As we’ve already discussed today, the Writers Guild Awards were this weekend, and some awesome movies, TV shows, and creators got some much-deserved recognition.
What we haven’t discussed, yet, though, is the weird-as-hell interaction between Patton Oswalt and James Woods that kicked off the show.
Oswalt was hosting the awards, and his opening monologue was full mostly of jokes about what it means to be in this room full of “haters and losers” now living in Trump’s America. The monologue is equal parts patent Patton hilarity, depressing too-close-to-truths (like declaring this the “last ever WGA Awards” and that this is the end of the official apostrophe in the word you’re your), and sure, some uncomfortable jokes that very much did not land. (Oof, no one wants to mentally associate La La Land with Ben Carson and sexual euphemisms, thank you.)
Being an untelevised event, and one dedicated to the behind-the-scenes players, the WGAs have a looser feel than the awards shows most people are familiar with. Which is why you get Oswalt taking the stage with a glass of whiskey in hand, joking (??) that he’s “not getting any more sober this evening.” That playfulness doesn’t fully explain, though, why a few minutes into Oswalt’s monologue, James Woods felt the need to jump up onstage and remove Patton’s shoe.
James Woods, if you’ll remember, is most notably famous for playing a string of iconic seedy criminals in the ’70s and ’80s, as well as making sure Twitter trolls know to use the word “allegedly” when discussing his alleged drug use. He’s a vocal conservative and an aggressive Twitter troll himself. So when Oswalt joked that he had to be careful about making too many Trump jokes, in part “because I don’t want to be kicked to death by James Woods backstage,” that prompted Woods to jump up from his front-row seat and steal the host’s shoe.
By the looks of it, Woods was offended that Oswalt wore sneakers to the event because “this is an awards show for God’s sake.”
It’s hard to describe the interaction without it sounding like the two were at each other’s throats, but, remarkably, the entire thing came across as something really close to friendly.
Turns out @RealJamesWoods has a genuine self-deprecating sense of humor and can give as good as he gets. Huh.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 20, 2017
Much of that might be due to the fact that Oswalt lives for old Hollywood stories, the deeper the cut, the better, and Woods must have a trove of those.
Well, @RealJamesWoods popped backstage to tell me a hilarious/fucked up James Toback story so there we go.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 20, 2017
Still, as good natured as this feud could be, Oswalt got in a painfully solid burn, one Twitter star to another. Woods, at one point, jumped back onstage (seriously, that can’t be encouraged) to tell Patton he lost half his Twitter followers just by showing up at the awards.
Patton’s response? “Oh did you? Wow. All those egg avatars gone. That’s terrible.”
(via EW, image via screengrab)
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