GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Oscar Story

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I never really gave a spit about the Oscars; just a hyperexpensive orgy of self-congratulation by a bunch of celebrities I can’t stand. Could. Not. Care. Less.

But this story is kind of neat; the actor who played the kid version of Forrest Gump could not attend the Academy Awards ceremony in 1995 because his family was too poor to afford the tickets and apparently multi-zillionaire Tom Hanks couldn’t find his wallet to help the kid out. Kid went on to join the Army and serve in Iraq.

Child star Michael Conner Humphreys – who played a young Forrest in leg braces – missed out on his big chance to attend the biggest showbiz event on the planet.

His parents were offered the chance to buy tickets for the most important night of their son’s life but, unable to find the cash, eight-year-old Michael and his family watched the show at home on TV.

Michael served four years in the U.S. Army as an infantry soldier, which included an 18 month tour of duty in Iraq.

On the whole, a way better outcome than say, Lindsay Lohan or Brad Renfro.

Comments

  1. Maybe I’m going to come off as a bit shallow here, but in both the looks and character department, I would take Specialist Humphreys over Forrest Gump-era Tom Cruise any day of the week. 🙂

  3. An interesting story but is it really fair to blame Hanks? What about Zemeckis? He was the Director. What about the producers and studio execs? Certainly, they had something vested in the Oscars.

    At any rate, it looks like the young man has turned out alright, non-the-worse for missing one of the most over-hyped annual events on TV.

  4. A host “insisted” that we watch Birdman last night. We sat through it in uncomfortable, silent disgust. A great puking of gratuitous trash vocabulary doled out as if it were just the cultural norm. No regard for love over the fleeting gratification of lust. A shallow, hollowed out has-been player strutting his ego as a redemptive actor is a mindless whirl of narcissism. And then it dared to crap a clueless trap door escape-act exit on us. Never have I seen such a blender-full of Hollyweird self congratulatory masturbation. If Michael Keaton pulled off masterful acting, it went right by me. I kept looking at him and wondering how he had come to stooping so low. If everything plays out as it should, this horrid abortion will knock some film off the list of the 10 worst best picture Oscar winners of all time.

  5. My sister & her BF saw Birdman and thought it was the WORST EVER since we saw Ed Wood together years ago, and we’ve not gone to a movie together since since I got blamed for the entire debacle since it was my recommendation in the first place.

    NPH was good as the host, though I didn’t get the just-in-his-tighty-wihites part since I didn’t see Birdman. A hint to the audience that it was an homage would have helped, otherwise it just seemd gratuitous fan-service.

    Although the shallow-part of me thought, “Damn, David is a lucky hubby…”

  6. I’d say that Humpheys has done very well, even without going to the Oscars ceremony. Good head on his shoulders. I am puzzled why the studio didn’t pay for him to go, though.

  7. But despite missing out on the glitz of the Academy Awards back in 1995, Michael said Hollywood star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis both made an effort to congratulate him for his part in the movie.

    Almost 20 years on he isn’t bitter about missing his chance in the spotlight, insisting the movie opened up many doors and allowed him to travel the world.

    And he tells his inspirational story of how he shunned Hollywood, opting instead for a career in the military – much like his character in the hit movie.

  9. The smart thing to do would be to auction off one of the parents seats to cover the cost of all. If it was only the boy that could go, its probably best an 8yo boy didn’t go there alone as someone might try to snort cocaine off his pen is