What A Day - An Awards Season Unlike Any Other with Rebecca Keegan

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

Hollywood is going through some massive changes. The Golden Globes, usually the start of awards show season, was a non-event when it took place earlier this week because of problems that face the orga...nization that puts it on, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Plus, theatres continue to struggle to lure back moviegoers except with big tentpole films. The Hollywood Reporter’s Senior Film Editor Rebecca Keegan joins us to discuss what’s going wrong and what the future of the film industry looks like.And in headlines: The White House promised 10 million free COVID tests to schools nationwide every month, more than 8,000 grocery store workers at Colorado King Soopers grocery stores went on strike, and inflation climbed to the highest it’s been in 40 years.Show Notes:Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

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Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, January 13th. I'm Gideon Resnick. And I'm Travelle Anderson, and this is What A Day, where we both graduated from Euphoria High School, but were too busy with extracurricular activities to do anything too crazy. I had no time to do insane drugs or almost die because I was editing the school newspaper. People didn't invite me to parties because they knew I had my hands full, okay? On today's show, over 8,000 grocery store workers in Colorado went on strike yesterday, plus inflation jumped to its highest levels in 40 years. That's great. But first, today we are going to update you on the state of Hollywood and
Starting point is 00:00:44 the film industry, which is going through some pretty massive changes right now, to say the least. And that is becoming all the more apparent as this awards season unfolds. So the Screen Actors Guild announced its nominations yesterday, and the Oscar nominations are going to be unveiled early next month. And that was all preceded, as usual, by the illustrious Golden Globes on Sunday. Yeah, but Gideon, if you didn't say it just now, people might not have known. That's because the industry has been side-eyeing and boycotting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, those are the people who put on the Globes, over a number of issues, making it less relevant in awards season when it used to help set trends. So we wanted to talk about all of that, but also the future of film with many movies struggling to draw audiences back into theaters. Joining us to discuss it all is The Hollywood Reporter's Senior Film Editor, Rebecca Keegan. Welcome to WOD. Happy to be here. So let's start with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
Starting point is 00:01:43 or the HFPA. Full disclosure, because of some of the recent controversies over the last year, namely them not having any black members, the HFPA kicked off a number of diversity and inclusion efforts over the last year, one of which included hiring me and four other non-members to join a committee to review the applications of folks who apply to be members of the HFPA. So Rebecca, could you talk to us about some of the other issues that the HFPA has been navigating over the last year and how they have attempted to course correct with some of the accusations and criticism that they've received? Sure. I mean, they've long been the butt of jokes. If you remember, you know, Ricky Gervais' jokes at the telecast, there's sort of an open secret about issues like the HFPA members
Starting point is 00:02:36 accepting trips and gifts and in exchange rewarding certain films or certain performances. But this past year, the LA Times did a series of stories that were sort of kicked off by a lawsuit for someone who was applying for membership to the HFPA. And it really forced people to look a little more closely at the organization. So how would you say those changes have been received by the larger industry? We know that NBC still didn't air the show this year. We know that the show that they did have didn't have much celebrity glitz and glam as part of it. How have folks responded? It feels sort of like the town has the HFPA sitting in the timeout Naughty Mac corner,
Starting point is 00:03:17 you know, like, think about what you did. It does not seem like people are ready yet to welcome back the HFPA for the efforts that they're making. I think it's going to take some time to rebuild trust. I think people also starting to just ask the question, why is this organization or this show been worth so much energy, so much attention, so many resources? Why does this small group of people, as opposed to any other group of people, why do their opinions matter and have the ability to shape how films perform at the box office and how people's careers unfold? Yeah, and to that point, that small group has often signaled the start of the film awards season, their opinions have at least. Considering that this show did not
Starting point is 00:04:02 air on TV this year, and many press outlets didn't do the typical coverage of both the nominees or winners. Does it feel like something is missing? And do you get the sense that there will be a legitimate future life for the HFPA and the Globes considering all this? Well, it's interesting that this happened, the sort of non-event happened during the pandemic, because really nothing is happening. All of the glitzy, you know, red carpet events that normally happen in January that signal this kind of march toward the Oscars are happening virtually, if at all. So there's a way in which potentially the HFPA is benefiting from having to go through this controversy at a time when the industry is so quiet. I do think people miss the sort of fizz and fun of the Golden Globes.
