The Academy Awards

Our media is having an orgy over who will win this year's academy awards. One on screen reporter or hostess or whatever they are called was dismayed that a dispute between Disney and Cablevision might prevent her from seeing them. I could care less myself, because the Academy Awards have lost almost all of their meaning as an achievement of excellece in cinema over the past several years. Ever since Marlon Brando sent a spokesperson to complain about some socio-political cause he was espousing years ago, the Awards have become a platform for political speeches rather than a dignified bestowing of honor upon various deserving artists. Now people get the awards for simply having a particular political point of view ( Michael Moore or Al Gore to name the more obvious ones), that is not artistic achievement. Another thing that has watered down the value of the Awards is all of the other award shows. There are so many that you can hardly turn on your TV without having one award show or another being presented. And if it is not for cinema, and there are about half a dozen of those, it is for TV or Stage or music, there area about one of these every week it seems. It just is evidence that these shows are publicity productions more than anything else. Someone getting an award may get people to go see or go buy the artistic product they are involved with. The phoney/baloney glamour of the awards, all of them, also bothers me. People actually think actors and actesses and singers live lives full of glitter and spotlights. Wrong. They are just putting on a show for their fans. The artifice of the gowns and tuxedos really has become tiring. And the lack of dignity on the part of the participants is appalling. When award shows just become platforms for dropping f-bombs, you can count me out. I prefer artists who have better decorum, vocabulary and common sense to the spoiled, often intoxicated brats who collect trophies nowadays. Some one get me a Bogart film and let's watch some real entertainment!