..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

ELEVEN DAYS TO GO

Gabby Johnson: [shouting] The sheriff's a ni…. (a church bell rings)
Harriett Van Johnson: What did he say?
Dr. Sam Johnson: He said the sheriff is near.
-- From the WGA winning, Academy unnominated screenplay for Blazing Saddles, written by Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, and Alan Unger

Chris Rock says controversial things!!!

Is it me, or does this all seem like a marketing stunt for Disney's Chicken Little (coming this summer to a theater near you)? I mean good gosh a' mighty!

Let's start by looking at what Chris Rock actually said, starting with the Matt Drudge's "most controversial" pull quotes (in italics)…

"I never watched the Oscars. Except the Halle [Berry]/Denzel [Washington] year. But even then, I went back and forth to other channels. Come on, it's a fashion show. No one performs; it's not like a music show. What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars? Show me one. And they don't recognize comedy, and you don't see a lot of black people nominated, so why should I watch it? Where's my in?"

So, you can see… no reference to gay men watching. It's really about whether the Oscars are accessible to black male audiences, aside from the potential black gay male population that might watch for the clothes.

Does anyone on the planet dispute this as a complete thought… as part of an entire paragraph? I expect not. If they do, they are either extremely sensitive or in deep denial. Oscar has not been particularly friendly to black people or comic actors.

And here is the next "bomb"…

"Awards for art are f---ing idiotic."

But, of course, Drudge takes the comment completely out of context… the actual question and comment…

Question: "Are you rooting for anyone?"
Rock answers: "Awards for art are f---ing idiotic. Unless two people are doing the exact same thing, how can you really say somebody's better than the other? If Jamie Foxx is doing Ray and Clint Eastwood's doing Ray, then you can kind of judge the two."

Does anyone want to make a big, loud argument about the content of what he said? Again, if you want to take it out of context, you can make it sound horrible. But what he is actually saying will be said by no fewer than half the winners when they come up tote stage (if allowed to come up to the stage) to get their awards. And it certainly would be seconded by actors like Sean Penn, Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood and many others who are not so anxious to work for a win, even if they are excited as hell when they do win something.

Rock continues…

"But I root for people in the sense that some awards will help people's careers more than others. I know if Jamie Foxx or Don Cheadle wins, it's gonna help out their careers. There will be an absolute change in their lives if they win. Whereas if Johnny Depp wins, it's like, Yeah? He's got an award, but he's always gonna make the same money; he's always gonna get the best offers and work with the best people. If Leo DiCaprio wins, who gives a f---? It's like, Oh, now he's gonna get 20 million and one dollars?"

Interesting… thoughtful… again, not really grabbing a lot of headlines for this notion.

So why are people forming a lynch mob for Chris Rock when we should all really be erasing our bookmarks for The Drudge Report? When it comes to something like this, this guy is a muckraking scumbag of the lowest order. By removing these comments from their context, he created a lie… a lie that has now been repeated over and over and over again.

And where has the media been on this? I have to admit, I just looked at the full interview on Tuesday night and what I thought was a tempest in a teapot is really a vicious attack by Drudge that could be the stuff of litigation if we weren't in a business that says that public figures should shut up and eat it.

Could any jury that was not already predisposed against Rock or so turned off by the f-bomb find that this was not a malicious act by Matt Drudge intended to cause career harm to Chris Rock?

I won't go as far as to play the race card here, but the primary issue that Rock takes up in this interview is being an outsider as a black man at the Oscars. And I have to say, Josh Wolk did a poor job of following up with real questions about this outsider status. Rock goes back to it over and over and over again.

"No singing for me. I don't soft-shoe. I got Ben Vereen on standby just in case."

"I'm wearing Sean John, by the way. Help out the black designer, fine. Like Armani needs me to wear a f---ing tux to help them out."

"No one was thinking about me when they were making Cold Mountain."

"Eddie Murphy was the coolest guy on the screen. He was, like, the first black guy that I can remember who was cool. I can't remember going to see a movie with black people in it before him."

But Wolk seems to just let is slide. Then again, this is Entertainment, not news, and while the interview questions are fine and the answers are generally amusing, the lack of real depth is Weakly.

Perhaps the most controversial comment in this interview, which could actually have a lasting effect on Rock's relationship with the Academy has not been much reported at all:

"When did the Academy ask you to host?"
"They've probably been calling me since '97. I had turned it down - it seemed like an older guy's gig, with a tuxedo and all, and I really liked doing the MTV Awards."

Chris Rock turned down the Oscars for the MTV Awards. Now, that is Oscar blasphemy!

One more tip from the interview… if you are in L.A. and want a unique treat, figure out whether Rock is heading to The Improv or The Laugh Factory after the big show. He says he plans on doing a post-show show. And my guess is that you will find the funniest - and most honestly offensive - jokes of the entire night when Rock really lets it all out.

The Entertainment Weekly Interview w/ Chris Rock
The text of the interview
The Drudge Sludge

This Week's Charts Will Be Available On Thursday

Last Week 's Charts
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor/Supporting Actor
Best Actress/Supporting Actress
Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay

Previous Columns:
The Case for Sideways
The Case for Million Dollar Baby
The Case for The Aviator
Week Fifteen: February 3, 2005
Week Fourteen: January 27, 2005
The Post Nominations
Week Thirteen: January 20, 2004
Week Twelve: January 13, 2004
Week Eleven: January 6, 2004
Week Ten: December 30, 2004
Week Ten: December 23, 2004
Week Nine: December 16, 2004
Week Eight: December 9, 2004
Week Seven: December 2, 2004
Week Six: November 25, 2004
Week Five: November 18, 2004
Week Four: November 11, 2004
Week Three: November 4, 2004
Week Two: October 28, 2004
Week Two: October 21, 2004
Week One: October 14, 2004
23 Weeks To Oscar: September 23, 2004
Oscar Preview: August 4, 2004

- br David Poland