Starting point is 00:04:53 There is a chaotic energy and a sort of hot messness to that telecast in particular that's fun. And if they can find a way to recapture that while also kind of making these existential changes, potentially they can come back. Definitely. So now beyond awards, the industry itself has had to deal with a major shift since over the last two years. People weren't going to the movie theaters. We're living through a pandemic right now. And so we've seen a lot of new movies start premiering simultaneously in theaters and on streaming platforms. In the midst of that, a number of movie theaters closed. And now it seems like we're moving back to a space where films are premiering exclusively in theaters. Can you talk about kind of why that is, why we're seeing that shift? I've been covering Hollywood for almost 20 years, and I have never seen a period of time where people are this clueless about what is going to happen next. I mean, when people say, I don't know, they really don't know. And I'm hearing that from everyone from the heads of studios to directors. It seems like the pandemic cemented a lot of changes that were already on the way that it may have permanently taught people to expect certain
Starting point is 00:06:13 types of movies at home and really only one type of movie in theaters. And that is, you know, a spectacle driven comic book movie like Spider-Man. Lots of people are vaccinated, but people don't seem to be coming back despite that. Yeah, I was going to ask, like, do we have a sense of whether there is enough of an audience out there that is willing to, you know, put on a mask and go to a theater to see being the Ricardos or House of Gucci or whatever? You kind of have to ask yourself now before you go to the movies, like, is this worth potentially getting sick over? It's not just like,
Starting point is 00:06:50 it used to be, is this worth 12 bucks? And now it's like, I mean, Nicole Kidman looks great, but that's gonna be on Amazon in five minutes. So is this worth potentially getting COVID? Spider-Man No Way Home was this enormous deal because it did premiere in theaters only. It has since gone on to become
Starting point is 00:07:09 one of the highest grossing films of all time. At the time of this recording, it is the sixth highest, beating out Titanic and The Avengers. We've been kind of driving at this, but what is the conversation around what this is supposed to mean for us as people in media, as watchers of
Starting point is 00:07:27 movies, the industry overall. It means that people will leave their houses for certain movies. It's just an incredibly narrow, apparently, movie. It is not just a superhero movie. It's the ultimate fan service movie. This is just a wild anomaly, what's going on with Spider-Man. I hope that it makes people enjoy being in the theaters and remember like, oh, this was fun, and want to come back and see other things. But of course, there have to be the other things to see. If studios start just releasing everything quickly to streaming or on demand, there's just not going to be that much choice at the theater. I will say that I did not go see Sing To in the theaters like I wanted to,
Starting point is 00:08:12 but I did enjoy streaming it at home and paying $25 for it. It was wonderful. Anyway, Rebecca Keegan is the senior film editor for The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, guys. Yeah, more on all of that very soon, including if Spider-Man will get any Oscars. I don't know. But that is the latest for now.
