-It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and
equal rights for women in the United States of America.
[Applause]
When did the Oscars become so political, a platform for Hollywood
stars and their favorite causes?
-In case you are confused, there is no host tonight, there won’t be
a popular movie category, and Mexico is not paying for the wall.
[Applause]
-The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 25th Annual
Academy Awards.
In the 1950s, when the Oscars were first broadcast on live TV,
the event celebrated how movies took people away from the real world.
-But isn’t it exciting to know that a lot of these glamorous stars are
going to be in your homes tonight?
All over America, housewives are turning to their
husbands and saying, put on your shirt, Joan Crawford is coming.
[Laughter]
The viewing audience was a lot smaller than today’s.
Maybe that’s why acceptance speeches were a lot shorter.
-I guess all I can say is thank you.
Thank you with all my heart.
When Walt Disney got an Oscar for best short documentary, he
actually said nothing at all.
But that changed in the 1970s,
when protest took the stage at the Oscars.
-Accepting the award for Marlon Brando and “The Godfather”...
To support Native American activism around the country,
Marlon Brando refused to accept his award for best actor, sending
an Apache actor in his place.
And the reasons for this being, are the treatment of American
Indians today by the film industry.
Excuse me.
[Applause and Boos]
And in 1978, Vanessa Redgrave waded into Middle East politics.
-And you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a
small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior...
[Boos]
Not everyone liked the new trend.
-I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an
Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not
require a proclamation and a simple
thank you would have sufficed.
But things were just heating up.
-I was really struck by this idea that there were one billion people
watching this thing.
Taking advantage of a global audience, Hollywood stars shared
their views on a variety of hot button issues.
-To Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing, that he will take his troops
and take the Chinese away from Tibet and allow these people to
live as free, independent people again.
-We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that
elects a fictitious president.
-To all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight, very soon,
I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great
nation of ours.
-There are more black men under correctional control today than
were under slavery in 1850.
-Climate change is real.
It is happening right now.
-To all the dreamers out there, we stand with you.
And it was just a matter of time before the Oscars themselves
became a target.
-Well, I’m here at the Academy Awards, uh, otherwise known as the
White People’s Choice Awards.
-I want to take a moment to applaud all of my actors and
actresses of color that didn’t get nominated tonight.
With an election at home and tensions abroad, the 2020 Oscars
are certain to be another star-studded cultural
and political event.
But who will grab the microphone?
-Make the moral choice between love versus hate.
Let’s do the right thing.
[Applause]
You know I had to get that in there.