Good morning! It is time to clear the sleep from your eyes, friends! The Oscars were last night, and there were gay cultural happenings that I simply must report on!
Let’s start with a confession: I’m primarily a TV girl. Don’t get me wrong; I love the movies, I really do! But give me the choice between watching a 10-episode season and a two-and-half-hour movie, and I’m probably going to pick TV. Thankfully, Riese and Drew already have done the hard work of talking about the movies that were nominated this year, and now it’s my turn to talk live broadcast, baby!!
First things first: Conan! No, he does not count for the purposes of the gay updates from the show, but there is a reason that Conan was the late night host for those with taste. He’s good at this! His riffs on the Best Picture noms went from good to great with “Anora uses the f-word 479 times” which is “three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.” I loved all the bits about the importance of movies and the theater; I will never get sick of people whacking streamers! And he slid a gorgeous little Drake joke in?! King! My personal winner for best joke delivery of the night has to go to the firefighter who slayed that Joker 2 bit, despite all of Conan’s hard work! Oh, and if you were confused about the whole Adam Sandler / Timmy Chalamet bit, it was a callback to Globes, which did take me a second to clock! I can’t remember any other award show doing a callback joke to another award show? But these are unprecedented times!
(Photo by Chad Salvador/WWD via Getty Images)
Enough with the table setting — onto the gay! I don’t know that anything could get gayer than an opening medley of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “Home” and “Defying Gravity?” Sung by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivro? Those songs kind of demand that you have at least a passing familiarity with homosexuality, do they not? At the very least, a theater background, which is the same thing! Their performance was so delightful I almost forgot there was no reason for them to be singing together as far as the ceremony was concerned. Ari’s ruby slipper dress was stunning, the orchestra was locked IN, and Cynthia is, as far as I am concerned, our best living vocalist? “Home” is one of my favorite songs of all time, and hearing her sing it caused my living room filled with homos to scream “I HAVE CHILLS” at the screen. And while I don’t REALLY think Ari and Cynthia are actually in love, I will never get sick of Ari looking at Cynthia like she personally hung the moon!!
Can we talk about Paul Tazewell, first Black Queer man to win an Oscar for costume design? Though I have my quibbles with Wicked being an Oscar-nominated film, I cannot deny how perfect the costume design was. He hit on all the best parts of the Broadway costumes while making them feel a touch more 2024 than 2004, thank god.
Other wins that brought me joy? No Other Land taking best documentary was a delightful win, especially as the film still doesn’t have US distributers! Fingers crossed this wins means more folks will have the chance and inclination to watch. At the very least, it was moving to watch Basel Adra, one of the four co-directors who is Palestinian, get his moment on stage. “About two months ago I became a father, and my hope to my daughter: that she will not have to live the same life I am living now…Always feeling settler violence, home demolitions and forceful displacement that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.” Powerful words on a powerful stage.
(Photo by Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
And thank GOD Cynthia, Lena Waithe, Ari, and Coleman were up front for QUEEN LATIFAH! Singing?! I do have to admit that I don’t super get why the Quincy Jones tribute was so focused on The Wiz. Obviously, I know he was a producer on it, but it is not the project I think of when I first think of Quincy, what with Motown right there? Then again, this is the Oscars, which is famously movie-based! Either way, the glory of seeing Dana Owens AKA Queen Latifah with her trademark silky caramel press easing on down the road filled my heart with light and joy. I wanted the rest of the room to kinda turn it up and groove along, but Oscar’s gonna Oscar. My mandate is this: If the Queen is dancing, you should be too!
Zoe Saldaña also took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (read our history of LGBTQ performers winning Oscars) for her work in Emilia Pérez. Notably, none of the winners for the film mentioned the trans community at all.
Finally: If you were watching on Hulu and your livestream cut off before Best Actress and Best Picture, we (the LGBTQIA+ community) will be gathering to TP Adrien Brody’s home, because he did not need that extra time and it IS home of phobic to make gays miss Best Actress and Best Picture! We ride at dawn!
