Henrick Vartanian
Legendary director and one of the fathers of “French new wave” Jean-luc Godard, can’t be contacted. Quoi? Whatchugonna do?
Oscar organizers have been on the horn some 24 frantic hours trying to contact the filmmaker of “Breathless” to inform him of an honorary statuette they like to give him. But by late Wednesday they still hadn’t been able to find the man. 
A Swiss citizen born in Paris, Godard, is an anti-Hollywood, anti-flying rebel who in the past avoided long plane flights, perhaps because he’s not allowed to smoke, says an insider. It looks like Godard (79), could be one of those no-shows for an honorary award.
“We’ve been attempting to reach him since 7 o’clock Tuesday evening and we have as yet had no confirmation,” Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences said late Wednesday afternoon. “We have tried by telephone, by fax, by emails to various friends and associates. We have sent a formal letter by FedEx. But we have certainly not been told he will show up at this point.”
Isn’t that crazy? They should’ve just given it to Michael Bay? Shouldn’t the academy just give it to the artists whose big films put big bread on the industry table?
On finding the people they want to honor, Davis said that possibility played no factor when the Academy’s board determined recipients of the honorary Oscars. Other recipients will be Eli Wallach, Francis Ford Coppola and silent film historian Kevin Brownlow. The Americans were informed on Tuesday night, and we bet they picked up the message quite happily, thank you very much.
Previous recipients included Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, George Lucas, and Clint Eastwood.
The awards will be handed out on November 13, NOT at the Kodak theatre, where these cinema trailblazers will thankfully pick up the awards without going on and on and on with their winded speeches, adding to the usually lengthy Oscar telecast.