Last night, the denizens of Hollywood met and threw their annual homage to themselves. From starlets in $20,000 custom gowns to leading men sporting various stages of beard-growth the annual brouhaha to determine just who suffered the most for their craft was wrapped up in it's usual bow of glitz, glamour and insufferableness.
Whether it was Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio reminding us that our refusal to limit our energy consumption is hampering his ability to fly in his private jet guilt-free, or brilliant actor (but slug of a human being) Mark Ruffalo chastising the Pope for......well, I'm not sure what really, as Ruffalo doesn't really seem to know what he's calling for either, except that the solution should be 'liberal; or some-such, the night was full of glitz, glamour, preaching and a decent dallop of full-on self unawareness. In fact, the only group that is more self-unaware than Hollywood is professional athletics. Increasingly common in any award show is the idea that you, not them, are responsible for their short-comings.
When Cheryl Boone-Isaacs (President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) stands up and tells you that racism is "all of our problem" she is, to a certain extent, correct. But what she, and others in Hollywood are really trying to say is that you need to fix your racism, but they're OK with theirs because....advocacy, or something. We had to destroy the village to save it right?
So actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio (who finally got his Oscar last night, for one of his lesser roles) stands up and says that you need to "act" on Climate Change and defy the will of the big corporations (ignoring, for a minute, that both his film, and the award he just won, wouldn't be possible without big corporations) what he's really saying is that you should change so he and his can continue jet-setting at their leisure.
Then, there's the iron-clad fact that these are actors. Not doctors or scientists or particle physicists or firefighters or policemen or engineers or anything else that would imply expertise in the field. These are people who can do a good job pretending to be someone they are not. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a voice, only that we as a society need to stop paying so much attention to it, and granting it a weight that it does not deserve.
The problem is, America loves itself some fame. We worship it, adore it. We put fame on a pedestal so high it causes us to lose sight of the fact that, quite often, those who are famous are pretty awful people. The same room of people who gave a standing ovation to Joe Biden after he made a call to bring and end to rape culture famously gave a standing ovation to Roman Polanski. In Hollywood, after all, you're not judged by the crimes you commit, but by whether or not actors enjoy working with you and consider your work to be brilliant.
Last year, a record-low audience tuned in to watch Hollywood's warm self-embrace, something that I think will not happen this year. By embracing #OscarsSoWhite (they had pre-scripted bits about it woven into the show for Chrissakes) and hiring a black comedian to host the Oscars have ensured that they would at least get a curiosity bump.
What they haven't done is given us any indication that they really give a shit about affecting the kind of change that they demand of society.
Oh sure, next year (and for a few years following) there will be a token number of black actors, directors and producers nominated in each category. The Oscars won't admit to a quota system but one will exist. Some of them might even be given a win from time to time. If anything next year's nominee list is sure to be overwhelmingly of color, a classic case of overcorrecting after this year's snafu.
But long-term, in society, where sorority racism (one of Chris Rock's better lines of the evening) really exists is this going to have any effect?
No, because Hollywood is not real life and the people that you saw on television were not real people. They were mannequin peacocks dressed up in finery parading themselves in front of the camera. Everything they said and did was either scripted or pre-planned. The only thing authentic was the statue itself.
And I didn't watch, after the monologue that is. Because I don't care.
I will watch your movies Hollywood because you entertain me (at times). Beyond that?
You have nothing for me. (And I hope they have nothing for you)
