Mission Accomplished

Last Friday I was having a discussion with one of my friends regarding the recent Oscar nominations and the reactions of some of our mutual friends. The bulk of our conversation centered on people's reactions as opposed to the actual nominations themselves. The conclusion I came to is that the nominations are purposely controversial to spur debate and increase exposure. For some reason people seem to care more when they disagree with something as opposed to when they agree.

My conclusion has recently received quite a bit of anecdotal support thanks to the assistant for one of the executives at DreamWorks Animation. The assistant who shall not be named sits outside our audit room at DreamWorks and may or may not be the loudest, most abrasive woman I have met in quite some time. She is very opinionated and cusses like a sailor. It is no surprise that she is from New York. Thanks to her gregarious personality I am privy to each and every one of her conversations. Even when we close the door. Recently she was yelling at some poor assistant for some other studio exec and yelled "I don't mean to be unprofessional, but you are an f$%&in' joke." The other assistant proceeded to burst out in laughter at the ridiculousness of the whole situation which of course resulted in getting the assistant who shall not be named even more worked up. I thought her head was going to explode. But I digress. So now I will get back on point.

This last week has been quite interesting because the assistant who shall not be named has a heavy emotional investment in the film Dream Girls because of the DreamWorks association. Ever since the assistant who shall not be named found out that Dream Girls was not nominated for best picture she has been on the warpath. She is completely disgusted that Little Miss Sunshine was nominated and Dream Girls was not. To her, the fact that Dream Girls garnered more nominations than any other film is immaterial. Not an hour goes by that she does not complain about the perceived snub. Her ire was revitalized on Monday when DreamWorks held an employee screening of Little Miss Sunshine. I was afraid to walk near her for fear of the flames streaming from her mouth.

My point behind this story is that I don't think the assistant who shall not be named would have spent nearly as much time discussing this years Oscar nominations if she would have agreed with them. Because of her anger she has provided a ton of word of mouth publicity. Everybody she comes in contact with now knows that Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for best picture and Dream Girls was not. From the perspective of the Academy, I am sure they are saying "Mission Accomplished."