The Scandal and the Glory of the 2003 Oscars

There have been a few times throughout Oscar history where no one seemed to know how the show would go on. In 1938 a giant flood in Los Angeles pushed the ceremony back by a week; in 1968 and 1981, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan forced delays. Current events often force the producers to scramble, from the 2018 show’s efforts to address the #MeToo movement to the ban on formal attire at the 1942 Oscars, right at the start of World War II. 

In 2003 another war was looming—the United States invaded Iraq just days before the March 23 Academy Awards, and unlike during World War II, there was no rallying around the flag happening in Hollywood. Instead the 2003 Oscars began with a vague montage about the “spirit of America” that aired during the red carpet, and during the ceremony a long list of celebrities call for peace or a swift resolution to war. Of course, not everyone’s anti-war message was received the same; Michael Moore’s infamous speech accepting the best-documentary Oscar for Bowling for Columbine was met with scattered loud boos, even though he earned a standing ovation while making his way to the stage. 

On this week’s Little Gold Men podcast, the hosts revisit the 2003 awards with returning guests Joe Reid and Chris Feil of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. As David Canfield reported in his recent feature on the 2003 race and The Hours, it was perhaps the peak of the Harvey Weinstein era, with three of the five best-picture nominees coming from Miramax. But with the revelation of his crimes still years away, the awards that year played host to other controversies, from the Michael Moore speech to the best-director win for Roman Polanski, who had fled the US decades before due to reconsideration of his statutory rape plea deal. At the same time, it was a remarkably fun ceremony, and luxurious by today’s standards: montage after montage celebrated what was then 75 years of Oscar history, Peter O’Toole accepted his honorary award right there in the middle of the telecast, and the whole thing paused for 10 minutes for an Oscar Family Album moment introduced by Olivia de Havilland. Fifty-nine Oscar-winning actors sat elbow to elbow onstage, offering the spectacle of Meryl Streep grinning at Barbra Streisand and allowing us all to wonder what Daniel Day-Lewis and de Havilland might have chatted about while sitting next to each other. The Oscars absolutely never make time for that kind of thing anymore—but with the 100th anniversary fast approaching, maybe now is the time to reconsider?