OSCARS: How Michelle Obama’s Surprise Appearance Came Together – Video
UPDATED: The Golden Globes got Bill Clinton but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got First Lady Michelle Obama tonight at the Oscars – in part thanks to Harvey Weinstein. Before the ceremony, the White House was very “hush-hush” about the surprise appearance, according to pool reports Sunday. At tonight’s Oscars, Obama appeared via satellite to help Jack Nicholson introduce the Best Picture category and announce Argo as the winner. Afterward, the Obama staff put out a statement on how it came together: “The Academy Awards approached the First Lady about being a part of the ceremony. As a movie lover, she was honored to present the award and celebrate the artists who inspire us all — especially our young people — with their passion, skill and imagination.”
The idea of getting the First Lady on the show first came from Lily Weinstein, who mentioned it to her big Obama contributor dad Harvey, who suggested it to the Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Academy president Hawk Koch. The group flew to DC a week and a half ago to put the logistics together with the White House. The Oscar producers told Deadline’s Pete Hammond earlier this week that they “were being like the CIA” about a couple of surprises on the show, keeping things top secret. In towns like Hollywood and DC where people love to talk, they pulled it off. There was no indication on the show’s rundown and most of the people on the Oscars had no idea who the secret guest would be. “I knew we could do it and we did it,” Koch told Deadline tonight about keeping Obama’s name under wraps.
The First Lady was actually handed the envelope with the winner’s name in it by the head of PricewaterhouseCoopers at the White House, where she and President Obama hosted a dinner for the nation’s Governors tonight. Nicholson had a back-up envelope just in case. Check out the First Lady’s Oscar segment here:
Related: Nikki Finke’s Oscar Live Snark
There was a lot of politics in this year’s Oscar race, from Lincoln to Zero Dark Thirty to Best Picture winner Argo. There were also a lot of politicians in this year’s race. On November 14, President Obama hosted a special screening of Steven Spielberg’s film about the 16th President at the White House. Lincoln was seen by the Senate in December. Also in December, a trio of Senators wrote a letter to Sony Pictures’ boss Michael Lynton protesting depictions of torture in Zero Dark Thirty and later began investigating the CIA’s involvement in the making of the film. Argo was of course about the CIA getting Americans out of revolutionary Iran in 1980. And then there was former President Clinton introducing Lincoln at the Golden Globes — not that the movie won that night either.
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