Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York
Oscar Campaign Scandal: Robert Wise, Miramax & GANGS OF NEW YORK Part I
Back to Robert Wise (right) and Gangs of New York: The plot got even thicker when Murray Weissman and others later claimed that Wise himself had approached Miramax after reading another Op-Ed piece, this one published in Variety (Feb. 3, 2003) and penned by two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men), who called Gangs of New York "a mess" and Martin Scorsese "a giant ape director" who disregarded his screenwriters. (In his article, John Horn states that Miramax approached Wise.)
A Business Weekly piece by Ron Grover questioned the Academy's double standard. Why the outrage over Miramax's p.r. stunt, but not over Goldman's attack on Scorsese? The previous year, Julia Roberts had publicly supported Training Day's Denzel Washington while Warren Beatty pushed Monster's Ball's Halle Berry. No one was criticized and both Washington and Berry went on to win Academy Awards.
"As for Academy President Frank Pearson calling the Wise commentary a 'violation,'" Grover continued, "Miramax officials have none-too-subtly reminded folks that Pearson himself hosted a party a few months back to help the foreign film Y Tu Mama También's chances for its own foreign-film nomination." [Note: Y Tu Mama También was ineligible for the 2002 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, for it was released in Mexico before November 2001. Alfonso Cuarón's drama was, however, eligible in the 2002 Oscars' regular categories. The film eventually received a Best Original Screenplay nod.]
Weissman, for his part, defended himself in a press release in which he stated: "There have been occasional reportorial inferences in some entertainment news columns that as a public relations consultant to Miramax I did something 'inappropriate' by drafting, at Robert Wise's specific request, an Op-Ed piece that appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News in support of Martin Scorsese and Gangs of New York. I strongly disagree with this suggestion."
Eventually, despite its ten nominations Gangs of New York failed to win a single Academy Award on Oscar night 2003, though another Miramax production, Rob Marshall's musical Chicago, was chosen as the year's best. The following year, however, Miramax's Anthony Minghella-directed Cold Mountain wasn't shortlisted in the Best Picture category. Whether because of the previous year's flap or because of Nicole Kidman's poor makeup job, that marked the first time in eleven years that a Miramax production wasn't in the running for the Best Picture Oscar.
"There will now be personal consequences to improper campaigning," Academy President Frank Pierson said in a statement following the Robert Wise-Miramax-Gangs of New York firestorm. According to the Academy's new rules, "Any Academy member who has authorized, approved or executed a campaign activity that is determined by the Board of Governors to have undermined the letter or spirit of these regulations will be subject to suspension of membership or expulsion from the Academy," while those violations deemed truly serious "could result in a film losing its eligibility for Awards consideration."
If Pierson's statement was no exaggeration, then apparently Nicolas Chartier and the Hurt Locker got off easy.
On Wednesday, I'll be adding a couple more pieces on outlandish Oscar campaigning.
Reprint of William Goldman's Variety piece at Movie City News
Photo: Gangs of New York (Miramax)