Poor Timothee Chalamet. He’s really in a jam.
The odds on favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actor in “Marty Supreme,” he’s done just about everything wrong.
First, he lost his mind with orange ping pong balls and expensive promotional jackets. At the time that started, I wrote here that the marketing campaign was a bad idea, it cheapened an exceptional movie. But no one could talk him out of it.
The campaign peaked when he and girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, came to the premiere wearing matching orange outfits.
Jenner didn’t help the situation. Hanging onto Chalamet, she cheapened him as well. She dressed very revealingly at events with him, and sucked all the air out of the room. Everyone around Chalamet begged him to leave her at home. By the time he listened — and brought his mother to the SAG Actors Awards — it was too late. He lost to Michael B. Jordan after months of pent-up negativity toward him.
Then Opera or Ballet-Gate occurred. For some bizarre reason, Chalamet participated in a live Town Hall on CNN with Matthew McConnaughey. It was self-serving and embarrassing. In the middle of in Chalamet now famous derided the fine arts. His hubris was so over the top, he was just talking to hear his own voice.
The Town Hall comments came on February 24th and at first no one paid attention to them. But then someone stirred the situation up — someone maybe in the Academy who was rooting against Chalamet. Just as Oscar voting was closing, reports of his comments started spreading like wildfire.
What did Chalamet say? “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”
Since then, opera and ballet companies have been chastising Chalament on social media. Some have invited him to come visit. Many people pointed out Chalamet’s mother, sister and grandmother were ballet dancers. He’s said in the past that he grew up around the New York City Ballet.
Now Chalamet’s principal from La Guardia High School is coming to his defense, sort of. He says on Instagram, “We know your heart, and we know you know better.” (See below.)
All the Oscar prognosticators are warning that Chalamet has blown his Oscar chances. I’m not so sure. This scandal has happened after voting is over. I think there’s a very good chance he’ll win on Sunday night. The Best Actor race will certainly drive up the ratings to the bitter end of the night. If Chalamet does in, he’d better have the best speech of his life in hand.
