Diane Warren Reportedly Threw a 'Mini-Tantrum' During the Oscars

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 12, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 12, 2024 |

Variety published an interview today with songwriter Diane Warren, and Bess Kargman the director of a documentary about Warren being released tomorrow at SXSW, Diane Warren: Relentless. Warren, of course, has 15 Oscar nominations and still has yet to win one, including in this year’s contest, where her song from Eva Longoria’s movie Flamin’ Hot fell to Billie Eilish’s Barbie song.

What’s interesting about the interview is that it describes exactly the kind of incensed person who Puck claims threw a fit on Sunday night when Ariana Grande did not mention the nominated songs before awarding a winner.

Diane Warren gets dragged sometimes for attaching her awards-bait power ballads to random movies in pursuit of an Oscar. But it’s not her fault she’s been nominated a record 15 times without winning, this year for “The Fire Inside” from the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos movie (which I promise was a real movie and not, as someone joked on Twitter, a Jenna Maroney gig on 30 Rock). What was Warren’s fault, however, was the mini-tantrum she threw after presenter Ariana Grande skipped the names and credits of all five best original song nominees before revealing “What Was I Made For?” as the winner. According to two eyewitnesses, Warren was so pissed at not being mentioned there, she leapt from her seat and started running around the orchestra level looking for board of governors members to complain to. Eva Longoria, director of Flamin’ Hot, saw the unfolding scene and bailed for the lobby.

That anecdote tracks with the Variety interview where Warren describes herself as a “pain in the ass” who can be difficult (she would often leave interviews with her director before they were over if she was inspired to write a song) and as someone who takes the Oscars very seriously.

For instance, she described her 2016 loss — “Til It Happens to You” (performed by Lady Gaga) — as a “tough” one. “That’s the one that was excruciating. Out of all the nominations, that one really stung.” Despite that, Warren says that if she had to choose between winning once or being nominated many times, she’d take the nominations. “I love to keep getting nominated. It’s awesome.”

And that is probably why Warren threw a “mini-tantrum” when her name was not mentioned before Best Song was awarded. She’s lost 15 times. That public acknowledgment for being nominated is all she gets out of the Oscars, and she was clearly upset that they had piled one indignity on top of another.

Source: Puck, Variety