The Brief

Campaigning for the Oscars is a tale almost as old as the award’s ceremony itself.

Today, it's typical for studios to shell out millions of dollars on billboards, magazine ads, and orchestrated Q+A screenings as a way to sway the thousands of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters their way.

If you venture into Hollywood during award season, the phrase “for your consideration” pops up on ads like clockwork, towering over the city streets as a polite but firm reminder to cast your ballots.

Origins of FYC

Randy Haberkamp, Senior Vice President of Preservation and Foundation Programs at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, says Hollywood history puts the origin of the "for your consideration" phrase around 1947-48.

"RKO used that terminology for the first time," he said in an episode of LAist's The Academy Museum Podcast. "And everybody saw that and said, you know, that's a very polite way of saying vote for me. [laughing] Just, just consider me. Don't, you know, I'm not saying you got to do this. I'm just saying consider this. Yeah. And it's stuck."

Jacqueline Stewart is the director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and host of the Academy Museum Podcast, a collaboration with LAist studios.

She said while campaigning has always been part of the process, the 1999 award season completely changed the game.

About the game-changing 71st Academy Awards

(From L-R) Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow for "Shakespeare In Love", Best Supporting Actress Judi Dench for "Shakespeare In Love", Best Supporting Actor James Coburn for "Affliction", and Best Actor Roberto Benigni for "Life Is Beautiful" at the 1999 Oscar ceremony.

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In the summer of 1998, the first episodes of Sex and the City were airing on HBO, Leonardo DiCaprio was a 24-year-old heartthrob, and Saving Private Ryan was taking the world by storm.

Steven Spielberg’s film was a favorite to win one of the highest honors at the Oscars — Best Picture. But when the award went to Shakespeare in Love instead, that night went down as one of the biggest upsets in award show history.

The romantic period piece was certainly well liked at the time, but it was the campaigning and marketing for the movie that secured the shocking win.

Scott Feinberg is a veteran awards columnist for the Hollywood Reporter. He told the Academy Museum Podcast that Miramax, then under the leadership of Harvey Weinstein, was the first company to hire an in-house publicist who was specifically devoted to awards campaigning.

Feinberg said Miramax was also the first to host private screenings for Academy members in Aspen and other popular vacation destinations over holiday breaks, which made it easier for voters to catch up on their choices.

Miramax invested a lot of time, money, and resources into that Oscars campaign, and when it paid off, other studios took note.

Stewart said the 1999 win essentially made it a requirement to compete for the awards, and it became increasingly common to have entire teams of publicists and consultants dedicated to the season.

“All of the people who were at the center of the Shakespeare in Love Oscar campaign for Miramax have since kind of fanned out across town and now run the awards campaigns for all the different places that are in the game,” Feinberg said. “So all of the things that were happening that season have had reverberations for now, over two decades since.”

What happens if you don’t campaign?

In 2010, Mo'Nique was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing Mary Lee Johnston, an abusive mother, in Precious.

But the actor has said she was “blackballed” because she refused to go above and beyond to promote the film.

Mo'Nique told the Academy Museum Podcast she was encouraged to schmooze and spend time with Academy voters, even though it put a serious strain on her personal life.

“The performance is on the screen,” she said. “Y'all are making this now personal. I don't need to have a personal relationship with any of these people, nor do they need to have one with me. They're judging the performance.”

Mo'Nique said campaigning as a Black woman is different for her than it is for a male or white actor. She got paid $50,000 for Precious, and Mo'Nique said she was expected to pay for all the extra hair, makeup, and wardrobe for campaign events out of pocket.

Even though she refused to play the campaign game, Mo'Nique won her first Oscar that year.

Mo'Nique accepts Best Supporting Actress award for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" onstage during the 82nd Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on March 7, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

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“The Academy did prove — it's not about the politics,” she said. “It is about the performance. That's what the Academy was saying when they called my name.”

But for many people in Hollywood like Mo'Nique, the real award is getting to see the impact of their best work.

After a screening of Precious at the Sundance film festival, Mo'Nique said a man approached her in tears to compliment her performance.

“Awards baby, they grow dust, and they sit on a shelf,” she said. “But that man's life is forever changed. So an award can't touch that for me.”

