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The Academy Awards telecast is an awkward beast to produce under the best of circumstances. It’s a three-and-a-half-hour (plus) stage show on TV honoring movies. ABC, which broadcasts the ceremony, wants more celebrity razzmatazz to boost ratings; academy hard-liners would get rid of the red carpet to give the sound mixing winners more time to talk.
But the 90th Academy Awards, which will take place on Sunday, will also have to factor in the push and pull between self celebration and social consciousness, and the past and the future.
Show organizers have said they want to keep the focus on the movies, and not veer too far into discussion about sexual misconduct and gender inequality. The worry is that many viewers are tiring of stars using such platforms to agitate for social and political change. As a spokesman for the Republican National Committee told Variety on Wednesday, “Americans aren’t interested in Hollywood liberals blabbing about politics.”
And yet this is the first Oscars of the #MeToo, Time’s Up and #NeverAgain era. The ceremony’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, is known for his outspokenness. Stars who did not use their moment at the microphone at the Golden Globes to offer support for the Time’s Up initiative drew criticism. And it will be awfully tricky for E! to keep its red carpet coverage frothy: Ryan Seacrest, who anchors that network’s Oscar show, was engulfed this week in allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies.
On Thursday, a sculpture titled “Casting Couch” appeared near the theater hosting the Academy Awards. The street art depicts a bathrobe-clad Harvey Weinstein sitting on a chaise longue. Dozens of women have come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Weinstein since October.
It could all add up to one of the most unpredictable Oscars ever, with the actual awards — oh, right, those! — contributing to the sense of volatility. Some categories are considered locks. (Bet on Frances McDormand of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and Gary Oldman for “Darkest Hour” to take the top acting prizes.) But the best picture race is still considered too close to call, with “The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards” and “Get Out” splitting the professional prognosticators.
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• In a surprise twist, an investor group says it has now reached an agreement to buy most of the assets of the Weinstein Company. [The New York Times]
• Libby Schaaf, the mayor of Oakland, stepped into the national debate on immigration when she warned of raids by immigration agents. Now the Justice Department is reviewing her actions. Here’s a look at Ms. Schaaf’s background. [The New York Times]
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not want to give additional publicity to those who disrupted him at U.C.L.A. Now the shielding of a video of a lecture he gave there has drawn more attention to the tense exchanges. [The New York Times]
• Sheriff’s deputies rescued three children who they say were living inside a plywood shed on a property near Joshua Tree. The property did not have running water or electricity. [The New York Times]
• The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were behind the leak of a top Democrat’s private text messages. Representative Devin Nunes leads the House committee that is being accused. [The New York Times]
• Law enforcement officials at local, state and federal levels describe the Trump administration’s hard-charging campaign against the MS-13 gang as out of proportion with the threat. [The New York Times]
• The winter’s biggest storm brought whiteouts, blackouts and gusting winds and forced a major highway to close in Northern California. Significant snowfall was recorded in the foothills for the first time since 2011. [The Sacramento Bee]
• BART believes it’s losing millions because of riders who don’t pay their fares — so the police have started start issuing citations. [SFGate]
• The University of California has slipped in the rankings of an annual global survey of higher education. Are funding woes to blame? [The Los Angeles Times]
• A former employee has filed a lawsuit alleging that YouTube stopped hiring white and Asian men for technical positions last year because doing so would not have improved diversity. [The Wall Street Journal]
• Facebook said it would end an experiment in six countries that separated posts from news sites and publishers from other material. News organizations in the countries complained that it had led to a rise in misinformation. [The New York Times]
• The film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time” cost Disney $100 million. Ava DuVernay knows it — and she doesn’t care. [The New York Times]
• The Oscar screener, it turns out, was invented by accident. [The Los Angeles Times]
• Richard E. Taylor, a professor emeritus at Stanford University who shared the 1990 Nobel Prize for the discovery of quarks, has died. [The New York Times]
And Finally …
Eighty-five years ago this week, officials were preparing to celebrate the start of work on the Golden Gate Bridge — a $35 million feat of engineering that was touted at the time as the longest clear-span bridge in the world.
And, my, what a celebration it would be.
In a 1933 story previewing the Feb. 26 groundbreaking ceremonies, The New York Times noted that all the elaborate planning for the festivities was actually overshadowing the bridge itself.
It seemed that just about anyone considered important — including politicians from across the country — planned to participate in what The Times called “one of the most pretentious celebrations of its kind ever held west of the Rockies.”
But the article noted that in calmer moments, Californians were proud to boast about their bridge. It would dwarf other bridges in size, and importantly, the story said, it would “afford to sightseers a glimpse of that magnificent vista of hills and water that hitherto has been possible only from the decks of ships.”
California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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