John Bailey Elected President of the Motion Picture Academy
The cinematographer has been a vocal critic of Academy leadership in his time on the board
Steve Pond | August 8, 2017 @ 11:18 PM
Last Updated: August 9, 2017 @ 9:16 AM
AWARDS BEAT
John Bailey has been elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced on Tuesday.
The 74-year-old cinematographer was chosen by a vote of the Academy’s Board of Governors, which met on Tuesday evening at the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters.
Other officers elected at the board meeting were Lois Burwell, first vice president; Kathleen Kennedy, Michael Tronick and Nancy Utley, vice presidents; Jim Gianopulos, treasurer; and David Rubin, secretary. Kennedy, Utley, Gianopulos and Rubin occupied the same positions last year.
Bailey will succeed Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who leaves office after serving the maximum four consecutive terms and was the face of the Academy during the #OscarsSoWhite furor and the subsequent push to broaden and diversify Academy membership.
Bailey’s films include “American Gigolo,” “Ordinary People,” “The Big Chill,” “Groundhog Day,” “The Way, Way Back” and “A Walk in the Woods.” He has been a longtime representative of the Cinematographers Branch on the board, and will be the first member of that branch to serve as president.
He has never been nominated for an Oscar for his work.
He assumes the position at a time when the Academy’s diversity is still a hot-button issue, and as construction continues on the lavish Academy Museum project at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. AMPAS has been forced to borrow heavily to continue financing the museum, a rare and troubling occurrence to many members of the Academy and its board.
Bailey is also known to be a vocal critic of Academy CEO Dawn Hudson, and his election must be considered a victory for a contingent of the board that has been critical of Hudson’s leadership.
Other governors who had expressed interest in the position — though open campaigning is frowned upon at the Academy — included documentarian Rory Kennedy and casting director David Rubin.
Numerous media accounts had actress Laura Dern as the frontrunner for the position – but according to members of the board, Dern had second thoughts about running for the job at a time when her acting career is extremely active. TheWrap has confirmed that Dern, who would have been Hudson’s preferred candidate, did not in fact run for the office.
At the meeting to elect a new president, any member of the board can be nominated for the position. This year’s election was the most wide-open going into the board meeting since Tom Sherak became a surprise choice in 2009. And judging by the time it took to announce the new president, it took far longer than usual for a candidate to reach 50 percent of the 54 votes.
Since the Academy was launched in 1927, the Actors Branch and the Writers Branch have supplied the most presidents, seven each. But over the past two decades, presidents have often come from the Public Relations and Executive Branches, as the Academy has moved away from filmmakers and actors and toward strategists and boardroom types.
The position has also become more active and time-consuming. The last few Academy presidents, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Hawk Koch, Tom Sherak and Sid Ganis, all of whom turned what was once a part-time job at best into a full-time gig.
15 Stars Who Imagined Violence Against Donald Trump, From Kathy Griffin to Pearl Jam (Photos)
Since the election, several celebrities have voiced their displeasure -- even anger -- with the Trump administration. Some have gone so far as to suggest violent measures. From Robert De Niro to Snoop Dogg, here are some left-leaning noteworthy people who have fanned themes of violence toward Trump and the GOP.
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Mickey Rourke
In a TMZ video from 2015, this boxer-turned-actor directed his rage toward Trump, calling him a "big-mouthed bitch bully," saying he would "love 30 seconds in a room with the little bitch." Rourke has also expressed a desire to "give [Trump] a Louisville slugger."
In late February 2016, the host of Comedy Central's now-canceled "The Nightly Show" joked about then-candidate Donald Trump: “I don’t want to give him any more oxygen. That’s not a euphemism, by the way. I mean it literally. Somebody get me the pillow they used to kill [Supreme Court Justice Antonin] Scalia and I’ll do it — I’ll do it!"
George Lopez
During the Republican primaries in March 2016, the Mexican American comedian tweeted a cartoon image of former Mexican president Vincente Fox holding the decapitated head of Donald Trump aloft, with the caption "Make America Great Again."
Marilyn Manson
Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson had to take his turn in the Trump-bashing festivities. In a teaser video for his song, "Say10," released just after the 2016 election, a Trump-like figure wearing a suit and a red tie lies decapitated on a concrete floor, in a pool of his own blood.
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Rosie O'Donnell
In July 2017, O'Donnell tweeted out a link to a game called "Push Trump Off A Cliff Again." This made many conservatives want to push her off a cliff, not POTUS.
Madonna told a crowd of thousands at the Women's March on Washington in January 2017 that she had “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House." The singer's profanity-riddled jab at the Republican administration provoked the anger of many conservatives.
The actor is not afraid to express his disdain for the commander in chief. De Niro confirmed to ABC's "The View" in February 2017 that he would like to punch Trump in the face. He clarified earlier comments, saying "It wasn’t like I was gonna go find him and [really] punch him in the face, but he’s gotta hear it."
Snoop Dogg's music video for "Lavender," released in March 2017, (literally) paints POTUS as a clown and orchestrates his death. At the video's end, the "Gin and Juice" rapper points a gun at the harlequin Trump figure and shoots. But instead of a bullet, a red flag that reads "Bang!" fires out of the gun.
The comedian landed in hot water in May 2017 after photos surfaced of her holding a fake bloody, decapitated Trump head. Griffin was promptly dropped from her annual New Year's Eve gig by CNN. Toilet stool company Squatty Potty also pulled its ads featuring Griffin. Trump himself called the photos "sick" and tweeted that his youngest son, Barron, was "having a hard time" with the images. Griffin later apologized.
The nonprofit theater staged a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in May-June 2017 that made conservative viewers want to revolt. In the production, a Trumplike figure playing the title role is stabbed to death by a band of angry Senators. The Public Theater subsequently lost sponsorships from Delta Airlines and Bank of America.
The musician's new video, released in June 2017, is simultaneously nostalgic and dystopian. In 1980s cartoon fashion, a giant Transformer-like Trump morphs into a swastika/dollar sign and wreaks havoc on a city before meeting a fiery, explosive demise.
During an appearance at the U.K.'s 2017 Glastonbury music and arts festival, the actor tore into the president -- "I think Trump needs help" -- and then made an ill-considered joke: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” Depp claimed his joke was misconstrued and eventually issued an apology.
Asked what he'd serve at a peace summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, the celebrity chef told a TMZ video crew in 2017: "Hemlock."
CNN
Big Sean
In February 2017 rapper Big Sean rapped a verse about killing the President on his "I Decided" album. The lyrics are, “And I might just kill ISIS with the same icepick/That I murder Donald Trump in the same night with."
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Pearl Jam
At a show in Montana in August 2018 that served as a fundraiser for Sen. Jon Tester, the Seattle-based rockers released a cartoon poster commemorating the show that featured a bald eagle picking at the rotting corpse of President Trump on the White House lawn.
Some celebrities have been more than outspoken in their criticism of the Republican president
Since the election, several celebrities have voiced their displeasure -- even anger -- with the Trump administration. Some have gone so far as to suggest violent measures. From Robert De Niro to Snoop Dogg, here are some left-leaning noteworthy people who have fanned themes of violence toward Trump and the GOP.