It's Friday, February 28th.
I'm Jane Coaston and this is Whataday,
the show that definitely didn't bring a bunch of MAGA influencers to the White House to celebrate releasing decade old documents on a sex trafficker which then got a whole bunch of MAGA people mad at the MAGA influencers.
On today's show, pro misogyny influencers,
the Tate brothers to Florida after Romania lifts their travel ban and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer tries to convince President Donald Trump not to abandon Ukraine.
But let's start with a subject that is near and dear to my heart.
Movies the Oscars are this Sunday,
a time for the film industry to celebrate the best it has to offer.
And from Wicked to Nickel Boys to WOD favorite Conclave,
there have been a lot of great movies to honor this year.
Now this is not exactly our usual politics coverage,
but movies are political and Oscar season this year has been messy in a way that kind of matches our weird political moment.
From Amelia Perez going from surefire best Picture winner to cinematic albatross because of some tweets, among other reasons,
to the use of AI in the Brutalist, there's been something for everyone to get mad at.
Even the very concept of the Oscars race is weird.
It's basically members of an industry lobbying other members of that same industry to give a movie a big award,
even if most Americans haven't seen or in the case of the Brutalist, couldn't see the movie itself because of limited screenings.
And let's not kid ourselves, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Academy Awards,
the Oscars, to you and me, isn't always the best adjudicator for what movies are good.
Some anonymous Oscars voters told Entertainment Weekly they didn't even finish some of the movies they're supposed to be voting