House Oversight — Estate records
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_010715
Peggy Siegal's 2014 Oscar Diary
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52 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • APRIL 2012 Peggy Siegal’s Oscar Diary APRIL 2012 • AVENUE MAGAZINE | 53 David O. Russell and Spike Jones Peggy Siegal and Catherine Martin Suki Waterhouse and Bradley Cooper This was the year absolutely no one could predict Best Picture for the 86th Academy Awards: not even me, the Oscar witch. This made directors Steve McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron and David O. Russell very crazy. After months of screenings, press conferences, lunches, and parties, publicists and bloggers had to look these three wise men in the eye and say, “We don’t have a clue.” Then came the slogan, “It’s time.” That was Fox Searchlight’s last suggestion on 12 Years a Slave advertisements that subliminally registered in the hearts and minds of voters in the closing days of the studio’s low-key campaign. “It’s time.” So simple. Says it all. Just like the mantra “Find your voice” that marketing honcho Harvey Weinstein came up with three years ago, which drove The King’s Speech to a win. This is how you win an Oscar. You pinpoint and connect an exact emotion on the screen to an exact emotion that moves 6,000 voters who are mostly very smart white middle-aged guys. On Oscar night, host Ellen DeGeneres joked to 43 million viewers, “Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility number two: You’re all racists,” answering the question three hours before the win was announced. DeGeneres then gifted sponsor Samsung with the world’s most famous selfie and tipped a pizza delivery guy $1,000. The gripping 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, putting Steve McQueen in the history books as the first black director, who is also British, to win an Oscar. It took the star power of white heartthrob Brad Pitt to get the film financed. Taking the small but heroic role as the slave’s savior, Brad then took a backseat by shooting WWII film, Fury in England, leaving the promotion to others. Steve McQueen’s muse Michael Fassbender, who portrayed a sadistic plantation owner, annou […]