For Sam Smith, it was the best of nights and the worst of nights

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March 1, 2016 | Celeb Watch

For Sam Smith, it was the best of nights and the worst of nights

First, the good news: during Sunday's Oscars, openly gay singer Sam Smith won Best Original Song for the James Bond theme "Writing on the Wall."

But during his acceptance speech, things quickly went downhill.

"I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said no openly gay man had won an Oscar," Smith said. "If this is the case … even if it isn't the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community, all around the world. I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day."

Oops. Smith is not the first gay man to win an Oscar. Several openly gay men have won the little golden trophy, including screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, singer Elton John and composer Stephen Sondheim.

As for McKellen, he actually said that an out gay man had yet to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Alex Abad-Santos, from Vox, called the speech "inelegant, erroneous, and self-congratulatory," adding that "in order to talk about a struggle like the LGBT struggle for onscreen representation and do it justice, you have to understand and acknowledge the past and the pioneers who came before you."

And Dustin Lance Black tweeted: "Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé." He then linked to his own acceptance speech on YouTube.

"If Smith had a lick of sense, he would recognize that on an evening rightly focused on pushing back against entrenched racism in Hollywood, piggybacking on that advocacy while drawing attention to his relatively privileged position as a well-employed white gay man might be bad form," wrote Slate associate editor Bryan Lowder.

"I'm sure Smith's heart is in the right place, but it's hard to be a spokesperson when you don't know your community's own history."

As for Smith, he has apologized.

"Second openly gay man to win an Oscar or third or fourth or 100th," he tweeted, "it wasn't my point. My point was to shine some light on the LGBT community who I love so dearly."

Letting Smith know he made a mistake is fine, but the cattiness so many used to do so is probably the most embarrassing thing to come out of this.

Sam Smith, the Only Openly Gay Oscar Winner? Not Really [New York Times]