by Elisa Giudici
The most surprising snub of this round of Oscar Nominations was Lady Gaga missing her earned spot in the Leading Actress category. I am not speaking of quality, but about campaign effort. She did and said literally anything 'an Italian girl living in NY' can to fit the profile of an Oscar-nominated actress, at least 1990s style. I have to confess I am going to miss her ability to offer up a new small, crazy detail or anecdote each interview about how immersive and challenging it was to play Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci.
She is in good company. With their glamorous attitude and dazzling personas pop stars tend to catch the attention of Hollywood, but this year the results with Academy voters were not all welcoming...
Lady Gaga got the press for missing the Actress lineup but Ariana Grande was also out on nomination morning, missing a Best Original Song nod for "Just Look Up" despite Don’t Look Up performing well in other categories. Grande sang her catchy tune about the end of the world directly on screen, in a long scene that turns the movie into a sort of live Ariana Grande concert. There is a parodical element to it, sure, but she owns the stage of the last concert in human history after putting Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio in his place in her intro scene! So that's another beloved female pop star who missed the chance to perform live during the Award Ceremony and maybe win an Oscar herself.
But thankfully there is another.
Billie Eilish might already have the Oscar in her hands with her James Bond song "No Time To Die". But though she did secure that Song nomination the documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry missed in the Doc Feature category despite being a surprise finalist. Considering the subject, that doc got a lot more attention and eyes than documentary features usually do.
No one says no to Queen Bey, not even the Academy. Beyoncé was nominated along with Billie Eilish in the Best Original Song category for "Be Alive" (featured in King Richard). However the other half of the Carter couple missed: Jay-Z's "Guns Go Bang" (from The Harder They Fall) didn't make it in the same category, denying us a third married couple with two Oscar nominations in the same year! We get Cruz & Bardem and Dunst & Plemons from the acting categories but we don't get Beyoncé and Jay-Z competing against each other in the same category!
The Academy sent mixed message about pop stars with the nominations this year. It's one more way they arguably showed little patience for the pressure of choosing their favourites on the basis of box office and popularity (See also: Spider-Man: No Way Home and House of Gucci)