As The Oscar Glow Faded, The Motion Picture Home Faced Another Daunting Year

deadline.com:

Was it only a year ago—no, 10 months, the last Oscar show was on April 25—that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to the Motion Picture and Television Fund?It seems longer, with all the ups and downs, re-openings and fresh lockdowns, trucker convoys and international crises that have come between.Back then, the Hersholt award brought welcome attention and a jolt of energy to the fund’s famous Motion Picture Home (as it is colloquially called) in Woodland Hills.

In the run-up to the Oscars, we virtually visited the Wasserman Campus via an email blog maintained by entertainment lawyer Robert Mirisch, a six year-plus resident at the facility.Well, Bob is still blogging for friends and family, and life at the home goes on.

But based on his reports (quoted with his kind permission), even an attentive staff and the Oscar afterglow couldn’t keep this past year’s tribulations at bay.Things started well enough–though Bob the Blogger wasn’t much charmed by the Academy Awards telecast. “No humor, no performances and no host,” he grumped on April 30: “Academy pay attention to your ratings.

16 million Americans can’t be wrong.”Still, the outlook was bright in early May, as the pandemic seemed to be lifting, and the vaccines offered hope.