Oscar Versus The Heartland

To me, George Clooney's speech when accepting the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Syrianna" was the most memorable moment from the Academy Awards last night. I guess the runner up would be the performance of "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" which I came in late on after putting the young one to bed (I'll have to watch more of the show over the next few days); apparently the number was heavily expurgated (no surprise, I guess), and it was unbelievable to watch a performance like that. However, if was joyful in a way, and it's always nice to see anyone cutting through the pretense that can engulf the show at times.

Anyway, without further ado, here is what Clooney said in part, for anyone who missed it:

"We are a bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in awhile I think. It's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered. And we talked about civil rights, when it wasn't really popular. This group of people gave an Oscar to Hattie McDaniel in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be part of this academy, proud to be part of this community, and I'm proud to be out of touch, and I thank you."

Another part of the show I try to watch (probably morbid on my part) is the "In Memoriam" feature where they pay tribute to the dead people, and the first person they remembered was the underrated actress Theresa Wright. She appeared in a ton of old movies, including "The Best Years Of Our Lives," "Strangers On A Train" (niece to that creepy character played by Joseph Cotten), and also alongside Marlon Brando in "The Men," Brando's first movie.

I'm mentioning this because, though I don't know exactly what happened when her name was read, I couldn't detect any applause from the audience, which I can never recall happening before. Maybe it just wasn't picked up on TV or something. I hope that's the case, because if not, it would have been a totally low class moment for a show which had some ups and downs (apparently Jon Stewart, who wasn't bad overall, made some crack about Rock Hudson, and I have no clue as to what was going on with Ben Stiller and that green gauze). Also, I was really bummed that "Good Night And Good Luck" was shut out, but there were a lot of other good candidates.

Well, harking back to Clooney's remark, I think it's a good idea to consider what is going on in the areas of this country where Hollywood is viewed as an utter den of iniquity and nothing more.

Let's see now...South Dakota is trying to make abortion illegal, Mississippi apparently wants to do the same thing, and Kansas (under idiot attorney general and fundamentalist nut job Phil Kline) wants to have medical personnel "rat out" girls who have had underage sex and seek treatment or counseling.

This country is slowly going insane, and Hollywood has absolutely nothing to do with it.