Equal Pay Rant and Being Relevant:
Patricia Arquette at the SAG Awards in January
Patricia Arquette’s rant about equal pay is still buzzing around the internet, with most people applauding her speech. And while I agree with Ms. Arquette that equal pay for equal work (even if the definition of “equal work” is highly debatable) is extremely important, I find it difficult to understand why she had to make that point during her acceptance speech. I did not find much relevance between salary and her role as the mother in Boyhood. I have seen the movie and neither the main nor the subplot had anything to do with a woman wanting equal pay. Rather, Ms. Arquette’s character was abused by two out of three of her husbands. If Ms. Arquette wanted to discuss women’s issues, then she should have noted BRIEFLY that we need to properly discuss domestic violence. How come I’m not seeing too many people bring THAT up online? Why just agreeing with her and not noting that her speech might have been a bit out of place for an awards show? Or are people just not using their heads and jumping on the bandwagon because, well, it’s an important topic, period?
Lady Gaga and The Sound of Music:
Entertainment Tonight on Lady Gaga’s performance
On a different note (no pun intended), I still can’t get over Lady Gaga’s performance at the Oscar’s tribute to The Sound of Music. It was just so…different from what she typically does. When I first saw her come on stage, I was thinking “goodness, what will she ruin tonight?” Instead, I was surprised. Not only did she NOT Gaga-ize any of the music, but she sounded great AND sang in a style that was appropriate for the tribute. I know that some people have criticized her (fake) accent, but I did NOT find anything wrong with it. In fact, that kind of pronunciation was how I was taught to sing. I sang in choirs and took private voice lessons as a teen and in my early 20s and was always told to sound a bit more “British” (I guess in reality, it would be mid-Atlantic – sort of a mix of traditional BBC and North American broadcaster English) for most songs in English. Of course, if we were singing something from, say, Oklahoma!, then it’s a different story!
Best Picture:
I am GLAD that Birdman won. Sorry, but as I said in an earlier post, the only thing interesting about Boyhood was that it took a LONG TIME to film. Other than that, it was boooooorrrrrrrrriiiiinnnnng. If my parents bothered to videotape me between six and 18 and archiving it, I could just watch that. Thank you.
Image credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com (Patricia Arquette)
