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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 23 March 2022
‘West Side Story’ star Rachel Zegler not invited to Oscars

By LINDSEY BAHR do right by her.”
AP Film Writer Alec Baldwin tweeted that
Steven Spielberg’s “West he would buy Zegler two
Side Story” is nominated for tickets to the show.
seven Academy Awards, And “One Day at a Time”
including best picture, di- showrunner Gloria Calde-
rector and supporting ac- rón Kellett tweeted at ABC
tress for Ariana DeBose. Yet and the Academy, “How
the star of the movie musi- about the rare time that
cal will not be among those Latine people have a mov-
attending the ceremony ie nominated for an OSCAR
on Sunday. you invite the lead. Latine
Rachel Zegler, the 20-year- people are 18.5% of this
old who plays Maria, post- country. ENOUGH!”
ed Sunday that she tried to Oscars tickets are always
go but “it doesn’t seem to hot commodities and this
be happening” and that year are even more lim-
she will be rooting for “West ited than usual because
Side Story” from her couch. of efforts to maintain more
“I hope some last minute space between guests to
miracle occurs and I can help prevent the spread of
celebrate our film in person COVID-19. Most academy
but hey, that’s how it goes Rachel Zegler attends the “West Side Story” premiere in New York on Nov. 29, 2021. members have never got-
sometimes, I guess,” Zegler Associated Press ten to attend.
continued on Instagram. allotted a certain number but to only make things sented at the show. Disney And the outrage has only in-
“Thanks for all the shock of tickets by the Academy more vexing, her next big and Academy representa- tensified as more and more
and outrage — I’m disap- of Motion Picture Arts and role is as Snow White, which tives did not respond to re- presenters with limited con-
This cover image released by New
pointed, too. But that’s OK. Sciences, which the film’s she is currently filming in quests for comment. nections to the nominated
Directions shows “Paradais” by Fernanda
Melchor.
So proud of our movie.” studio then doles out as London. Some wondered Russ Tamblyn, who played movies or the movie busi-
Associated Press
The post drew a lot of at- they see fit. why The Walt Disney Co., Riff in the 1961 “West Side ness at all are announced.
tention online as many Presenters and individual which owns Oscars broad- Story” and is a voting On Monday, producers
couldn’t fathom why the nominees get a pair of tick- caster ABC, wouldn’t want member of the Academy, revealed that DJ Khaled,
lead of a best picture nom- ets. And other spots in the their new Snow White there tweeted that it was the Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater and
inee wouldn’t have been room go to the broadcast- in some capacity, like pre- Academy’s, “duty to find Shaun White would all be
invited to the ceremony er, sponsors and academy senting or performing. Rachel a seat at the Os- presenting awards at the
or at least been asked to members, who can enter a Others saw it as a missed cars.... When they say rep- show, which will be broad-
present an award. lottery. opportunity to have a ris- resentation matters, this is cast live on ABC on Sunday
Best picture nominees are Zegler is not nominated, ing young Latina star repre- what that means. Please starting at 8pm ET.q

Review: Another side of paradise in

Melchor’s ‘Paradais’

plot and slithering syntax the Fatboy has “blond curls that trumpets and blue bellworts,”
prose, guiding Melchor’s tale into made him look ridiculous, like an contrasting the “sleek blades of
the shadows of a society locked overfed cherubin; a monstrous perfect lawn” within the housing
by chains. manchild whose soulless eyes lit complex.
Outcast teenagers Leopoldo Gar- up” only when he sets them on As Polo aims to hack away at any
cia Chaparro, or Polo, and Franco Señora Marian. growth of the relentless jungle
Andrade, or Fatboy, shape the Portrayed through Polo’s interpre- that “invaded the flowerbeds and
novel’s central collisions. tation, readers feel the immense central reservations, decimating
Told from the close third narra- loathing he feels towards Fatboy’s the begonias and China roses”
tor, readers are brought in closer charmed predicament, his luxuri- readers as immersed in the sub-
to Polo’s world, the residence’s ous future a spoon-fed assurance. text of Polo’s existential plight be-
“muchacho” travels between It’s a marked contrast to Polo’s, tween the forces of social control.
Progreso, his neighboring village, which is locked in the marred Melchor has added a necessary
and Paradais, where he is a gar- contours of colonial subjugation. work to the gothic genre resonant
dener. The two form a relationship rooted with the social fragilities of today’s
He is “dark skinned and ugly as in loneliness and desperation that Mexico, the geopolitical vulner-
This cover image released by New
Directions shows “Paradais” by sin,” according to his mother. culminates in a scheme to obtain ability it speaks to defiant of aes-
Fernanda Melchor. Caught between his mother’s their ultimate escapist desires, thetic pretensions and moralistic
Associated Press domineering control and the with the respective consequenc- conclusions.
By AMANCAI BIRABEN ominous drug cartels that slither es playing out Mexico’s racist, Amidst the black river that flows
Associated Press through Progreso, Polo succumbs classist and sexist fate. out in the margins of the sea, the
The fantasies that distort reality draws out his days with Fatboy, Melchor’s prose undulates with relations between characters
slither through Paradais, the gat- one of Paradais’ residents. shifting clauses and semantic who populate the world’s parasit-
ed community that sets Fernanda Fatboy steals money from his chaos that run wild like the “lia- ic tendencies, and the cavernous
Melchor’s garden of Eden and grandparents to buy booze and nas and thorns and flowers that fate to which the protagonists are
gives her latest novel its name. cheesy snacks, the main incen- mummified the young trees then brought, there is no redemption in
Macabre characters drive the tive for Polo’s company. scattered the snags with devil’s this paradise lost.q