Mother Jones
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The road to the Academy Awards is littered with scandal and smear campaigns—efforts on behalf of studios and producers that can be just as nasty and coordinated as political campaigns. (In 2010, rival studio operatives actually tried to peddle to reporters a rumor that Pixar made an “It Gets Better” video just to win over Academy voters for Toy Story 3.)
But Oscar time also means real controversy, and this year is much darker than most. Here are the biggest controversies and outrages of the 2014 Oscar season, ranging from the petty to the absolutely terrifying. The ceremony airs on ABC on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.
1. Decades-old sexual-abuse allegations come back to haunt Woody Allen. Woody Allen’s film Blue Jasmine, starring Cate Blanchett, is up for writing and acting awards (Allen was nominated for best original screenplay, Blanchett best actress). But that probably isn’t the first thing on his mind right now.
In February, Nicholas Kristof’s blog at the New York Times published an open letter by Dylan Farrow, the adoptive daughter of the celebrated filmmaker. The letter describes, in horrifying detail, sexual assault she claims to have suffered at the hands of Allen—when she was seven years old. Allen has always denied the allegations, which surfaced in the early 1990s, and he was never charged. This was the first time Farrow shared her claims publicly. “What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin?” she wrote, calling out Blue Jasmine‘s stars and other actors who have worked with Allen. “What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?” (For responses from Allen and Allen’s representatives, click here.)
These accusations matter far more than any awards ceremony. Regardless, you’ve probably seen too many headlines like this recently: “Will Woody Allen scandal cost Cate Blanchett an Oscar?” For what it’s worth, Blanchett already has an Academy Award.
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