Starting to read that Best Actress is down to Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres. Not sure why Mikey Madison isn't still one of the favorites.

One of the driving factors for Oscar voters is that they have to want to give someone the award. Mikey Madison is essentially an unknown actress receiving the greatest praise possible for her first starring role. What reason is there for all those Oscar voters to want to hand a 25 year old their industry's highest honor? She has not been out there selling herself. According to IMDb, she does not even have another film in the pipeline. Voters have to be asking themselves, as much as they like her performance in "Anora," if she is going to amount to anything. Meanwhile, they know who Demi Moore is and what she has done in the business. No one looks foolish giving an Oscar to one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars.And while Americans do not know Torres, she has a long career of acclaimed work behind her. No risk in handing her an award.

Did she get caught clubbing baby seals?

You're in luck!

X - Formerly Twitter

So they eliminated the Best Original song performances but decided to start with a medley from just one movie? That makes sense.

I saw I'm Still Here last night and while Fernanda Torres is amazing (and my guess is likely to never be nominated again simply because how many Brazilian films are going to be recognized like this again), not only is it Demi Moore's turn, she is spectacular in the role.

Yeah, it makes sense because they want it to be good.

I'm perfectly fine with your second rationale ("spectacular in the role"). I still haven't seen The Substance, I was prepared to watch it last weekend only to notice that despite paying for Prime, I'd still have to "rent" The Substance and my account wasn't even set up for it. Too much hassle.

However, I strongly disagree with your first rationale, that it's Demi Moore's "turn". It's NO ONE's "turn" to win an Oscar, other than whomever was best in their role that year. If it's an older actor/actress who hasn't won but performed well, ok. But also if it's a newcomer then that's ok too. You don't earn an Oscar by paying dues and losing a few times first, you earn it by a good performance no matter where in your career it is. Period. Full stop.

It's the mentality like that that results in people like Martin Scorsese being snubbed for classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, then suddenly taking home a statue for dreck like The Departed because it was finally "his turn". Man, F that S.

That depends on if you are providing a rationale for why someone is going to win versus should win

It's Demo's turn is rationale.

Her acting in The Substance is the reason.

Definitely still the human element in the voting for sure. Rewarding someone for a career (Departed) or film for a trilogy (Return of the King) is a factor.

it’s a tv show where rich famous people get awarded golden statues. It’s not the Nobel peace prize. Not sure it’s worth getting upset over.

How dare people posting on an internet forum about movies care about the Oscars? It's not like anyone in a sports discussion forum care about the Super Bowl, right?

Oh man, don’t get me started on how wound up people get about the Super Bowl and the NFL in general.

Yeah, or people obsessed with a dead physical media format. Yeesh.

Cynthia Erivo Denies Speaking With Academy About Performing ‘Wicked’ Songs at the Oscars

It just happened a couple of years ago with We Don't Talk About Bruno, so I don't know what she's on about.

They also had the cast of Les Miserable perform "One Day More", which wasn't even eligible to be nominated since it was from the play and not original to the movie.

Why doesn't Cynthia Erivo learn to confer with her publicist. This isn't the same level as her poster outrage, but it's also killing the vibe.

Not to mention she was just honored in Harvard Square at the Hasty Pudding ceremony on Wednesday where there was a literal parade in her honor along with Jon Hamm. Then two days later she says that at another event. It’s just the rude tone, like what does it take for her to have a good week?

Gosh, don't you think the person who is the one performing should be told she is performing before it's reported as fact in the media? She should have been on the second phone call after they called her publicist.

She's a Broadway performer - they understand doing performances for publicity. It's literally part of the job. But she should have been part of all of these conversations that it takes to pull something like this together.

I'm just assuming someone read my post saying that I would prefer to see performances from Wicked, and the media ran with it.

Of course she should be part of the conversation and perhaps an idea got leaked as fact, before the idea was even presented to Cynthia Erivo, but her tone is way off. She just comes of as rude and especially after her poster outrage. It's not like the Academy decided she should do it and announced it.
I like her as a singer, I like her as an actress and I like that she speaks her mind, but she could be more diplomatic in public. I'm not saying she is rude. I don't know her, but it's the 2nd time she comes of as rude and that's just not clever.

Ed Norton has a Oscar nomination for every decade in his career.

Primal Fear, American History X (Guess a 1999 movie counts since it was in contention in 2000), Birdman, and A Complete Unknown.