In a bid to boost diversity, the Academy Awards just announced new diversity requirements for movies wanting to be considered for the Best Picture category beginning in 2024. And nobody is more upset about it than former actress Kirstie Alley.
As soon as she heard about the new criteria, Alley took to Twitter to voice her outrage.
“This is a disgrace to artists everywhere,” the 69-year-old wrote. “Can you imagine telling Picasso what had to be in his f*cking paintings. You people have lost your minds. Control artists, control individual thought… OSCAR ORWELL.”
After deleting the tweet, Alley posted a second one that said, “I’ve been in the motion picture Academy for 40 years. The Academy celebrates freedom of UNBRIDLED artistry expressed through movies. The new RULES to qualify for Best Picture are dictatorial.. anti-artist.. Hollywood you’re swinging so far left you’re bumping into your own a**.”
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(Fun fact: At no point in her 40 year career has Alley ever appeared in an Academy Award-winning film.)
When renowned director Ava Duvernay responded to Alley’s second tweet with a GIF of a Black man slamming the door in a white man’s face, Alley replied, “I ask you to explore my record of diversity and inclusion in anything I’ve produced and throughout my life. I’m not perfect but have fought for human and civil rights for 50 years. I just don’t agree [with] mandated, impossible to ‘police’ quotas as a prerequisite [for] a ‘best’ picture.”
?But I ask you to explore my record of diversity & inclusion in anything I’ve produced & throughout my life. I’m not perfect but have fought for human & civil rights for 50 years. I just don’t agree w mandated, impossible to “police” quotas as a prerequisite 4 a “best” picture???? https://t.co/PZy4QMZcEu
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
A few hours later, presumably after she had calmed down, Alley tweeted again. This time she softened her tone and said that, actually, she thinks diversity in film is awesome and that people need to be more inclusive and tolerant or others.
“I deleted my first tweet about the new rules for best movie OSCARS because I feel it was a poor analogy & misrepresented my viewpoint,” she wrote. “I am 100 per cent behind diversity inclusion and tolerance. I’m opposed to MANDATED ARBITRARY percentages relating to hiring human beings in any business.”
I deleted my first tweet about the new rules for best movie OSCARS because I feel it was a poor analogy & misrepresented my viewpoint. I am 100% behind diversity inclusion & tolerance. I’m opposed to MANDATED ARBITRARY percentages relating to hiring human beings in any business.
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
She followed that up with a string of barely-coherent, self-congratulatory tweets boasting about how inclusive she truly is and scolding people about being more understanding.
I’m more inclusive than the people who wrote that crap. The best kind of inclusion is to make hundreds of movies & TV episodes about real minority stories, not some gimmicky math equation to APPEAR inclusive. UR right l! Not enough content that looks like U or other minorities!?? https://t.co/s4C0pZsazH
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
The truth is most of these people disding me, followed me and RT’d me until they found out I voted for Trump .. the price you pay from those who profess tolerance inclusion & diversity. Not ironic, just the way it is.
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
I don’t feel a desperate need to defend myself, but sometimes it’s important to go on record with your own history. Especially since people aren’t aware of our track records. Understanding is my goal. Understanding leads to change.
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
The only way we will achieve understanding is if we are willing to listen to each other. And most effective when it’s one on one in person.???
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
I have an idea.. there are ENDLESS amazing stories with all minorities (and women…who are not minorities ?) listed above. When we come to Networks & studios LET US MAKE THOSE MOVIES. Let us tell THOSE stories.. I’ve shopped several but NO buyers ????
Maybe now?? https://t.co/E7ZYl486hF— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
Alley’s career hit a brick wall in 2016 after she endorsed Donald Trump for president. In 2019, she briefly made tabloid headlines when she spoke out against Hollywood for, wait for it, not being more inclusive of Trump supporters.
Related: Kirstie Alley takes a break from promoting hydroxychloroquine to invite Tulsi Gabbard to hang out
Heywood Jablowme
The resemblance to Jabba the Hutt is UNCANNY!
wikidBSTN
That was my first thought too!
Ronbo
Fat shaming. Really? That’s just a tweak away from gay shaming. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein.
Perhaps, instead, we stick to addressing her repugnant politics.
Heywood Jablowme
@Ronbo: Come on, she starred in and co-wrote a Showtime series that was literally called “Fat Actress”! She’s always been self-deprecating about her struggle with weight. Although maybe now she’s given up the struggle and is hoping for a remake of “Gilbert Grape” if you know what I mean. 🙂
Heywood Jablowme
Jabba the Hutt had “repugnant politics” too. He was kind of a galactic Trumper.
Cam
Kirstie Alley just stated she’s now a Republican, and now gets enraged at the idea of minorities getting jobs.
Sounds about right.
ted72
Sounds about white…
radiooutmike
Well, if Hollywood needs more CHUDs in their films, they know where to turn.
controversial2019
She is correct about women not being a minority.
They are DEFINITELY under-represented, and they are DEFINITELY underpaid and under appreciated (in most professions), however they are not a minority as a “people”.
BaltoSteve
hmmm… rabidly angry at one point.. then a little later sounding almost like she has mellowed out… Swear it looks like the twitter version of a Snickers Commercial… “‘This is a disgrace to artists everywhere. Can you imagine telling Picasso what had to be in his f*cking paintings. You people have lost your minds. Control artists, control individual thought… OSCAR ORWELL.’ Kirstie, you become a raging white nationalist when you’re Hungry.. here have a snickers… Better? ‘Women are not a minority!'”
Creamsicle
The Oscars Award committee is a private organization. They have every right to set standards for the media that qualifies. They would be within their rights to set explicitly segregationist policy if they wanted to, so long as they don’t receive federal funding.
This is basically “Old lady yells at cloud.”
JohnnyBoy2
yes, yes, they are a private organization and can do what they want. Not the point, though. Others are free to criticize them for what they do, which is what is going on. This is a discussion about whether their policy is fair or makes sense.
Jay002
Well I think Kriste Alley should…Oh wait the Best thiing I ever ate just came on.
Grrrowler
She claims to be more inclusive than so many other people, but if she supports people who are against inclusivity (Trump), she herself is against inclusivity. Sorry Kirstie but you have to walk the talk, put your money where you mouth is, etc.
JohnnyBoy2
What the heck is a diversity requirement in art, anyway? This is nonsense. I agree with Kirstie.
I guess “12 Angry Men” would automatically be disqualified. No women.
Cam
Except that isn’t the rule. The rules are, they have to fill two out of four.
So as long as the companies producing and distributing 12 Angry men didn’t only hire white men the movie would be fine.
It’s cute you all keep trying to lie about this so you can cry about movies not having only white guys in them.
Liquid Silver
Wait and see if they really follow these or if the A) requirement is ignored in favor of movies with faux diversity and poor acting or other issues.
If that happens, then you can certainly feel free to complain.
Josh in OR
Nothing is scarier to a white supremacist than the idea of going from 100% representation across all media to…less than 100% of representation across all media.
They threw a fit when black people started acting at all. They threw a fit when black artists demanded they be considered for awards too. They threw a fit when LGBT+ people started being portrayed as something other than sidekicks, sob stories, or psychos. They threw a fit when openly queer artists insisted they be considered for awards too.
Anything less than total dominance in representation is too much diversity for them. They want to see ONLY cishet white Christians (Or, in Kirsty’s case, I guess Scientologists?) and anything else is ‘quotas’ or ‘virtue signalling’ or ‘PC culture running rampant.’
LumpyPillows
I used to love Kirstie. She’s become tragic. I think the Academy went overboard trying to fix a real problem. I can live with it.
WSnyder
I guess she forgot about the MPA Rating System [also the RIAA and ESRB and TV Parental Guidelines]. The Entertainment Industry has been self regulating for nearly 50 years in response to Government attempts at censorship. Movies that choose not to get Rated are at a financial disadvantage because major distributors won’t touch them and major Theater chains won’t show them. All this as a result of conservative moves against anything considered ‘lewd’ or ‘vulgar’. Yet the same values never seem to be an issue for Europeans or Far Eastern cultures [although Chinese censorship certainly comes into play when they see ‘subversive’ material they feel threatens the ‘State’]. So her ‘Artistic Freedom’ argument rings pretty hollow coming from someone who objects to boobies on TV before 9 PM.
JessPH
Diversity is good but not the expense of meritocracy. People should be hired because of their skills and not because of their gender, skin color, sexual orientation.
Cam
Your comment ignores the fact that highly qualified LGBTQ, Black, women, Latino, Asian, and other minorities were NOT hired over the past century in Hollywood.
So this is creating a meritocracy. Unless you think that all of the best employees are white and male?
Samuel1966
Poor Kirstey Alley ,never had never received an academy award, not even a nominee as far as I
can remember, she should stand for her last name and stay where she belong… In the Alley
Cam
Alley is a Scientologist and they support Trump. No surprise.
justgeo
Forced inclusion ensures drivel. Stories stand on their own merit for the artistry. Formulas don’t work they just placate guilty folk and loud mouth winers on all sides.
Hdtex
Is that you Kirstie?
Hdtex
Go choke on a donut you fat DISGUSTING PIG.
wooly101
I totally agree with Kirstie. This is the stupidest thing the academy has ever done. I see nothing but PC shlock films in the future.
LukeHeavens
Ask her about her thoughts on blackface. Or Scientology’s view on homosexuality. (Hint: it’s referred to as a perversion.)
LukeHeavens
As God is my witness, I will not fat shame Kirstie Alley!
nitejonboy
I’m not fat shaming, I’m fat myself, I’m just identifying one of my own kind,LOL
nitejonboy
Who’s Kirstie Alley ? And who is the fat guy in that first picture in the article ? Wait, is that her ? OOps.