As is typical of this sort of “day after a major Hollywood event,” you’ll be seeing an Oscar recap from me soon enough. You will, no doubt, be impressed with how I deftly handled Patricia Arquette’s decision to use her acceptance speech to declare war on America’s non-existent wage gap problem, and the audience’s fawning response, unaware as they were that they were applauding a lecture on income inequality given by a woman worth a reported $24 million, wearing a dress and jewelry that cost more than most people’s homes, and clutching an award she won for being paid hansomely to act like herself in a film.
But there are more questions that just whether a majority of people watching the Oscars last night are dumb enough to allow Patricia Arquette to shape their domestic fiscal policy, namely: did the Departmen of Labor somehow know ahead of time what Patricia Arquette planned to say and did they collaborate with her on an infographic illustrating what she said in her speech? Because it most definitely seems that way.
FACT: Women make 78% of what their male counterparts make. Learn more: https://t.co/ZUbWdaIJPr #Oscars pic.twitter.com/YyNgF14gRk
— US Labor Department (@USDOL) February 23, 2015
And then there was that this from the Labor Secretary.
I agree w/ what @PattyArquette said at the #Oscars: All people should get #EqualPay for equal work. When women succeed, America succeeds!
— Tom Perez (@LaborSec) February 23, 2015
Kind of convenient, if you ask me. Also relatively random. While celebrities have used the Oscars platform to make political statements in the past – Common and John Legend last night, for example, talked about the state of race relations in some clearly off-the-cuff comments – few are armed with talking points that they let loose both on stage and to reporters gathered backstage (this, of course, ended up backfiring on Arquette, who noted to reporters that it’s time to address womens pay equity because all other forms of discrimination are solved). Patricia Arquette was going to talk to you about #EqualPay whether you got the earful from the stage or from some poor reporter at an afterparty, but she was most definitely prepared.
A bit of research failed to turn up who Patricia Arquette is supporting for President in 2016 (she does seem to like Elizabeth Warren), so I wonder how she feels about Hillary Clinton’s failures in the area of #EqualPay, or how well she’s taking the news that Hillary and Elizabeth seem to have reached a sort of truce.