‘Selma’ Backlash: Producers Guild Awards Snub Oprah … Again

Oprah Winfrey: I played Annie Lee Cooper in 'Selma' because Cooper was an 'Oprah' fan
UPI

Drudge picked up on the fascinating fact that this is the second year in a row the prestigious Producers Guild Awards snubbed producer Oprah Winfrey and her product: a historical-based race drama. Last year, it was the historically-inaccurateThe Butler.” This year it is the historically-inaccurateSelma.”

Every year the PGA nominates the producers of 10 films for its prestigious Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Because of the voting pool involved, the PGAs are usually a very good indicator of the films that will go on to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Here are this year’s nominations:

American Sniper (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Boyhood (IFC Films)

Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics)

Gone Girl (20th Century Fox)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company)

Nightcrawler (Open Road Films)

The Theory of Everything (Focus Features)

Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

This is the third time in two years Winfrey has been caught and/or accused of playing fast and loose with the hot-button issue of race.

On top of  “Selma” and “The Butler,” there was Oprah’s apparent race hoax involving the purchase of a purse in Switzerland. Oprah caused a worldwide political storm (and grabbed lots of publicity for “The Butler) after she accused a nameless clerk of racism. After the clerk came out and publicly declared Oprah a liar, the former talk show titan backed down.

 

John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC             

 

 

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