You see it more in athletics than at entertainment awards shows, but there’s a general rule among many in the world that when something good happens to them individually (or to a team they’re part of), they need to thank God in some way. (This is generally pretty logical to me, and I wouldn’t even classify myself as that religious.)
Here’s a study done before last night’s Oscars, and here’s a summary of the same study on Forbes. Before last night, there were 1,396 Oscar acceptance speeches in history. Who was thanked the most?
Here we go:
Five people have thus been thanked more than God:
- Steven Spielberg
- Harvey Weinstein
- James Cameron
- George Lucas
- Peter Jackson
What does that tell us?
Not a ton, although it might speak to the idea that working with franchises is a good way to deify yourself in Hollywood — Spielberg is associated with a couple (notably Indiana Jones, I’d guess), as are Cameron (Terminator), Lucas (Star Wars), and Jackson (Lord of the Rings). Also, all these guys make tremendous amounts of money for the people in their films, which is probably a more tangible reason, right?
Spielberg himself only has two major Oscar wins, for Schlinder’s List and Saving Private Ryan. When he did grab that first one in 1994, though, it was fairly emotional:
And hey, his daughter now has an original series on Snapchat, so that’s something.
If you’re interested more in why athletes thank God in speeches, read this. (Or this.)
