David Poland vs. various Hot Blog commenters on the fluctuating condition of the Oscar chances of Dreamgirls — a truly fascinating debate with some shrewd analyses. A few commenters have tried to nail Poland for backpedaling on having said Dreamgirls “will win the Best Picture Oscar” with Poland responding he never quite said that but what he said was actually this and blah, blah.
Phantom of the Opera, Munich and now this. Poland is deflecting, sweating… swinging his flintlock like Fess Parker‘s Davy Crockett fighting off Santa Ana’s troops at the Alamo. And for all of it, Dreamgirls might stilll win the Best Picture Oscar.
Poland: “The only tangible problem Dreamgirls is actually having right now is with the same half-dozen press members and a couple of awards consultants who have been gunning for it — with various motives — since November 15th or earlier. The fact is, if I suddenly claimed that I didn’t think Dreamgirls was going to win, based on what’s happened in the last two weeks, I would be a hypocrite and a fool… because nothing but positive things have happened…except in the press and on some blogs.”
“Is there anyone else…with daily spin as unbelievably malicious and stupid as what we’ve seen on Dreamgirls in the last week? Do you think that is a coincidence?”
This is really good reading. I love it. High drama, sharply worded posts….read it all.
And it continues: David Carr (a.k.a. “the Bagger”) has been Poland-swatted for passing along a purported linkage between Gail Berman’s departure and the general Dreamgirls slowdown, and he responded to this early today: “Mr. Poland gets so riled that the Bagger worries he might open up the HotBlog and see nothing but red mist where the headshot used to be. As for all the zigs and zags he ascribes to the Bagger, that’s a bit of overthinking. The Bagger has been out doing events, lots of them, and the lack of sleep and reporting time makes him needy and gullible, not riven by agendas.
“Yes, the Bagger picked Dreamgirls as a favorite to win early on, but he has no real rooting interest other than the running story, which grows more interesting every day. The Golden Globes take place Monday and many smart people don’t know which way the dramatic category is going to go: Departed or Babel? And the comedy/musical award is a three-way jump ball: Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls and yes, Virginia, Borat.”