Why isn't potential EGOT winner Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Oscars tonight?
Miranda's wife tested positive for COVID earlier this week , meaning his Encanto song will have to compete tonight without him
Tonight’s Oscars ceremony will be the second time—after the 2016 show, where his “How Far I’ll Go,” from Moana, got beat out for Best Original Song by La La Land’s “City Of Stars”—that Lin-Manuel Miranda has been up for an Oscar. (Specifically, his Encanto song “Dos Oruguitas” is up for the same award.) (And, yes, if it was us, we would have picked “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” or “Surface Pressure” instead, but ballads gonna ballad at The Oscars.)
All of which means that this is also the second time that Hamilton creator Miranda will be up for the unofficial, but much-coveted, EGOT, having already secured the E, G, and T in 2014, 2009, and 2008, respectively. (He’s won one or more of each award since, too.) Unfortunately, Miranda won’t be there to accept the award (or flash podcast-specific secret signals in the process) tonight, announcing last night that he’ll be skipping the event because his wife, Vanessa Nadal, has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
On the positive side, Miranda announced that neither he, nor his kids, have been diagnosed with the disease, and that his wife is feeling fine. Even so, caution has to win out: Miranda made it clear that he won’t be attending the Big Show, wishing love and luck to both his Encanto and Tick, Tick…Boom collaborators.
If he wins, Miranda will (in absentia) become the 17th person to accomplish the EGOT hat-trick-plus-one. Not that there’s shame in merely being an EGT winner, either; Miranda currently shares the distinction with the likes of James Earl Jones, Lily Tomlin, Dick Van Dyke, and the South Park guys, among others.
The Oscars are running right now; check out the list of winners here. The Academy announced new COVID protocols earlier this week, after a spike of cases was seen in the aftermath of the U.K.’s BAFTA awards.