Last night, Cate Blanchett won the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards for her role in Blue Jasmine. Blue Jasmine was one of the most controversial films on the award show circuit this year, not because of its content, but because of the recently resurfaced sexual abuse allegations surrounding its director, Woody Allen.
The Allen backlash seemingly reached a fever pitch last month following the Golden Globes where he was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille award for his contributions to the world of entertainment. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s decision to bestow the prize on someone with Allen’s history (possibly as a child molester, but certainly as someone who’s exhibited upsettingly predatory sexual behavior towards young women in the past) sparked outrage and brought to light several disturbing allegations against him that had spent the last couple decades quietly buried or ignored.
The revelation of these allegations left many wondering what Blanchett would do when she likely won Best Actress at the Oscars. She had already won in the “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” category at the Globes where she thanked her director profusely, but that was before every person on Facebook and Twitter were swapping articles and debating Allen’s guilt. The possibility of that guilt is now in the public’s minds and if Blanchett has enough common sense or a good enough PR person, it was likely in the forefront of hers as well.
So what did she end up doing when she indeed won? A brief, polite, sincere thank you to Allen buried in the middle of her speech.
“I’m here accepting an award in an extraordinary screenplay by Woody Allen. Thank you so much, Woody, for casting me. I truly appreciate it,” Blanchett said before going on to deliver an impassioned argument for the creation of more movies that focus on the lives of women.
