Just when you thought it was safe to take off that foil hat in the aftermath of the recently-announced nominees for the upcoming Academy Awards, the Andrea Riseborough conspiracy has evolved into the realms of illegality.
After a grassroots campaign that saw her win the backing of a suspiciously large number of high-profile industry figures, the To Leslie star sneaked in at the last second to secure a surprise nomination in the Best Actress category. While it’s undoubtedly an incredible performance, it didn’t take long for the internet to suspect something sinister was afoot.
To pour even more fuel onto the fire, industry figures including Puck’s Matthew Belloni and The Playlist’s Gregory Ellwood are now questioning whether or not the dark horse candidate’s late dash into contention may have broken voting rules.
The broad strokes are that some people have apparently paid a lot of money to ensure that people were talking about To Leslie, and specifically Riseborough’s performance. Somehow, a movie that not a lot of people had seen – and that made a shade over $27,000 at the box office – has suddenly developed an A-list army of vocal supporters, and also found the funds to hold press screenings, Q&A events, and perhaps even indulge in what could be called “aggressive lobbying”, something forbidden by Academy rules.
It’s all just rumor and speculation at this stage, but maybe one day we’ll see the Andrea Riseborough conspiracy turned into multi-time Oscar-nominated feature The Andrea Riseborough Conspiracy, seeing as Hollywood is infatuated with flicks about itself.