Almost a week after a near-great Academy Awards ceremony ended with the epic embarrassment of the wrong movie being initially given the Best Picture award, Vice-President Mike Pence last night took a slap at Hollywood’s big night – and Tinseltown’s politics.
“Speaking of show business, did you all see what happened at the Oscars last week?” the former Indiana governor said in his speech at Saturday’s annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington D.C., according to pool reports. “It really was something,” the black-tie wearing Veep added at the very Beltway media insider heavy white-tie event full of jokes, self-deprecation and more than a few barbs. “They gave out the Best Picture award to the wrong film. I gotta tell you, we haven’t seen that many shocked Hollywood liberals since, I don’t know, November the eighth?”
Pence’s dig at Hollywood was of course in regards to the fiasco and PricewaterhouseCoopers envelope fumble that saw La La Land announced as the big winner by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty and then Moonlight revealed as the real victor in front of a packed Dolby Theater and millions watching on TV. It was also a hit by Donald Trump’s administration on the overwhelming preference that the town had for Hillary Clinton in last year’s election.
Like President Barack Obama before her, the ex-Secretary of State was a frequent visitor to numerous deep pocket big-ticket SoCal events hosted by Jeffrey Katzenberg, Haim Saban and others to fund her ultimately failed 2016 campaign. Needless to say, ex-Celebrity Apprentice host Trump did not have the affection or checkbooks of Hollywood – a point of obvious contention for the GOP candidate.
To add a little context, Pence’s Hollywood jab came as a secondary punch line after he mocked the presence of MSNBC at the Gridiron event along with all the major broadcast nets and fellow cable newers. “But I guess it’s only a matter of time before the rest of show business gets invited,” the Veep said of the left-leaning Comcast-owned cable news net being at the dinner.
On social media later, Pence was gracious about the dinner and being invited:
Privileged to address the Gridiron Dinner. While we have our differences, & you’ll know when we have them, we must focus on what unites us.
— Vice President Pence (@VP) March 5, 2017
BTW – In Florida for the weekend again, President Trump did not attend the 132nd annual Gridiron Dinner last night though, beside the VP, top advisors such as Kellyanne Conway and White House Press Secretary and SNL piñata Sean Spicer were there. On February 25, one day before the 2017 Oscars, POTUS made public that he will not be attending this year’s mockfest White House Correspondents Dinner either. Currently the dinner is still on and maybe, just maybe, last night’s Gridiron was a test run for the Veep to try out some lines if he ends up stepping in for the boss.
