to Kate Middleton or Prince William and so bowed to pressure from the palace (and from others) to kill the story. Robach says she tried to get it aired for three years to “no avail.” 

Well, that was indeed three years ago and now the story is everywhere. Epstein was not in jail at the time Robach claims to have had the story. He was a free man, still trafficking underage girls to extremely rich and powerful men via his private plane, private island and exclusive Manhattan apartment.    

Robach claims that she interviewed Virginia Roberts Giuffre three years ago and that the woman had pictures, names, she had everything and gave it all to ABC. Robach’s quote, “It’s unbelievable what we had.” 

Epstein was arrested July 6th, 2019 on sex trafficking charges, which led to the media frenzy surrounding him and the coming out of several woman reporting decades worth of allegations against him. Robach is kind of like, “Man! I’m so angry! We could have done something about this years ago! I could have run this story years ago! And now everyone has it!” (Not an exact quote from her, more of like me, interpreting her comments).  

The Epstein allegations, for those who are not quite clear on the matter, are this: That he (Epstein) and his “madam,” Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited and trained under age girls to be a personal sex slave for Epstein, then passed Epstein in turn passed the girls around to other powerful men including Prince Edwards and Bill Clinton. And we’re not talking the “legal shady area” when a girl is 17, but will be 18  tomorrow, and if you have sex with her today it’s illegal, but if you have sex with her tomorrow it won’t be. That’s a little weird. 

No, we’re talking about girls as young as 14 years old who are recruited and trained for sex up to and including brutal sadomasochistic dungeon sessions. 

Obviously, after the allegations hit and names dropped, the accused came out and said the same thing, their oft repeated quote was that the allegations were “categorically false!” But, I mean, what else are they going to say?

Epstein, as we all know by now, died via strangulation while in jail awaiting trial in which he was about to name drop really powerful, influential rich men, who frequented his under age girls and again, it wasn’t just sex, some of the women claim the men used them as slaves in brutal S&M sex dungeon rooms. Now, Epstein is dead, so he won’t be naming any names. 

The first coroner says, Epstein died by “suicide,” the second coroner says, “Nope. Homicide.”  Robach had an opinion on this too. From the leaked video: 

“So, do  I think he was killed? A hundred percent! Because, do you want it? He made his whole living blackmailing people. There were  a lot of men in those planes, a lot of men who visited that island, a lot of powerful men who came into that apartment.”

Okay. This seems clear. Robach is claiming that Epstein invited powerful men to have sex with his underage sex slaves and then, Epstein may have pictures and / or video of these men in order to blackmail them. 

Finally, Robach talks about Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who was Epstein’s long time friend, associate and “madam.” Maxwell was the woman who found and trained the under ages girls for Epstein to use. Robach says: 

“Ghislaine Maxwell. I had all sorts of stuff on her too. I love it. I really, I’m like, it’s so funny to hear everyone say her name. Excellent. Like, I had all of that. And everyone’s like, “Who’s that?” “Who cares?” I kept getting that. Um, she knows everything!” 

And that would make sense. The madam who found and trained the girls clearly knows all about it. ABC did respond to the leaked video and basically said, “Yeah, we didn’t publish the story then because it didn’t meet our editorial standards but we’ve never stopped investigating Epstein and no one ever pressured us to drop the story.” 

No one pressured you to drop the story? You think that’s a believable response? You can read their lame response here.     

Anyway. Epstein was arrested for underage sex trafficking. He’s dead. Maxwell, a British citizen, knows all about it. She hasn’t been charged with any crimes.

I am probably like you in that - I hardly ever watch the Emmy Awards. And why is that? Well, for starters there was a run of 20 years where the exact same network shows won year after year. And if it wasn’t the exact same show it was, well, kind of the same type of show. Hill Street Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue, The Practice, West Wing, the Sopranos. Seriously, that was like - 20 years! The same shows.

And what about those same 20 years in comedy? Well - Cheers, Murphy Brown and Frasier basically dominated from 83-98. Fifteen years and three shows pretty much won year after year.

And that gets pretty dull.

Don’t get me wrong. The morning after the Emmy’s I would always check in to see who won. But I don’t think I saw the show once between maybe 1988 and 2005. Or maybe I saw it once, or twice. But not often.

And that seems to be par for the course for most Americans. Now, keep in mind that the Emmy awards never kept track of viewers until 1990 and for about a decade viewership remained consistently within the 15-20 million range; however, ever since Ryan Seacrest took over the Emmy awards in 2007 (where The Sopranos and 30 Rock won top honors) the Emmys have struggled to get more than 12 million viewers.

There was one highlight in 2013 where show host Neil Patrick Harris brought in almost 18 million viewers (I watched that one!) but for the most part viewership has been declining for the past decade.

This seems odd to me. Once the “Golden Age of Television” began, about - ten years ago, I assumed that a wider variety of nominated shows would bring in a wider audience. For those not in the know, the “Golden Age of Television” has kind of universally been known as the rise of the cable programing and the decline of network TV all within the past decade.

Basically, all it suggests is that extremely high quality, high concept, original and sophisticated TV is universally found on cable stations these days, with the networks picking up a rare gem but usually floundering in the dark with dead fish, after dead fish.

Again, I assumed that a wider net cast by the Emmys would pull in a bigger catch. But, I was wrong. (And enough with the fish metaphors).

The most Emmy nominations by network for 2018 (2017 was similar with Netflix and HBO swapping places):  

• Netflix 112
• HBO 108
• NBC 78
• FX Network 50
• CBS 34
• ABC 31
• Hulu 27
• Prime Video 22
• Showtime 21
• National Geographic 17

Wow. So Netflix received almost as many nominations as all three major networks combined. Of course, with the amount of original content that Netflix pumps out, I guess I am not surprised (I confess I get a little overwhelmed when decided what to watch on Netflix). But still. How long are the networks going to broadcast the Emmy awards when the prime time networks hardly win any Emmys?

