Star’s Racist Tweet Scandal Just Blew Open the Oscar Race

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This Week

The shocking Emilia Pérez Oscars controversy.

The glorious return of mediocre comedies.

A good time to be J.Lo.

You’re going to want to watch Paradise.

Meryl Streep’s next great performance.

The Oscars Just Got Exciting

Emilia Pérezis easily one of the worst movies I’ve suffered through this year, so its award-season success has been absolutely baffling.

With 13 nods, it is the most nominated film at this year’s Oscars, a count that ties Emilia Pérez with classics like Gone With the Wind, From Here to Eternity, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Forrest Gump, and Chicago. It’s one of the most egregious cases of “one of these things is not like the others” that I’ve ever seen, as if Gigli had gotten the same amount of Oscar nominations as Titanic.

The film is a 130-minute musical mostly in Spanish, but by a French director and screenwriter, about a Mexican cartel leader who transitions from man to woman and enlists a lawyer to keep her safe during the process. There is no logical reason why this is a musical, a confusion exacerbated by the fact that not a single song is what an objective person would call “good,” no one in the cast is capable of carrying a tune, and each number is lit with such muddy lighting that you can barely see what’s going on.

The one forgiving element of Emilia Pérez is its historic status. Its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, is the first openly trans performer to be nominated for an acting Oscar. And to Gascón’s credit, even Emilia Pérez’s most vocal haters—aka, me—temper their vitriol with the caveat, “But it’s not the actors’ faults. That lead woman, Karla, is very good.”

I’m very grateful for Gascón today. No one has to try to sink Emilia Pérez’s Oscar campaign anymore. She’s taken care of doing that all on her own.

Back-to-back controversies have all but ensured that a voter would need to be out of their damn mind to cast a vote for this movie.

First, the lesser of the two scandals, Gascón was caught gossiping about her fellow nominee Fernanda Torres, the Golden Globe winner from the Brazilian film I’m Still Here, accusing the actress’ team of attacking her on social media. Beyond pettiness, Gascón’s words had to be investigated to see if they were in violation of Academy rules that would require rescinding her nomination.

But then came the big one. Past tweets resurfaced that could best be described as Gascón waking up each day and playing her own version of Whack-a-Mole with which marginalized community she was going to trash in a new post. They are, again, speaking objectively, shockingly bigoted. The posts shared her controversial views about Muslim people, George Floyd, and, ironically, diversity at the Oscars. I think that last one may be what made Netflix’s PR team’s heads finally explode.

Gascón has apologized, and her X account is now deactivated. I’d say, however, that the damage is already done. And the effect that this will have on this year’s Oscars can’t be undersold. It doesn’t just diminish Emilia Pérez’s awards chances; it likely will impact the ceremony being planned for March 2 itself.

Micro controversies have hit several of the top competitors for Best Picture.

The Brutalist caught flak for its use of AI, both in perfecting star Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent and to help in the design of the architect character’s buildings. It, frankly, is overblown. The AI designs were used for inspiration only and, if you think that The Brutalist is the only movie using technology to sweeten actors’ performers, you’re being very naive; hilariously, not only have other Best Picture nominees done similar things, the same company The Brutalist used also worked on—you guessed it—Emilia Pérez.

Anora, the unhinged Cinderella story of a sex worker who impulsively marries a Russian heir, sparked its own cycle of discourse when Best Actress nominee Mikey Madison revealed that the film didn’t employ an intimacy coordinator to consult on its many sex and nude scenes. The blowback passed quickly on this one, but in a tight Best Picture race, any drama isn’t great.

With Emilia Pérez already battling a growing chorus of “how in the living hell is this an Oscar movie?” discussion once one of its most cringe-inducing moments—a song about vaginoplasty—went viral, Gascón’s evolution from history-maker to award-season villain killed any remaining goodwill the film had.

With three leading contenders all facing a range of controversies, the Best Picture race has blown wide open in a way that’s actually kind of exciting—though we hesitate to give credit to racist tweets for livening things up.

It’s become more and more typical for each Oscar category to be essentially set in stone by the time the ceremony happens. For there to be uncertainty heading into voting, which begins Feb. 11, is quite fun. I can imagine the campaign team behind Conclave sitting in a dark room in their robes and pope hats, devilishly drumming their fingers together to celebrate the chaos they’ve sewed. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised, at this point, if Wicked scores the rare populist movie win.

