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The Razzies: Lampooning Hollywood for 35 years

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Sylvester Stallone has been nominated for 30 Golden Raspberry Awards and won four. He’s not a fan. Neither is Michael Caine, who called the awards “the pustule on the butt of Hollywood” when he was nominated in 1980 for both “Dressed to Kill” and “The Island.”

This celebrity aggravation wouldn’t be possible without John Wilson.

Wilson started the awards, which honor the worst of the worst in film each year, 35 years ago in his Los Angeles living room. The nominees and winners are now reported on throughout the world.

In his interview with Kai, Wilson shares the origin story of the awards and talks about the time Sandra Bullock showed up to accept her Razzie in person (Halle Berry did too). 

Here are two tidbits that didn’t make the radio broadcast. First, we asked Wilson if the Razzies have ever been used to promote a film:

It’s interesting. The ultimate Razzie movie is probably “Showgirls,” the one that Paul Verhoeven did. I loved the quote, “It’s the only movie about Las Vegas that’s actually more tasteless than Las Vegas.” [Wilson lives in Las Vegas] He showed up at the ceremony and accepted his award, but MGM, when they saw the reaction to it they tried to rerelease it and turn it into another “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and make it an interactive bad movie where you would come dressed as one of the dancing [strippers] and yell. It didn’t work, but yeah, I actually have in my storage a poster that says “Winner of an unprecedented seven Razzie Awards.”

 We also asked Wilson if he views the Academy Awards differently after the Razzies have been the anti-Oscars for 35 years:

I’m way more cynical. I grew up with two parents who were Depression-era kids who loved movies and they passed that on to me. I actually as a child used to stay up and watch the Oscars in Chicago when I was very young, and I do love the Oscars. But they’ve gotten to the point where they’re so huge and so self-involved and so smug and so …  all of the things that an award that means something probably shouldn’t be. And we’re still down here with our peashooter going: [Wilson blows a raspberry.]


This year’s Razzie Award nominations:

Worst Picture

Worst Actor

Worst Actress

Worst Supporting Actress

Razzie Redeemer Award

Worst Supporting Actor

Worst Director

Worst Screen Combo

Worst Screenplay

Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel

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