In the past ten years, all the best drama winners have been from cable stations (mainly AMC and HBO). Best variety show has been a cable show since 2003 (Comedy Central has dominated this category until HBO took over very recently).  Admittedly, 6 of the past 10 comedy winners were from the networks but that was because Modern Family won for 5 years in a row until Veep (HBO) took over for three years. Glancing over all acting categories I would say there is a pretty even mix of network to cable stations winning.

So, yes, there is a network that wins here there and everywhere but those number dwindle as the years pass. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see where this is heading.

Anyway, it has been reported everywhere that this year was the lowest rated Emmy awards ever. I don’t know why. Perhaps audiences have grown tired of the same old cable shows winning again and again. And I guess I can’t blame them. It’s the very same reason I stopped watching in the first place.

Also, it should be noted. I didn’t watch the Emmy awards this year, either. But the morning after I looked over the winners and I did watch the opening monologue, which I thought that was pretty good. So I attached it.

And for those that are interested in such things, here is a list of all the nominations and winners:

Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series

Louie Anderson," Baskets"

Alec Baldwin, "Saturday Night Live"

Tituss Burgess, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"

Brian Tyree Henry, "Atlanta"

Tony Shalhoub, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

Kenan Thompson, "Saturday Night Live"

Henry Winkler, "Barry" *WINNER

Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series

Zazie Beetz, "Atlanta"

Alex Borstein, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" *WINNER

Aidy Bryant, "Saturday Night Live"

Betty Gilpin, "GLOW"

Leslie Jones, "Saturday Night Live"

Kate McKinnon, "Saturday Night Live"

Laurie Metcalf, "Roseanne"

Megan Mullally, "Will & Grace"

Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie

Antonio Banderas, "Genius: Picasso"

Darren Criss, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" *WINNER

Benedict Cumberbatch, "Patrick Melrose"

Jeff Daniels, "The Looming Tower"

John Legend, "Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert"

Jesse Plemons, "USS Callister (Black Mirror)"

Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie

Jessica Biel, "The Sinner"

Laura Dern, "The Tale"

Michelle Dockery, "Godless"

Edie Falco, "Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders"

Regina King, "Seven Seconds" *WINNER

Sarah Paulson, "American Horror Story: Cult"

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

Anthony Anderson, "Black-ish"

Ted Danson, "The Good Place"

Larry David, "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

Donald Glover, "Atlanta"

Bill Hader, "Barry" *WINNER

William H. Macy, "Shameless"

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

Pamela Adlon, "Better Things"

Rachel Brosnahan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" *WINNER

Allison Janney, "Mom"

Issa Rae, "Insecure"

Tracee Ellis Ross, "Black-ish"

Lily Tomlin, "Grace and Frankie"

Outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie

Sara Bareilles, "Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert"

Penelope Cruz, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

Judith Light, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

Adina Porter, "American Horror Story: Cult"

Merritt Wever, "Godless" *WINNER

Letitia Wright,"Black Mirror (Black Museum)"

Outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie

Jeff Daniels, "Godless" *WINNER

Brandon Victor Dixon,"Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert"

John Leguizamo, "Waco"

Ricky Martin, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

Edgar Ramirez, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

Michael Stuhlbarg, "The Looming Tower"

Finn Wittrock, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

Jason Bateman, "Ozark"

Sterling K. Brown, "This Is Us"

Ed Harris, "Westworld"

Matthew Rhys, "The Americans" *WINNER

Milo Ventimiglia, "This Is Us"

Jeffrey Wright, "Westworld"

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

Claire Foy, "The Crown" *WINNER

Tatiana Maslany, "Orphan Black"

Elisabeth Moss, "The Handmaid's Tale"

Sandra Oh, "Killing Eve"

Keri Russell, "The Americans"

Evan Rachel Wood, "Westworld"

Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, "Game of Thrones"

Peter Dinklage, "Game of Thrones" *WINNER

Joseph Fiennes, "The Handmaid's Tale"

David Harbour, "Stranger Things"

Mandy Patinkin, "Homeland"

Matt Smith, "The Crown"

Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series

Alexis Bledel, "The Handmaid's Tale"

Millie Bobby Brown, "Stranger Things"

Ann Dowd, "The Handmaid's Tale"

Lena Headey,"Game of Thrones"

Vanessa Kirby, "The Crown"

Thandie Newton, "Westworld" *WINNER

Yvonne Strahovski, "The Handmaid's Tale"

Outstanding reality/competition series

"The Amazing Race"

"American Ninja Warrior"

"Project Runway"

"RuPaul's Drag Race" *WINNER

"Top Chef"

"The Voice"

Outstanding variety sketch series

"At Home with Amy Sedaris"

"Drunk History"

"I Love You, America"

"Portlandia"

"Saturday Night Live" *WINNER

"Tracey Ullman's Show"

Outstanding variety talk series

"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"

"Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" *WINNER

"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah"

"The Late Late Show with James Corden"

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

Outstanding limited Series

"The Alienist"

"The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" *WINNER

"Genius: Picasso"

"Godless"

"Patrick Melrose"

Outstanding comedy series

"Atlanta"

"Barry"

"Black-ish"

"Curb Your Enthusiasm"

"GLOW"

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" *WINNER

"Silicon Valley"

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"

Outstanding drama series

"Game of Thrones" *WINNER

"The Handmaid's Tale"

"Stranger Things"

"The Americans"

"This Is Us"

"Westworld"