And the award for worst picture of the year goes to… Netflix‘s Diana: The Musical.
Diana: The Musical, a filmed performance of a short-lived Broadway show that premiered on Netflix in October, pretty much swept the board at the Golden Raspberry Awards on Saturday night.
Among its five wins were the Worst Screenplay prize for “featuring some of the year’s most ridiculed dialogue and lyrics, including rhyming ‘Camilla’ with both ‘Manilla’ and ‘Godzilla’.
As its title suggests, Diana: The Musical tells the story of the late princess with a variety of song and dance numbers. Those songs include “The Worst Job in England”, “Whatever Love Means Anyway” and “Diana (The Rage)”. It currently has a 12% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rather coincidentally, Kristen Stewart is up for an Oscar on Sunday night for her performance as Princess Diana in a very different film, the arthouse biopic Spencer.
The Golden Raspberry Awards – or Razzies as they’re often known – have been recognising the “worst achievements” in filmmaking since 1981. They traditionally take place the night before the Oscars, serving as a kind of chaotic predrinks to Hollywood’s big night out.
Like the Oscars, the Razzies have come in for plenty of criticism over the years. They’ve been accused of being tiresome, sexist and no fun anymore.
For obvious reasons, many Hollywood stars who “win” a Razzie choose not to dignify it with an acknowledgement, but a few big names have played it to their advantage.
In 2009 – when she was hot favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars – Sandra Bullock was also named Worst Actress for her role in the widely panned comedy film All About Steve. She turned up at the Razzies in person to collect her trophy and even handed out DVDs of the film to the audience.
It felt like a fun, tongue-in-cheek and cleverly self-deprecating climax to her successful Oscar campaign: the following night, she won Best Actress for her performance in The Blind Side. By showing she was in on the joke, Bullock had taken the sting out of the Razzies’ tail.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?