variety.com
12.03.2023 / 17:05
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Tom Cruise, Instagram the Ethics of Oscar Campaigning: Inside a ‘Messy’ Season
Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Tom Cruise got a hero’s welcome in Hollywood over the last week of February. The best actor Oscar nominee for “Top Gun: Maverick” had been largely absent from Los Angeles during prime awards campaigning season, held up filming his latest “Mission: Impossible” epic, and the town was more than compensated for his absence when he finally touched down. On Sunday Feb. 26, “Top Gun: Maverick” producer Jerry Bruckheimer opened his Beverly Hills home to power players and stars (many of them voters for the annual Academy Awards) where Cruise was guest of honor. Days later, former Paramount chief and show business stateswoman Shery Lansing gave an equally well-attended cocktail party to fete Cruise. It’s not surprising that the industry would want to celebrate the man who Steven Spielberg said “saved Hollywood’s ass” by getting moviegoers back in theaters. But were the events legit in the eyes of the film academy, which enforces how and when Oscar hopefuls get to woo the figures that hand them golden trophies? The Academy’s bylaws say that after Oscar nominations are released, campaigns cannot “invite members to attend any parties, dinners, lunches, or other non-screening events that promote nominated films.”