Another question is what happens to the ceremony itself. Producers have already revealed plans to revive its popular, very touching gimmick of having five previous Oscar winners deliver tributes to each acting nominee before the winner is announced. At this juncture, after seeing the content of those tweets, who is going to agree to earnestly sing the praises of Gascón?

What was likely going to be one of the most profound moments of the telecast is now completely upended. It would be embarrassing for the Academy and producers to have to announce they’ve altered this plan, for many reasons including it would mean admitting that campaign politics and controversies influenced that decision.

It’s a bum note for Emilia Pérez at the most important moment of the awards cycle. But having seen the movie, bum notes are kind of its thing.

Today’s Top Entertainment News

It’s a Good Time to Laugh

There was a time when I was growing up in the [decade redacted] when on any given weekend, you could count on going to the movies to see a completely mediocre comedy. You’d get nauseous from popcorn and soda, have a few laughs, see a generally liked major celebrity on the big screen for 90 minutes or so, and consider it seven or eight dollars well-spent.

That brand of comedy has gone all but extinct as studios focus solely on franchises and existing IP, and movie stars themselves have become less bankable. So it’s to my great delight to see a revival right now of the “totally fine, wasn’t great, wasn’t bad, I had a perfectly nice time” comedy both in theaters and on streaming services. It’s a very specific kind of movie that serves a very specific audience purpose. And it’s back.

Back in Action brought goofy-comedy national treasure Cameron Diaz out of retirement. Is it confusing that she resurfaced for something so middling? Sure, but I don’t care! I got to spend a Friday night drifting in and out of sleep while occasionally chuckling at her new movie. Such a treat!

One of Them Days triumphs solely on the irresistible charisma of stars Keke Palmer and SZA. It’s not, like, a masterclass of comedy writing. But I will say that, in the same week, I saw The Brutalistand One of Them Days in cinemas and the audience clapped after only one of them. And it was not The Bruatlist.

This week sees another entry into this canon. Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell are in a rom-com, You’re Cordially Invited, that is just about as “sure, OK!” as you’d expect a 2025 rom-com starring Reese Withersppon and Will Ferrell to be. What a comfort that is. You should look forward to knowing what every single punchline will be before it comes out of their mouths, and having a great time because of it.

You know what movies are sorely missing these days? Hijinks! These three films have that in spades.

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It’s a Good Week for J.Lo

It should surprise no one who knows me even a little bit that I thoroughly enjoyed Kiss of the Spider Woman, the film that includes a scene in which two attractive boys have passionate gay sex while Jennifer Lopez belts an iconic musical theater ballad in their faces.

The film is one of the most buzzed about premieres from the Sundance Film Festival, with everyone I met while in Park City talking about it. It’s insane to speculate this far in advance, but critics, myself included, are already saying that her mesmerizing song-and-dance performance should earn J.Lo her long overdue first Oscar nomination. (C’mon people: Love her or hate her, she deserved nods for Selena, Out of Sight, and, most of all, Hustlers.)

This week also happened to be the anniversary of when Lopez became the first woman to have both the number one movie at the box office, The Wedding Planner, and the number one album on the Billboard charts, Jenny From the Block. I can’t think of another major celebrity who has such wild pendulum swings—the flop of This Is Me…Now, the cancelation of her tour, bizarre social media vilification following Ben Affleck divorce, to this week of triumphs—in their career so quickly.

Also, she posted my review of Kiss of the Spider Woman on her Instagram, which, from what I understand, means that J.Lo and I are now best friends.

Get the Speeches Ready

The first truly great new series of 2025 is already here. Hulu’s Paradise is a juicy thriller that kicks off with the murder of the president, played by James Marsden, and jumps back and forth in time to reveal what led to it and who might be responsible. There is a MAJOR twist that happens at the end of the first episode that I will not spoil, because everyone deserves the same “what??????!!!!!” experience that I had.

Sterling K. Brown and Julianne Nicholson are so, so good in the first three episodes, which are now on Hulu. They’re both already Emmy winners, and I have a feeling they’re about to add to their trophy cases.

Get Cameras Rolling Now

It was revealed this week that Meryl Streep evacuated her home during the Los Angeles fires by cutting a car-sized hole in her fence and driving through it and through her yard, because a tree had fallen in her driveway. Obviously, I’m going to need a movie about this, and I’m going to need Meryl Streep to star in it.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

You’re Cordially Invited: It turns out that Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are incredibly likable stars. Who knew! (Now on Prime Video)

Paradise: That twist, y’all! (Now on Hulu)

Companion: Sex, robots, and horror should be a much more tantalizing combination. (Now in theaters)

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