Well, well, well.
To quote Michael Scott, 'How the turntables.'
A week ago, I told you about Karla Sofía Gascón, the 'trans' actor who was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category for his role in 'Emilia Pérez' (a musical about a Mexican cartel boss who becomes a woman). It checks all the correct woke Hollywood boxes and, in my last piece, I predicted Gascón would win and 'Emilia Pérez' would sweep. The film is nominated for 13 awards, and if it wins all 13, it'll beat out Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which won all 11 of the categories in which it was nominated.
But now, well, this is a plot twist I didn't expect. Gascón is now facing scrutiny over past posts about topics including Muslims, George Floyd, and diversity.
The entire post reads:
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'More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.'
'Emilia Pérez' star Karla Sofía Gascón is under fire for a series of social media posts to her account on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which the actor appears to express controversial views on Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars.
The posts, many of which were deleted on Thursday after they were resurfaced by journalist Sarah Hagi, were largely posted between 2020 and 2021. One example, dated Nov. 22, 2020: “I’m Sorry, Is it just my impression or is there more muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.” (Variety has independently translated the tweets.)
I'm genuinely not sure what happens going forward, because which standard will the Left hold itself to this time?
On one hand, they have a 'trans woman' nominated for Best Actress during the Trump administration. As I wrote before, this is ripe for making a massive political statement. Imagine Gascón on stage, with the statuette in hand, screeching about the bigotry of Donald Trump.
The Left would lap that up.
But, on the other, maybe someone at the Academy is reading the room. Politically, Democrats lost -- in part -- because of the woke nonsense and their obsessive push of trans issues. They are completely out-of-touch with the vast majority of Americans who don't believe a person can change his gender just because he feels he was born in the wrong body, and they alienate a lot of people by pushing men into women's spaces, sports, and even Oscar categories.
The Oscars haven't exactly done well in ratings. How would it look to give the Best Actress nod to a man?
Those optics are pretty bad amid this cultural shift.
Perhaps it's even simpler than that. Yes, Hollywood celebs are largely Lefties and pro-trans. Yet I have to wonder if there aren't some women making a stink about this -- a man nominated for Best Actress -- behind the scenes. If there's anything the Left excels at, it's virtue signaling right up until the policies they support bite them on the butt.
It's possible the Academy painted themselves into a corner here, and I'm going to need all the popcorn to watch how this plays out.
We all know there are segments of Left will lose their minds if they don't give the award to Gascón and scream 'transphobia' if he loses. Especially with Trump in the White House.
On the other hand, racism is the unforgivable sin of the Left, because the Left thinks that the worst thing that can happen to a person is hearing mean words and having hurt feelings. Time and again, we've seen them 'milkshake duck' someone who rockets to social media fame, digging up past social media posts to wreck the person. Doesn't matter if those posts were written a decade or more ago. They show no mercy and demand that person face eternal consequences: job losses, ostracizing, and ceaseless criticism. Even nine-year-old boys aren't safe from their attacks.
There's another segment of the Left who will get their panties in a bunch about these posts and lose their minds if the Academy does give the award to Gascón.
But I can imagine a world in which using these problematic posts may be the way the Academy gets itself free of the sticky wicket its created here, because the zeitgeist (and really mad actresses) demand it.
At the end of the day, I'm a big proponent of holding the Left to its own standards, even when those standards change with however the wind is blowing. The fact those standards are twisted, convoluted, and impossible to follow isn't my problem. This is the bed the Left has made for itself, and they must lie in it.
So what will the Academy do?