/A few guns are always loaded during awards season in Hollywood to try to takedown the competition. The most common tactic is to take aim at the veracity of movies based on true stories, smear campaigns basically, against a filmmaker’s interpretation of real events.
This year, the first smear campaign is against a song.
Deadline.com reported that members of the Motion Picture Academy music selection committee received a printout of an online article that stated Lana Del Rey’s song “Young and Beautiful” had been disqualified from best song consideration. The printout indicated the story came from variety.com, but no such story ever appeared.
“Young and Beautiful,” along with four other songs from the Baz Luhrmann film, remain eligible. The song was used in trailers prior to the film’s release and Warner Bros. is reportedly creating a new featurette on the song and its use in the film.
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The last time a kerfuffle erupted over a song came during the 2004 awards season when a smear campaign was launched against the use of Kathleen “Bird” York’s “In the Deep” in “Crash.” The rumor mill, which was found to be untrue, was grinding out a story that York’s tune was several years old.
Producers and distributors have gone to great lengths in recent years to quash any disinformation that could put the eligibility of songs or scores into question. It is standard practice for public Q&As, media interviews and film-related events to be monitored in hopes of keeping stories consistent.
