No Oscar nomination for Harvey Weinstein then?

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So the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards have been announced and although a very political list this year to appease certain pressure groups some things never change, Meryl Streep picking up her 21st nomination (The Post) for an issues movie about the newspaper exposing the Vietnam papers. Hollywood likes those movies. Streep has won 3 Oscars in her extraordinary career and has had 10 nominations in this century alone. Another three time winner is the rather precious Daniel Day Lewis, the Irishman in semi retirement these days and only teased out of his Irish rustic hideaway covered in moss and history if there is a sniff of an Oscar, here up for Phantom Thread, which many critic’s didn’t include in their lists for potential Oscars. It’s almost like The Academy have to nominate him when he does surface as he is that good and they don’t want to lose him and so keep laying a trail of breadcrumbs. The Shape of Water, a love story about a deaf mute janitor (British actress Sally Hawkins) and an amphibian monster, leads the field on total number of nominations this year with 13, one short of Titanic, All About Eve and La La Lands all time record of 14. Director Guillermo del Toro is a notorious perfectionist and why it has secured those nominations across all disciplines. He doesn’t take prisoners but creates incredible movies. World War Two drama Dunkirk follows with eight nominations, while Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, received seven. Diversity continues to be a hot topic in Hollywood, which has been supercharged this year by sexual harassment scandals, gender pay equality and the role of women behind the camera. Interestingly no black actresses have come forward over sexual abuse yet, or low pay. These contentious topics have definitely had an impact on this year's nominations, which are suspiciously free of those accused, and not the kind of all-white line-ups that led to the #OscarsSoWhite campaign on social media in 2016. Black is back. Steven Spielberg was implicated but he has survived the witch hunt and up for Best film with The Post. Woody Allen is nowhere to be seen though and probably no way back. James Franco, who had been tipped to get a best actor nod for The Disaster Artist, is the biggest causality and thrown under the bus for his accusations. Issues movie Call Me By Your Name, a gay romance, is this year’s Moonlight and included to boost diversity levels in the Hollywood cleansing. Black British actor Daniel Kaluuya also gets the nod for the rather smart horror film Get Out, also a film about race issues. The Winston Churchill drama Darkest Hour scored a few nominations riding that post - Brexit flag wave with Gary Oldman up for best actor for his remarkable transformation to a chubby old bald bloke. Greta Gerwig's nomination in the best director category is only the sixth woman to get that in those 90-years, which is pretty disgraceful. That nomination was expected and will placate those who expressed displeasure at the Golden Globes' all-male directing nominees. I have seen three of GGs movies and she is a tremendous talent, a female Woody Allen, if you like. Whoops! Didn’t mean to mention that name. The surprise omission is London-born Martin McDonough, the director of the strongly nominated Three Billboards' in the writer-director category. Interestingly five of the ten Best Picture nominations are from directors who also wrote the movie. Christopher Nolan picks up his first Best director nomination, strange considering his previous film cannon, but unlikely to win for Dunkirk. To complete the rainbow nominations we have the super talented Mary J Blige, rather surprisingly, becoming the first person ever to be nominated for an acting performance and best song Oscar for the same film, Mud Bound. Rachael Morrison, cinematographer on this film, is the first ever woman to receive that nomination, another incredible revelation exposed by this year’s affirmative action nomination list. Hypocrites ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LItdTkVlKrk