Ricky Gervais Savagely Trolls Natalie Portman's Oscar Dress Tribute to Female Directors
Not only is the angle of this a little unnerving, the audio isn't the best. So let me spell it out for you:
“Inspired by brave Natalie Portman, and her embroidered Oscars dress, I ain’t got a dress. So I’ve written on my body all the known Hollywood perverts who haven’t been caught yet. [Points to scribbles on his wet, hairy belly] He’s a groper, but he paid them off. Pedo. He’ll fucking stick it anywhere. This cunt is a complete nonce.”
This is why I said after the Golden Globes, when Gervais mocked the bejeebers out of Hollywood's obsession with their own smug, self-righteous pomposity, that in the Kingdom of Thorntopia, I'll make it law that he host every awards show.
If you don't get what this is in reference to, here's a little background. At the Oscars, Natalie Portman wore this, to protest there being no female directors nominated.
Which is fine. If you thought the director of, say, "Little Women" got snubbed, go nuts. Part of the reason award shows are worth having is because everyone's tastes and opinions are different. Personally I've been on a crusade forever over how comedies get overlooked. So, say, John C. Reilly will get an Oscar nomination for being in "Chicago" but not for "Dewey Cox," in which he was brilliant. Or Adam McKay gets nothing for directing "Anchorman," but gets all sorts of nominations for "The Big Short." Like comedy is somehow easy. If it was, everyone would be good at it. But I digress.
The issue with Natalie Portman's dress, at least to Ricky Gervais and others, is that this was a virtue-signalling empty gesture:
Source - In a lengthy Facebook post, [Rose] McGowan branded the “Black Swan” actress a “fraud” who only cares about herself, posing as “someone who cares.”
“Some thoughts on Natalie Portman and her Oscar ‘protest.’ The kind of protest that gets rave reviews from the mainstream media for its bravery. Brave? No, not by a long shot,” criticized McGowan. “More like an actress acting the part of someone who cares. As so many of them do.”
Ouch. When you're trying to make a statement through the power of your Red Carpet fashion, only to get your own IMDB page thrown in your face, get ripped by activists and Harvey Weinstein's most high profile victim, then mocked by a fat, wet, naked comedian, it's fair to say that'll leave a mark.
I want to be clear here and say that I'm on Team Natalie. She's in my Starting 5 of celebrities on my Hall Pass list. And I'm not alone; when the Irish Rose saw "Thor," it's hard to say who she was crushing on more, her or Chris Hemsworth. And all she wore was jeans and a flannel the entire movie. And her rap is one of my favorite SNL Digital Shorts ever. So I'm a fan.
I just admire anyone pushing back against these award show warriors who wear designer clothes that could pay for my son's tuition but think they're Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks rolled into one Dior gown.
The real hero here, once again, is Ricky Gervais. I can't imagine what awards season would be without him.