Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is ensnared in a photo scandal, 34-year-old Momofuku CEO Marguerite Mariscal talks about her rise to the C-suite, and Emma Stone won the Oscar for Best Actress Sunday night. Have a great Monday!
– Poor one out. Last night was a tame one at the 96th Academy Awards, with few surprises as the frontrunners swept the main categories, including Christopher Nolan for Best Director and Oppenheimer, his film, winning Best Picture. The predictability of the evening left something to be desired.
Awards season had a shaky start, with Golden Globes host Jo Koy facing criticism for some truly unfunny jokes about Barbie and Taylor Swift back in January. Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel played it safer, acknowledging the fervor around Greta Gerwig’s perceived snub—though her film was nominated for Best Picture, she was not nominated for her direction—while saving the raunchier jokes for Ryan Gosling.
There were some standout wins: Da’Vine Joy Randolph took home the first award of the night, the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in The Holdovers, while Billie Eilish won Best Original Song for “What Was I Made For.” Justine Triet, the French director, won Best Original Screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall, along with her life partner Arthur Harari.
And Best Actress went to Emma Stone for her turn as Bella Baxter in Poor Things. She gave an emotional, tear-filled acceptance speech, acknowledging the women on stage who presented her with the award and the other actresses in her category. Among the latter was Lily Gladstone, who portrayed Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon and was the first Native American woman to be nominated for the honor.
Poor Things was hailed by some as a feminist film about a woman learning about and embracing her independence, particularly her sexuality. (I saw more than one TikTok saying it was the feminist film Barbie wishes it was.) I don’t view it that way; in fact, it left me feeling uneasy, especially as I grappled with the largely positive reviews I read. In the film, Bella Baxter has her brain replaced with her unborn infant’s after an attempted suicide leaves her near-death; throughout, she slowly learns to become a woman again, thinking and exploring the world on her own. That’s largely done through sex, including when she has the mental maturity of an adolescent and, later, when she becomes a prostitute.
Stone is magnificent in the film, and she clearly has a fruitful artistic relationship with director Yorgos Lanthimos. My unease with the underlying dynamics of the movie doesn’t change what an achievement it is for her to win Best Actress for the second time at age 35. But “woman learning about herself through her sexuality” is as cliché and predictable as another white man winning the Oscar for Best Director. We’ve all seen that film before.
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Board rehab. After OpenAI reshuffled its board following CEO Sam Altman’s brief ouster last year, critics blasted the Chat GPT developer for naming only men as directors. OpenAI announced three new board members on Friday—Instacart CEO Fidji Simo; Sue Desmond-Hellman, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Nicole Seligman, former president and general counsel for Sony—and reinstated Altman as a director. Fortune
- Photo flub. A photograph of the Princess of Wales and her children intended to assure the public of her wellbeing has only fanned rumors after photo agencies pulled the image, claiming it was manipulated. Catherine hasn’t been seen in public since she underwent planned abdominal surgery in January, causing rampant speculation about her health. On Monday, Catherine took responsibility for the editing error. The Guardian
- Intern to CEO. Marguerite Mariscal turned down the role of CEO at the Momofuku restaurant group and cooking product company numerous times before accepting it at just 29 years old in 2019. “I think anyone who grows up wanting to be a CEO is crazy,” she says. “It’s a very difficult job.” The former Momofuku intern led the company through the pandemic and notched $50 million in sales last year. Fortune
- Searching for accommodations. A Black and Deaf content moderator at Google is suing the tech giant for allegedly failing to accommodate her with sign language interpreters and video captioning. Jalon Hall, who says Google used her as a symbol of diversity, claims the company denied her requests because interpreters would break confidentiality standards. Google claims the case should be dismissed. “We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and offer a range of accommodations” to those who need it, a spokesperson said. WIRED
- Pages pile up. Actress Dakota Johnson announced her new book club last week, making her the latest female celebrity to seek "bookfluencer" status. The book clubs of Dua Lipa and Sarah Michelle Gellar are focused on curating recommendations while Dakota Johnson's TeaTime and Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine seek books worthy of film or TV adaptations. The Cut
- Musk v. MacKenzie. X CEO Elon Musk quietly deleted an X post that attacked philanthropist MacKenzie Scott for the billions she’s given to social causes. “Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse’ should…be listed among ‘Reasons That Western Civilization Died,’’' he wrote, referring to Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Many interpreted Musk's criticism as disapproval of the gender- and race-focused organizations Scott typically donates to. Meanwhile, a new New York Times investigation found that Musk’s philanthropic foundation regularly has failed to give away the minimum required by law. Fortune
ON MY RADAR
More women are getting onto corporate boards. Good The Economist
These women are leading Europe’s biggest companies, proving success has no limits Fortune
Gender theorist Judith Butler: ‘What are they frightened of exactly?’ The Financial Times
PARTING WORDS
"I want people to know that if you have something on your heart that you can’t stop thinking about, it’s meant for you to do it and you should do it."
— The Holdovers actress Da'Vine Joy Randolph describing why she acts
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