Starting point is 00:08:33 We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. More than 8,000 grocery store workers at King Super stores across Colorado went on strike yesterday. It began in the Denver area a day after their union rejected the chain's latest proposal, which the company called its, quote, last, best, and final offer. But the union said this proposal was even worse than the original one. Negotiations started back in October, but the existing contracts expired on January 8th because the union and grocery chain couldn't compromise. Workers are picketing King Soopers and its parent company Kroger because of unfair labor practices.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Kim Cordova, the president of their union, told us this yesterday. King Soopers and Kroger are the largest grocers, not just in Colorado, but in the United States. Yet the workers here are mostly part time and they are barely paid at minimum wage. And so workers, our members are experiencing homelessness or food insecurity. The strike is expected to last for at least three weeks. We will keep following this strike and air more of our conversation with Cordova tomorrow. Bad news for anyone who thought the rent was already too damn high. The latest numbers from the Consumer Price Index came out yesterday, and they show that housing prices jumped 4.1% compared to the year
Starting point is 00:10:06 before. On top of that, inflation also climbed 7% through the course of 2021, the highest that it's been in 40 years. That means that people in the US are paying even more for basics like rent and groceries. Some of the reasons include landlords charging more because of increased demand, as well as the stuck supply chain that is keeping factories closed and goods off of shelves. Now, that sticker shock across the board has put pressure on the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve to take action soon to cool things off a bit. And one possibility came up on Tuesday when Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers this. If we see inflation persisting at high levels longer than expected, if we have to raise interest rates more
Starting point is 00:10:45 over time, we will. COVID tests continue to be the main test we associate with schools instead of tests about, you know, cell division or something. Yesterday, the White House promised 10 million free COVID tests to schools nationwide every month, both PCR and rapid, with rapid antigen tests to start shipping in February. A portion of these tests are intended for screening, where students with no symptoms are tested regularly in hopes of detecting new infections. The moves fit with Biden's push to keep schools in-person, but it's coming late with Omicron cases near their peak in some parts of the country. Nationally, some students are speaking
Starting point is 00:11:25 out about what they consider to be unsafe conditions for in-person learning. Hundreds of students in New York City walked out yesterday calling for an option to take classes from home. And in Oakland Unified School District, students are threatening to boycott in-person classes unless the district provides more testing, sends free-95 masks to students and more. I can say I have never wanted to hear more about the SAT as I have now. Just some other kind of test would be good. One fun fact about England is that when people in power violate their own COVID guidelines there, they do it on the opposite side of the road. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson publicly apologized yesterday for attending a happy hour at the Garden of Downing Street in May of 2020, when the rest of
Starting point is 00:12:11 the country was under strict lockdown. For weeks, Johnson has been challenging the very existence of the party and the allegation that he attended it, ripping lines straight from the playbook of a teenager whose parents left for the weekend and returned to find a big crack in their precious vase. Yesterday was the first time he admitted that he was there, speaking here at the House of Commons. I want to apologize. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months. And I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead when they think that in Downing Street itself, the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules. Boris, Johnson did continue to insist that he attended the party under the assumption that it was a, quote, work event, in spite of an invitation from Johnson's private secretary advising about 100 potential attendees to, quote, bring their own booze. Okay. Members
Starting point is 00:13:11 of the opposition Labor Party, and even some within Johnson's conservative party are calling on him to step down over his handling of the event. For now, the Prime Minister is asking lawmakers to wait for an internal investigation into the BYOB party and others like it hosted at Downing Street to conclude. What is this internal investigation going to yield? How many drinks he had? Well, apparently he had too many because he didn't remember he was there. Yeah, it must have been a good event. Good for him. Also, we're talking about something that happened nearly two years ago now. It's crazy that it took so long to reach this point. But here we are.
Starting point is 00:13:48 And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. This week on Pod Save the World, Ben talks with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk about tensions with Russia and how Ukraine plans to maintain democracy despite Putin's efforts to destroy it. Plus, Ben and Tommy discuss protests and power struggles in Kazakhstan. Boris Johnson's garden party problems. You heard a little bit about that already.
Starting point is 00:14:13 How Novak Djokovic's vaccination status caused a diplomatic crisis in Australia and more. New episodes of Pod Save the World drop every Wednesday. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Hands off your parents' precious spas and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just study guides on cell division like me,
Starting point is 00:14:38 Woodaday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Travell Anderson. I'm Gideon Resnick. And shout out to our alma mater, Euphoria High School. Yeah, they taught me this journalism you're hearing today. They taught me nothing, but I'm still here with Gideon, so it worked out. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:14:57 We're happy. We're happy to still be together. what a day is a production of crook and media it's recorded and mixed by bill lance jazzy marine and raven yamamoto are our associate producers our head writer is john millstein and our executive producers are leo duran me, Gideon Resnick. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.

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