How this year is different

Stewart said Miramax’s aggressive tactics from 25 years ago have become the unwritten rules that are critical for Oscar campaigns, especially when there’s so many movies fighting for voters’ attention.

But what happens when Hollywood can’t campaign, like during the double strikes?

Angelique Jackson is a senior entertainment writer for Variety. She told AirTalk the strikes have affected the Oscar field significantly.

Jackson said if you look back at the way it played out, the summer blockbusters Barbie and Oppenheimer were some of the last films to get their big red carpet debuts.

But even they weren’t able to escape unscathed.

The London premiere for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer last June should have been a textbook campaign event for the cast. But when SAG-AFTRA called the strike just before the screening, Nolan told the audience the stars left early to start making picket signs.

But for The Color Purple, Jackson noted the movie didn’t get its first major screening for Academy voters until after the strike ended in early November.

“Enough people had kind of been able to see it for Danielle [Brooks] to get in, but because of the strikes and people not being able to promote their films for so long, a lot of things either flew under the radar or they kind of got their wings a little bit late,” Jackson said.

She added that it’s been a very different season so far, and it’s only going to continue as the ceremony gets closer.

Looking back

Donna Gigliotti, a film producer who took home an Oscar for her work on Shakespeare in Love, said it was clear to her that campaigning moved the needle. That night, in addition to Best Picture, Gwyneth Paltrow won for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Judi Dench won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

"I don't think he'll mind my saying this, but Joe Fiennes did not, he didn't want to participate and he doesn't have an Oscar," Gigliotti said. "You can see where it works, because Judi Dench for her 12 minutes of film does in fact have an Oscar on her show."

Asked by Stewart if campaigning should play an important role in the film industry, Gigliotti said this:

"No, I think it's, I think it's absolutely out of control. And I wish no one would campaign."

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A slow leak from a chemical tank smeared an orange cloud across the sky of a Southern California neighborhood on Tuesday, but authorities said they quickly got it under control.

Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Aaron Katon said authorities responded to a business that makes cleaning products after receiving a call shortly before noon about the cloud. Police evacuated a nearby middle school as a precaution, Katon said.

They do not yet know what the chemical was, but all shelter-in-place orders have been lifted, he said. The regional air quality management district has deployed staff to the area to investigate, said Connie Villanueva, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The company, Shepard Bros., could not immediately be reached for comment.

Three company employees reported minor respiratory irritation and declined further treatment, Katon said.

The leak occurred in the city of La Habra near a mix of residential neighborhoods and industrial warehouses about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Anaheim.

Keary Godinez, who works in a nearby restaurant, said she saw what appeared to be a dark yellow cloud spread across the sky. The 20-year-old said she watched students across the street board buses to evacuate, but police told her the eatery could remain open.

“It looked like pollen dust,” Godinez said, adding she didn’t detect a smell from the cloud. “It just kind of smeared in the sky and started going away.”

La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano had urged residents to shelter in place and said some streets were being evacuated.

Luis Gomez, who manages a nearby pickleball program, said earlier Tuesday he saw the cloud, called police and was told anyone within a mile radius of the location was under an evacuation order.

The Los Angeles Lakers will unveil a statue of former coach Phil Jackson outside their downtown arena next year.

The Lakers announced the plan Tuesday to honor Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances during two stints totaling 11 seasons as their head coach.

The statue will be unveiled April 9 before the Lakers’ home game against Minnesota.

After his famed tenure leading Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to six championships, Jackson joined the Lakers in 1999 and immediately began another era of major success for the 17-time NBA champion franchise.

His first three teams in Los Angeles won championships behind the dynamic duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant and Pau Gasol. His Lakers also made the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008.

Jackson set the Lakers franchise record for coaches with 610 victories while leading his teams to the playoffs in every year of his tenure, which ended in 2011.

“Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad’s invitation to join the Lakers, Phil’s unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come. It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves.”

Jackson will be the ninth person associated with the Lakers to be honored with a statue in Star Plaza outside their arena. He joins Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bryant, O’Neal, broadcaster Chick Hearn and former coach Pat Riley, whose statue was unveiled earlier this year.

Jackson’s 11 championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. The North Dakota native and former New York Knicks forward is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.