Top U.K. critic says Oscars chosen by “the maids”

We all know that Oscar basically gets it wrong every year, but venerable U.K. film critic Barry Norman claims that most Academy Awards are chosen by “Hollywood’s household maids.”

Speaking of the Academy’s 6,000 or so members, Norman told Britain’s Radio Times: “There’s the question of whether all the voters actually saw all the films. It’s not unknown for some, especially the elderly, to get their maids to watch them on DVD and deliver their opinions.”  

Norman doesn’t reveal the exact source of his Intel, or even the broader vicinity for that matter, but it’s better than any theory I can come up with right now.

Equally thrilled by Norman’s “maids thesis”, the Independent further speculated that the cleaning ladies of Beverly Hills were therefore responsible for all those nominations (four, including one win) heaped on the 2011 movie, The Help.

On a less goofy tip, the Independent also recalled that Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin once admitted to filling in then-wife Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar ballot while she was off steaming her vagina or misting Apple with the world’s most expensive olive oil.

Barry Norman reviewed movies for the BBC from 1972 until his retirement in 1998.  I might have been a tyke, but I’ll always remember his comments about The Shining.

“Stanley Kubrick has attempted every genre of film,” Norman said, in the midst of slamming the 1980 feature, “and failed at all of them.”

I believe this information speaks to his credibility, your honour.

The 87th Academy Awards takes place on Sunday (February 22)