Oscars drama abounds as celebrities compete with each other to see who can be the most socially conscious.

From Joaquin Phoenix and his speech about screaming baby cows to Natalie Portman’s red carpet look, which was adorned with the names of female directors who didn’t get a nod from the Academy, it was all action.

Before going full vegan in his speech, Phoenix touched on some of the issues that have been at the forefront of Oscars criticism this year, namely sexism, racism, and a lack of diversity.

Portman obviously wanted to tackle these issues, too, but it hasn’t gone over as well as she expected it to.

The dress, for your consideration:

The names are on the cape:

Rose McGowan took one look at that dress and immediately took umbrage with it, according to Sky News.

McGowan has labelled Natalie Portman a “fraud” and wrote of her “disgust” at the star’s Oscars dress, which featured the names of female directors who did not get nominated.

The 46-year-old said Portman was “an actress acting the part of someone who cares” and that her type of activism was “deeply offensive to those of us who actually do the work”.

McGowan wrote about all of this on Facebook, adding, “Natalie, you have worked with two female directors in your very long career – one of them was you”.

Portman has a production company that has hired exclusively male directors, with the exception of Portman herself. McGowan continues:

“What is it with actresses of your ilk? You ‘A-listers’ could change the world if you’d take a stand instead of being the problem.

“Yes, you, Natalie. You are the problem. Lip service is the problem. Fake support of other women is the problem.”

McGowan goes on to tell Portman that there is no law that says that you need to hire women, and she should do whatever she wants.

“But I am saying stop pretending you’re some kind of champion for anything other than yourself.

Until you and your fellow actresses get real, do us all a favor and hang up your embroidered activist cloak, it doesn’t hang right.”

Portman’s dress had a bit of a “do as I say, not as I do” feel about it, especially when you take a closer look at her production company.

If the desired effect was to get a lot of media attention, however, the dress did its job, and it did it well.

In response, Portman had this to say, reports Variety:

“I agree with Ms. McGowan that it is inaccurate to call me ‘brave’ for wearing a garment with women’s names on it,” Portman said. “Brave is a term I more strongly associate with actions like those of the women who have been testifying against Harvey Weinstein the last few weeks, under incredible pressure.”

…”In my long career, I’ve only gotten the chance to work with female directors a few times – I’ve made shorts, commercials, music videos and features with Marya Cohen, Mira Nair, Rebecca Zlotowski, Anna Rose Holmer, Sofia Coppola, Shirin Neshat and myself. Unfortunately, the unmade films I have tried to make are a ghost history.”

“If these films do get made, women face enormous challenges during the making of them. I have had the experience a few times of helping get female directors hired on projects which they were then forced out of because of the conditions they faced at work,” Portman said. “After they are made, female-directed films face difficulty getting into festivals, getting distribution and getting accolades because of the gatekeepers at every level. So I want to say, I have tried, and I will keep trying. While I have not yet been successful, I am hopeful that we are stepping into a new day.”

Make of that what you will.

Let’s just hope it leads to progress.

[sources:skynews&variety]