What I’m Hearing: Oscars Fantasies & the Riseborough Game

PREVIEW VERSION

Start a free 7
day trial to unlock unlimited access to Puck.

Good evening from What I’m Hearing. I’ve got an Oscar nominations edition tonight, while I work on a couple larger projects.

🚨🚨 I’m doing a private call for Puck Inner Circle members tomorrow (Friday) to share the full results and insights from our first streaming brand equity study. Join me and analyst David Herrin, and if you’re not an Inner Circle member, you can upgrade here to attend this and other I.C. calls.

Thursday Thoughts (Oscar noms edition)…

Disney dicks over a contender: Bob Iger was quick to tweet out a press release Tuesday celebrating Disney’s 22 Oscar nominations, the most of any company. But Iger actually undersold his haul by one very special title...

Can’t see the full story? You're receiving the free version of What I’m Hearing at . For full access to Puck, and to each of my colleagues, you can subscribe here

Learn More

Was the Andrea Riseborough Oscar Campaign Illegal?

The shock nom has created a brewing shitshow within the Academy, which is said to be looking at whether the team behind “To Leslie” violated the rules with their aggressive grassroots lobbying.

MATTHEW BELLONI

By now we’re all aware that British star Andrea Riseborough scored a best actress Oscar nomination for To Leslie after her director’s wife and others orchestrated a skilled grassroots political campaign that made Obama 2008 look like Hillary 2016. Mary McCormack and friends emailed and called tons of members of the Academy’s actors branch, begging them to see the little-watched alcoholic drama and post online about Riseborough’s searing performance. The result: dozens of influential stars—Gwyneth, Jen, Howard, Cate, Amy Adams, Ed Norton, and many, many more—sang her praises and helped win her the coveted nomination.

But the shock nom has created a brewing shitstorm within the Academy because Riseborough seemingly...

Keep Reading with a Free Trial