83rd ACADEMY AWARDS re-BLOG: BEST DIRECTOR, TOM HOOPER - THE KING'S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co.)

BEST DIRECTOR: TOM HOOPER - THE KING'S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co.) This is the only surprise winner so far. Seriously. Everyone explained away HBO's John Adams miniseries director Tom Hooper's win at the Directors Guild because of the overwhelming TV membership of that union. The thinking was that, with this movie bunch, The Social Network's David Fincher would win n a split decision with Best Picture. But Fincher has been and apparently still s wildly unpopular in Hollywood because of his unmitigated arrogance which people who like him describe as iconoclasm. Someone at Paramount once told me a hilarious anecdote about how David refused to bow down to Oprah just to have her publicize his movie Benjamin Buttons. And everybody was saying to him, ‘But this is so important. You don’t understand,’ and he’s like ‘I don’t give a damn about Oprah’. On that I totally agree with him. But that's what causes you to lose Oscars because this is first and foremost a popularity contest, folks Hey, wait a minute, Hooper failed to thank...
http://m.deadline.com/2011/02/nikkis-5th-annual-oscars-live-snarking/