Talk about bridges over troubled waters and bridging gaps.
There was hardly a dry tear in the house when Oscar winners Common and John Legend took to the stage with props in the form of an actual bridge replica of the “Selma” movie bridge (the bridge that Dr. Martin Luther King and the people of the civil rights movement marched on)-having brought forth the full experience of the plight of the movie.
Standing front and center were rap artist Common and singer/musician Legend rapping and singing the song inspired by the movie “Glory” for which they won the Oscar last night + Golden Globe for, last month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0FJy67C3pw
Chris Pine, David Oyelowo, Oprah and more sat filled with emotion as the two artists performed the moving tribute song and too, Common and Legend gave a legendary and heartfelt speech at acceptance of their award:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3g6lkKleY
As well, Patricia Arquette stood for something at her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress and too, backstage-pleading for fellow citizens urging citizens to think about equality issues in this day and age and asserted that all gay men and people of color need to support women she expressed:
“Equal is equal!”
“The truth is, the older women get, the less money they make. The more children — the highest percentage of children living in poverty are female-headed households, and it’s inexcusable that we go around the world and we talk about equal rights for women in other countries and we don’t… have equal rights for women in America and we don’t because when they wrote the Constitution, they didn’t intend it for women, ” says Arquette.
“The truth is: even though we sort of feel like we have equal rights in America, right under the surface, there are huge issues that are applied that really do affect women, and it’s time for all the women in America and all the men that love women, and all the gay people, and all the people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”
“I think we need federal laws that are comprehensive; in different states, they have altogether thrown out the Fairness Voting Act,” she suggested,
“People think we have equal rights; we won’t until we pass a Constitutional Amendment in the United States of America where we pass the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] once and for all and women have equal rights in America we won’t have anything changed.”
Jennifer Lopez and Meryl Streep couldn’t agree more:
With all due humility and [time overdue?] with obviously what Arquette feels the Academy should most probably do away with: the red carpet “what/who are you wearing?” “E! ManiCam” is and other superficial things like such (as apart of the red carpet features and concerns), to that, she says:
“There are these things, the Mani Cam and so on and ‘what are you wearing?’…
“I’m wearing a dress my best friend designed. We have been best friends since we were 7 and 8 years old. I think she was the first person who ever said to me, ‘What do you want to be when we grow up?’ We were standing next to her Barbie Dream House. I made fun of her because she played with a Barbie and my mom wouldn’t let us have Barbies.”
Things worked out just fine between she and her bestie (Rosetta Getty) who always wanted to be a designer while Patricia always wanted to be an actor. What better way than to (years later) accept for having lived your dream while wearing (to a place that many dream of) a dress made by your best, eh?
Arquette says:
“She (Getty) designed my gown, so it’s like wearing love. And we started an organization, GiveLove.org. And instead of getting a manicure, which I was supposed to do this morning for that dreaded Mani Cam, instead, I ended up trying to pull pictures because we started a sweepstakes this morning for our charity to do ecological sanitation in the world. Now when I saw Harry Belafonte’s picture up there, I remembered my mom. She was an Equal Rights activist, she worked for civil rights.”
The Oscar winning actor continued:
“And this is who I am. This is the whole who I am!” she told our friends at Us-backstage
“I love my business, I love acting, and I love being a human being on earth and I want to help. I never saw this moment in me winning an Academy Award. I never even thought I would be nominated and I was okay with that. But you know what I did see? I saw many things that have come true in my life, and one of them was helping thousands and thousands of people, and I have, and I will, and I will help millions of people. Thank you.”
