OSCAR WARS

Behind the scenes at the Academy Awards.

Regardless of your interest in Hollywood and awards season, this rich, deeply reported history has plenty to teach. New Yorker writer Schulman, author of Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, looks at the awards through a variety of lenses, including artistic, business, political, and cultural. “The Oscars are a battlefield where cultural forces collide and where the victors aren’t always as clear as the names drawn from the envelopes,” he writes. The author illuminates these battles with compelling insider stories. His explanation of 1989’s “Worst Oscars Ever”—infamous for the raucous opening featuring Snow White and Rob Lowe—reveals the micromanaging influence of producer Allan Carr. Schulman also demonstrates Carr’s influence on other parts of the ceremony that continue today—e.g., announcing winners with “And the Oscar goes to…” and creating a fashion event where designers battle to get starlets to wear their gowns. The author shines brightest in his firsthand accounts. His coverage of the entire #OscarsSoWhite controversy, and changes that came with it, focuses on Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and her decision-making. His reporting on the Moonlight/La La Land best picture mix-up definitively explains the hand movements that caused an accountant to give presenter Warren Beatty the envelope for best actress by mistake. Even when he seems like he’s gone too far, such as titling the chapter on Black Oscar winners “Tokens,” Schulman’s incisive reporting backs up his hypothesis. “For McDaniel, for Poitier, for Berry, the Oscar came to symbolize not progress but false promise—a chance for Hollywood to congratulate itself and then go back to business as usual while the winner was left isolated and open to public attack,” he explains. And yes, Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock makes it into the book but only in the afterword.

This Oscars history mixes all the expected glitz and glamour with enough industry intrigue to power an award-winning drama.