Hollywood has been split by a controversial decision to give Oprah Winfrey an honorary Oscar despite her spending the vast majority of her career working in television.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to present the chat show queen with a statuette as the winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
The award is intended for an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry" and is bestowed periodically when there is a deserving recipient.
Previous winners have included Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, Critics suggested the move was the latest attempt by the Academy to boost television ratings for its Oscars show by having Miss Winfrey attend the event next February.
Among those lining up to criticise the honour was Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein, who called it a "boneheaded move." He said: "Winfrey has done good work in the world, but that's not enough to merit an Oscar." New York Film Critics Circle chairman John Anderson said: "It seems like a shameless bid for a ratings boost." And Nikki Finke, founder of the influential Hollywood news website Deadline, said it was a "lousy choice" because Miss Winfrey had spent "99 per cent" of her career on the small screen.
She said: "Is the movie academy telling Hollywood that no one among the philanthropic film bigwigs deserved this award more than her this year?"
Source: The Telegraph
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Hollywood
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