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AE: I think many gay people would feel better if Crash had been running closer to Brokeback. Its win wouldn't seem so suspect. Even the Las Vegas odds-makers had Brokeback as a sure thing. To then have it lose has been hard for a lot of people to accept.
RE: You know last year my wife and I went to the Kentucky Derby and the horse my wife bet on she bet on because horse that had the same name as Sting's son and she is a Sting fan. The odds on it were fifty to one and it won, and we we're surrounded by a hell of a lot of pissed off people. How could the fifty to one long-shot win the Kentucky Derby? Occasionally your horse doesn't win.

AE: Not to repeat myself, but for gay people knowledgeable about the Oscars, what came as such a sucker punch—
RE: Where did this backlash come from? Is what you're wondering when it [Brokeback] was in the lead passing the far turn?

AE: Yes. Again, looking at all the historical precedents the Academy had used over the years as the guideline.
RE: But it didn't win the Editors Guild and no Best Picture in decades has won without winning the Editors Guild. [It Happened One Night, The Godfather II, Annie Hall and Ordinary People all won without the Editor's Guild award.]

AE: Even that doesn't explain how Crash could have won.
RE: I know exactly what you're saying.

AE: Based on all of that, is it not possible that homophobia played a larger role? And I'm not talking the kind of I-hate-all-gay-people homophobia, but--
RE: More of the academy sending a message about itself.

AE: Exactly!
RE: Sort of like, we make slasher movies all year long, but here is our typical product—Gandhi! The Academy does tend to nominate movies that they think will reflect favorably on it. But this year, the Academy nominated five movies that were criticized in many circles for not representing the taste of the public. The top movies of last year included Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Wedding Crashers and these pictures were not nominated. The Academy's choice of pictures were pretty sound.

Let's back up a second. Of course, the Academy is not exactly the same people who are the Writers, Producers, [and] Directors guild, but they'll vote for it [Brokeback] for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Score but they won't vote for it for Pest Picture. Why won't they? Is it because they're afraid people will think Hollywood is now catering to or supports gay people? I suppose that there were some votes cast on that basis. The Oscars are not a very perfect process.

AE: So because Brokeback Mountain won most everything but the Oscar for Best Picture, it proves that Hollywood isn't homophobic?
RE: It proves that the people who voted for it for everything else are not homophobic.

AE: I guess for a lot of gay people, giving Brokeback Mountain the other awards, but not Best Picture is just what Kenneth Turan said, that it feels like a very safe choice to do.
RE: Well, this of course is all open for debate. The Academy doesn't have a meeting to decide these things. I have gone to a lot of meetings with people over the past few months because I've been on a book tour. I've talked at bookstores, talking to whomever you can peddle your books, and those people I talk to in those groups overwhelmingly--and I'm not saying this because I think so--thought Crash was the Best Picture of the year.

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