The most talked-about moment from the 90th Academy Awards was Frances
McDormand's acceptance speech. It is impossible to maintain one's composure
in this situation. What am I doing here? No. Not that one. The one from this year.
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McDormand won Best Actress for the second time in her career accepting the award
for her performance in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. Her acceptance
speech was an inspiring moment for the crowd including all the female nominees.
If I may be so honored to have all the female nominees in every category stand
with me in this room tonight. The actors. Meryl, it you do it everybody else will.
Come on. It was a tough night for women at the Oscars. Most of the awards as
usual went to men and the only woman in major categories like Cinematography and
Directing went home empty-handed. But McDormand's speech was about encouraging
Hollywood to become more diverse. And she ended with something that actually
confused a large chunk of the audience and viewers. I have two words to leave
with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Inclusion Rider. Inclusion writer? Like
your writing? Inclusion Rider? Like you're riding a horse? Inclusion... I, I'm
not sure. I was watching this moment and I actually was like inclusion? Yes! Writer?
Okay. Yeah. There should be more writers that are more diverse, more females... and
the Internet was also sent into frenzy over what all of this was. We don't know
you're hot Hollywood lingo, McDormand! Here at What's Trending, we're gonna
break it down. Here is what she was talking about. A Rider (r-i-d-e-r) is an
addition to a contract with some sort of condition for doing the work. For example,
Lil Wayne's rider for performances says he has to stay in the presidential
suite of a five-star hotel and his room must be stocked with two bottles of
Hennessy XO. An inclusion rider aims to ensure that film productions observe
racial and gender equality and hiring on film sets. This includes in the cast
and the crew. The fact is that movie stars can make equality happen in
Hollywood faster if they all include Inclusion Riders in their contracts.
McDormand talked about Inclusion Riders in her backstage interview and revealed
that she only found out recently about their existence. The fact that we, that I
just learned that after 35 years of being in the film business. It's not,
we're not going back, so the whole idea of women trending? No. No trending.
African-Americans trending? No. No trending. It changes now and I think the
Inclusion Rider will have something to do with that. Once the confusion was
cleared up, members of the industry promoted Inclusion Riders as a way to
promote equality. Actress and comedian Whitney Cummings said: "We should support
[Inclusion Riders] for a billion reasons, but if you can't find a reason to, here's
one: it will make movies better." And fellow Best Actress winner Brie Larson
said: "I'm committed to the Inclusion Rider. Who's with me?" The night was almost
ruined for McDormand though after her Oscar went missing. It was briefly stolen
after she placed it down on her table and then photographers saw her looking
distraught outside the Governors Ball looking for who had swiped it. 47-year-
old Terry Bryant was arrested for grand theft, and he even shot a video of
himself with the Oscar shortly before his arrest.
I mean this guy's got balls. This is a story you would tell your children,
your grandchildren, great-grandchildren through a prison phone. And not only does
he steal the Oscar, but he goes around getting people to pose with him with the
Oscar telling them that he won for Best Producer? I mean there's not even
that award. He was apprehended and a rep for McDormand confirmed to USA Today:
"Fran and Oscar are happily reunited and are enjoying an In-N-Out burger together."
By the way, the Coen-McDormand clan love In-N-Out.
Now in other diversity inclusion news,
Emma Stone made a statement that didn't really work for everyone.
That "four men and Greta Gerwig" statement really was all about her saying that
gender equality has not reached the upper echelons of Hollywood filmmaking.
And many online criticized that comment for diminishing the achievements of
Jordan Peele, who's biracial, and Guillermo del Toro, who is from Mexico.
@ReignOfApril says: "I'm not here for the participation trophies and partial
credit some are so eager to give out. Emma Stone made a movie with Woody Allen,
played a whitewashed character, and erased the importance of to men of color in a
category. But she identified a woman, so..., yay?" Yeah. I guess these two white men
Jordan Peele, Guillermo del Toro, and Greta Gerwig doesn't have the same ring to it.
But the Best Director category has been pretty good diversity wise for the past
few years. Four of the last five winners have been Latino men from Mexico, and
Jordan Peele became the first African-American ever to win Best
Original Screenplay this year. But, yes. In reality it is sad that only one woman
ever has won for Best Director, that's Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker,
which is the point that Emma Stone was trying to make. Listen. Of course gender
equality is important, but let's not leave other marginalized groups behind.
So do you think Inclusion Riders could fix Hollywood's diversity problem? Let us
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