Entertainment

Calm Down Everyone, He Didn't Win An Oscar Yet

by Lia Beck

Everybody calm down. The Oscar groundhog already said we have three more weeks until Oscar Day so there's no need to get worked up or assume that anyone won anything. (Except for Cate Blanchett. She definitely won.) Yesterday, CNN aired a segment about the making of Oscar trophies and a screenshot of a plaque made people assume that Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor. He didn't. In fact, final voting doesn't even start until Feb. 14. Plaques on which the nominees names and films are engraved are made in advance so that they can be quickly attached to the little naked gold man statues, to use the technical term, after the ceremony. During the CNN segment people snapped pictures of DiCaprio's name plate and the photos started circulating online. Soon everyone thought that CNN had spoiled the Oscars without considering the fact that this would mean everyone in the Oscar statue factory knew all of the winners weeks in advance, yet had decided to keep their mouths shut this whole time.

While it didn't end up being true that DiCaprio has already been chosen as the Best Actor winner, this situation does bring to light the fact that names plaques are made for every single nominee. The plaques with the names of people who don't win are recycled, but it still must be weird for nominees to know that they were that close to winning. Of course, the nomination tells them that, but the plaque is a visual representation. It's concrete. I would think that if Leonardo DiCaprio happened to see the screenshot, it would make his stomach drop. That would be the case for anyone seeing clearly how close they are to (maybe) achieving the pinnacle of their career.

So, as was originally planned, we'll have to wait until March 2 to find out if DiCaprio actually wins. For any of you hardcore fans out there, the Oscar factory is located in Chicago and the recycling bin is probably somewhere around the back of the building.

Image: Getty Images; Letter10Media/Twitter