On the other hand, Whoopi Goldberg is an absurdity. She has been decent in some movies, ridiculous in others. But she is hardly the best MC they could find, and her vulgarity detracts from the event as family entertainment. As one who can remember all the years that Bob Hope lent real class to the affair, I found her unfortunate, to say the least.
But my real pique was with all of the mentioned hyperbole about Sidney Poitier. He was not in my opinion, the quality of actor that is Washington. The reason, to be very blunt, is that in every movie I ever saw him in, he projected a definite attitude. That attitude was still there, when he accepted the award. It is a racial chip on the shoulder attitude, and it does him no credit.
As for him being a pioneer? That just isn't so, unless you ignore some incredibly strong performances by Negro actors and actresses, long before Poitier. Didn't, for example, Hattie McDowell get an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With The Wind? (Yes that was only a supporting role; but a very powerful supporting role in the 3 hour and forty minute classic, that is clearly one of the great movies of all time, is more than the equivalent of many a starring role in a much shorter, less powerful picture.) Of course, that Poitier attitude is too full of racial hostility to even realize that Mammie in Gone With The Wind was not a type cast domestic, but a sustaining force in the multi-generation history of an important family. Perhaps if he lost the attitude, he could have been an equally gifted performer. But with the attitude, Hattie projected ten times his power on the screen.
She understood how to create a real character. In Gone With The Wind, she projected more of a real sense of history, drama and human interaction, just by herself, than Poitier, O'Connor and the whole cast, together in In The Heat Of The Night. But then, Poitier was more into expressing his own pique. Sunday night was no exception.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site