SAG Awards

The Screen Actors' Guild Awards was on TV yesterday. My brain was mush from having written close to 8000 words, so I was in just the right state to watch it.

But evin my stupour, this show managed to irritate the hell out of me. Reason? Here's a sample acceptance speech:

"Oh my God! Um... Thank you! Um... I don't know what to say... umm... I want to thank so many people... umm.. I mean.. ummm.. this is amazing! Um..."

AAARRGGGHH! This, btw, was pretty much Hilary Swank's speech. I don't mind the endless thanking - not much, because it's kind of expected. But is it really too much to expect that someone nominated for an award be slightly prepared to say something in a mildly coherent manner up on stage?

It wasn't just Hilary, though. There were exceptions - Jamie Foxx was good, and Julie Andrews had certainly mugged up her piece well. But almost everybody else, from Mel Gibson to Clint Eastwood to the president of the Screen Actors' Guild (Melanie somebody, I forget her name) messed up their speeches.

Clint Eastwood nearly forgot the name of his own movie - but that could be nerves, so it's OK. But the rest of what he was saying was completely ungrammatical and incoherent. How nuts is that?

Mel Gibson - don't even get me started on him. He was shaking up there on stage, his neck was twitching, he didn't know what to do with himself or his hands or his legs, and you could just see him trying to remember what to say next.

And then the President of SAG. Now - you'd expect her to be prepared, right? She knows she's got to speak, so you'd expect her to rehearse a bit, and get used to being on stage a bit, right? But there she was, stumbling over her words just like everyone else... with less excuse than any of them. Also, here's a paraphrased snippet of her speech:

"The SAG Awards are being broadcast to U.S. soldiers all around the world. I
hope they get some rest from their dangerous task, watching this show."

Gah. I don't know whether to call it condescending or madly arrogant or plain dumb. Yeah, female, be proud that you've brought some mindless little joy into the soldiers' sad lives. :P

Would it really be so hard for these ultra rich people to hire a public speaking coach for things like this? I guess it really is true that the number one thing that people fear is speaking in public - I never used to believe that statistic before.

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Alright, two full weeks after the Prologue went up, Chapter 1 of my HP story is finally up on Madame Maxime's. :) Leave me your thoughts!