Oscar voting is a complicated process, and it gets real political real fast. Studios like to push for Oscar nominations and wins because they can sell the movie, and it keeps the stars happy. A star with an Oscar is a better sell than one without.

There are, however, boundaries. The Academy has rules. One of the rules says that emails to members promoting a film or actor for an award are not allowed. You can’t even link to a website that extols sweet nothings about an actor or movie. Oh, and you can’t reference past awards that someone has won.

An email pushing Meryl Streep for Best Actor broke these rules, and Academy members are vexed. The email links to a website in which Streep is being interviewed about The Iron Lady, which she’s nominated for for Best Actor. In the interview, the interviewer basically says how Streep is amazing in the movie and she hasn’t won in almost 30 years and that it’s time to change that.

The Weinstein Company, who produced the movie, is calling this a witch hunt. Why? Cause the emails were sent by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, two leading industry newspapers. The emails were created by a PR group called Prometheus. The story was broken by TheWrap, which is a competitor to Variety and THR.

So, basically: Academy members don’t like the email. The Weinstein Company thinks this is a witch hunt. The Academy says it’s all good and I say holy crap just give the award to the best person!

Why does lobbying have to ruin everything? Either way, it’s pretty low to remind people that Streep should win because she hasn’t won in almost 30 years. Who cares? Who had the best performance this year? I believe it was Viola Davis in The Help. And The Academy wonders why people get frustrated with the Oscars. [Vancouver Sun]

best actress, meryl streep, oscars