Oscars Wild(e) ?

No pretty much the same old stuff - not that I watched much of it. The only reason I was even remotely interested this year is because Hugh Jackman was hosting - and I like him. He seems to be a nice guy who has never Russel Crowed a concierge with a telephone or a bar patron with his fists. He seems to fly under the radar most of the time. In fact I was a bit surprised to see him instead of a Jon Stewart or a Whoopi Goldberg. Not sure if the powers that be in the academy were trying to be non-political or just afraid that someone of the usual ilk would get a visible tingle up their leg or start swooning and blurt out, "I've been fantasizing about you Mr. President. Come take me - take me now." just before fainting dead away.

Now I don't spend a lot of my time with PBS either, but part two of Oliver Twist on Masterpiece theater was on my viewing schedule last night - mainly because after ten minutes of part one I was hooked. I will get back to my take on the Oscars shortly but I must say if anyone gets a chance to see the particular Oliver Twist it is well worth it. The actor who played Fagin was amazing. Anyway that's the reason I only caught the first half hour and parts of the last hour of the Oscars. But it was enough. Just the usual suspects drooling and fawning all over each other.

First out of the box was Penelope Cruz (best supporting actress) who had to get in a bit of a babble about how movies were important because art (of all kinds) could bring people together all around the world. Yeah right Ms. PC (Penelope Cruz - PC - I would call that serendipity for me here) - if you sat me down and made me watch a few hours of the normal drivel that comes out of Hollywood I would be ready to make a few heads roll. I don't think it's going to stop Hamas or Al Qaeda from wanting to blow you up.

Next up was Dustin Lance Black (best original screenplay for Milk) who tearily told us of his family moving from Utah to San Francisco and how that finally allowed him to be able to show his feelings and dream of one day falling in love. After about five more minutes of the same he finally said, Thank God for sending us Harvey Milk." Hey Dustin - we know you're gay and that's okay. Ninety-nine point five percent of America doesn't care how you live your life. As far as I know you were never homeless or hungry - your life wasn't that tough. Not to mention you just won an Oscar and your next screenplay will be worth a couple of mil plus a percentage of the gross (no presidentially mandated salary caps in Hollywood) even if it's terrible. With all due respect Mr. Black if you had just delivered the last line of your speech it would have conveyed everything much more eloquently and saved us five minutes of your boring personal life history.

At that point I was off to Oliver Twist for a very enjoyable ninety minutes.

Okay - back just in time for Kat Winslet (Best Actress). Not much to say about her - haven't even seen any movies she's been in. Nice dress last night though.

And on to Sean Penn (Best Actor for Milk). Now I think Sean Penn is an idiot, but I do think he is a pretty good actor. However being a good actor doesn't excuse him for being an idiot. Of course his acceptance speech had much to do with intolerance of gays. He admonished all those who voted for the gay marriage ban in California. He told them all they should be ashamed of themselves. Yep he told them. I wonder if he told Hugo Chavez that he should be tolerant of gays and listen to his countrymen. I sincerely doubt it. He also mentioned something about all of those who saw those hateful signs as they were driving in. Not sure what he was on about there but I haven't been able to find anything so far this morning regarding that.

So then Slumdog Millionaire was awarded best picture. Turned off the TV. I did hear a snippet from the director's acceptance speech this morning though, "To Mumbai thank you. To all those who helped us make the movie and all those who didn't - thank you." Not sure what the heck that meant.

So here's the hypocrisy I noticed in the short time I watched the Oscars.

1. Best picture winner Slumdog Miilionaire was made for thirteen million dollars. I'm sure the producers did not pay prevailing Hollywood or London union wage to the cast and crew. This would have made a huge difference in the lives of those working on the film - especially the crew. The latest figures I can find show it has grossed a little over one hundred and fifty-nine million dollars worldwide. If the producers pledged and portion of the profits toward alleviating suffering in the slums of Mumbai, Calcutta, or elsewhere in India I have not seen it. Also how the academy members must have groaned and agonized over voting for the film. On the one hand it is a film made in (what they would consider) a country that has many poor and underprivileged - this would be a good thing. On the other hand it must have savaged their souls to vote for a film that was about, and made in, a country to which many jobs have been outsourced from this country (America) and that the film would have been dead in the water (gone direct to DVD) if it hadn't been for a small arm of Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp (which owns Fox News) picking up the distribution.

2. Voting for Sean Penn for best actor must have even been worse for them - poor devils. On the one hand he is the ultimate poster boy for the industry. He is a good actor and he is a political moron. Better yet he doesn't mind flaunting his political moronity to the general public without making apologies. And, for the academy, that is a very good thing. On the other hand the bad thing, they did was to give an award to a straight actor for playing a gay man. The same angst and feelings of ambivalency must be rampant in the gay community as well. After all the American actors and activists were up in arms years ago when Jonathan Pryce was set to debut in Miss Saigon on Broadway playing an asian. In fact one asian actor B.D. Wong who had won a Tony for a supporting role in M. Butterfly had this to say......

''There is no doubt in my mind of the irreparable damage to my rights as an actor that would be wrought if (at the threshold of the 21st century) Asian actors are kept from bringing their unique dignity to the specifically Asian roles in 'Miss Saigon,' and therefore to all racially specific roles in every future production which will look to the precedent 'Miss Saigon' is about to set as a concrete model.''

In fact American Equity actually went so far as to ban caucasians from playing asian roles. They ended up giving Miss Saigon a technical out so Pryce could play the character but the ban probably still holds. Funny they never banned Morgan Freeman from playing Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew in Central Park the same year. Hypocrisy? I think so.

And one other Hollywood - Broadway unsavory (for the Hollylibs) connection. I also found it odd that Hugh Jackman hosted when he had made his Broadway debut in The Boy From Oz playing gay Australian songwriter Peter Allen. And let's face it finding a gay actor in Hollywood or a gay song and dance man on Broadway is about as hard as finding a piece of pepperoni at Pizza Hut.


I thought that was what acting is all about - playing characters far removed from one's personal persona and making them believable. Otherwise everyone would just be playing themselves on screen and that wouldn't be acting. It would just be boring. Oh wait - that's what most movies are these days (as Jo Anne Worley would say) BOOOOOOOOR - ing.