This is really too easy to do, like taking candy from a baby, you almost feel bad making fun of somebody this ignorant and arrogant… almost.
As you may have heard by now, Eddie Murphy was supposed to have hosted the Academy Awards next year, with Brett Ratner producing.
But Ratner made a bunch of stupid mistakes in a row just days after the release of Tower Heist. Not that his behavior should surprise anyone, of course. To many, Brett Ratner represents much of what’s wrong with Hollywood.
He has nothing important to say as a filmmaker, he can’t stop bragging about his success, all the famous people he knows, and all the A-list women he’s sleeping with, which frankly seems to be his primary motivation for being a director in the first place.
In short, the guy’s got no class, and he keeps giving endless ammunition to his haters just by being himself.
Indeed, Ratner was completely indiscreet about his sexual conquests on two shows, including Howard Stern, which is somewhat forgivable because that’s to be expected, but he also raised the ire of Hollywood by saying at a press conference he doesn’t rehearse because “rehearsing is for fags.”
Mike Fleming at Deadline then filed an editorial saying, “Director and Oscarcast producer Brett Ratner needs to conduct himself with more class in public appearances or risk screwing up his dream job of staging the Academy Awards by alienating Academy membership.”
Subsequently, Tom Sherak, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told Deadline he was standing behind Ratner, but emphasized, “The bottom line is, this won’t and can’t happen again. It will not happen again.”
And sure enough, it didn’t. We couldn’t get this blog post up fast enough before Ratner announced he was resigning from producing the Oscars, followed by Eddie Murphy saying he was quitting the Oscars as well.
All this has left the Academy spinning, as it wonders just how to pull everything back together. Like Tarantino, Ratner just can’t help making a fool of himself (which would make him perfect for a reality show), and trying to keep him within the boundaries of good taste would have been similar to telling Harvey Weinstein to keep his voice down.
The only reasonable solution other than quitting would have to involve the Academy keeping Ratner out of the public eye for a few months to prevent any further embarrassment, which thankfully it won’t have to do from here on out.
