Wednesday night, downtown LA, the ornate Belasco Theater– Russell Simmons and co. sent up the Oscars as Black Hollywood handed out the second annual All Def Movie Awards.
You may recall this started last year as a serious effort because of #Oscarsowhite and the lack of black nominees.
This year, with so many black nominees, instead of celebrating them, AllDef went the comedy route. The outcome can be seen Sunday on Fusion TV.
Mike Epps hosted, as he did last year, and handed out a variety of awards with categories that were a spoof at best. Forget Best Actor and Actress. They chucked those conventional items and went for things like Best Bad Muh F*cka in a Movie, or Movies You Wish You Could Unsee.
The latter went to “Batman v. Superman.”
Ice Cube received a Lifetime Achievement Award from one of the guests in the audience, Snoop Dogg. Snoop sat at a table in the front of the small ballroom, high as a kite, with a cloud of pot smoke over his table. Snoop Dogg defies all conventions, as I learned a long time ago. But he’s always smiling while he does it. The smell of marijuana was strong enough that many dry cleaners were probably busy this morning.
I did meet Blac Chyna, supporting player in the Kardashian family’s public hi jinks.She was clad in a cherry red sort of plastic looking one piece plastic ensemble that seemed as if it could be cleaned with a moist dish rag. It was futuristic and practical.
There were some actual movie people mixed in with an eclectic lot. Famed director and actor Bill Duke sat quietly in the back. Donell Turner, a good actor who’s currently on “General Hospital,” walked the red carpet. But there wasn’t a single Oscar nominee of any color from this year, and no mention of “Moonlight,” “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” or even “Birth of a Nation.”
