If you run into Bradley Cooper after Maestro, his forthcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic, has been nominated for this and that Oscar (which will probably happen), don’t say “way to go, bruh…Maestro totally deserved those noms!” Because that will just piss Cooper off.
The socially safe thing, apparently, will be to avoid the topic of nominations for the most part and focus only on the likelihood of Cooper’s Oscar wins. As in “bruh, you’re totally going to win this time…everyone is voting for you…Maestro is a work of genius,” etc. If you offer nommy congrats, Cooper may take that as a slur.
This, in any event, was indicated when Cooper paid a recent visit to Smartless, the podcast co-hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. Here’s the key quote, transcribed by Variety’s Zack Sharf:
