An article in The New York Times yesterday talked about controversies in the upcoming Oscars. The director for one of the movies was accused by his stepdaughter of sexual abuse as a child, although he was never brought up on charges and his stepdaughter didn't talk about it publicly until last fall. Now she's upset that his work is being nominated for an award and famous actors even wanted to work with him at all.

I don't usually care about awards and stuff and frankly I'm surprised that I read the article at all, but the concept behind this really stuck to me. Should the Academy Awards not reward people who have done criminal acts? Honestly I'm torn in two different directions. There's a part of me that says no, the Academy should because they're judging a movie purely on its own merits and nothing about the makers' personal lives. If we shunned art because the artist is a terrible person, we probably wouldn't have much culture. Wager for example was an anti-Semite. Sherlock Holmes has definite racist moments. No one's gonna stop appreciating those.

Admittedly though we're talking about the present and whether someone currently should be praised. Again, the Oscars are about the artistic or technical merits of a particular piece. But on the other hand if we put it to the hyperbole, I don't think this stands up. Let's say Hitler made a really great fucking movie that we all love. Him getting an Oscar doesn't really sound right.

So I guess we should say someone who's done bad things doesn't deserve an Oscar, but where do we draw the line? Killing six million Jews definitely disqualifies you, but if we say doing anything illegal deprives you of any chances, we wouldn't have many candidates. How many of those people do you think smoked marijuana? Having sex with your seven-year-old stepdaughter isn't one of those gray areas though; it definitely should be on the "wow that's a bad thing" side of the line.

I guess it's because this director hasn't been convicted of this in a court of law. It's now essentially a he-said-she-said type of situation. Not knowing these people personally, I can't really say who's right and I'm fairly certain the people choosing the nominations don't either. Yet even if the stepdaughter were vindicated, I don't think Hollywood gives a shit. I saw The Pianist years ago with my father, and I've heard the director of that movie definitely had sex with an underage girl yet he got an Oscar for that. So really, what we've learned is Hollywood is on the "artistic merits" side of the argument. I guess Hitler still has a chance?