[Elspode]

*The* story this year for the Oscars was politics. Pure politics. Before the show even began, I told Mrs. Elspode that Ang Lee would win for best director, but Brokeback would not win for best film. Why? Bad politics.

Hollywood can justify giving a creative award to the man who directed what has been hailed as high art this year. After all, freedom of expression must be honored. But - Hollywood is not so stupid as to award *the* hot button political topic with Best Picture. That would be rubbing the NeoCons' faces in it, and they want the Right's money just as much as the Left's.

What I find screamingly funny is the fact that they wouldn't give a film about gay cowboys Best Picture, but instead awarded a film about interracial love and violence, something that would have been unthinkable in the political climate of just 40 years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The other thing that gacked me was the constant industial leaping up and down, pointing its finger at itself for its portrayals of groundbreaking subject matter, all the while telling us how we really need to go see these things on the big screen (something which I feel is a bone thrown to the theaters and distributors...the studios don't give a rip where we watch these movies as long as they get the cash out of 'em, and there's more profit in DVDs because they have to share less of the price).

It was a strange Academy Awards last night. Sort of psychotic, actually. Part emotional sincerity, part corporate gluttony, part stern lecture and part blustering bravado, all wrapped up in a thin, thin layer of absurdity and improbability. Hollywood needs a mood stabilizer en masse.

FWIW, I was pretty pleased with the individual awards. Reese Witherspoon has earned her statuette, perhaps a bit too soon, but she's definitely on a promising career path. I sort of got the impression that George Clooney, while pleased to have won, may not have felt entirely deserving in the face of the strong Gyllenhall performance which opposed him. I found his comment regarding the inherent impossibility of making comparisons between actors in different roles (have everyone dress up in Batsuits and act the same part; that's the way to decide who is best) to be especially valid and prescient. BTW, Jake Gyllenhall is going to be one of our finest actors someday, but his time hasn't arrived yet. PS Hoffman? No-brainer. Anytime an actor can channel a character like he did, they're gonna win (witness the incredibly well-deserved Oscar for Jamie Foxx last year in "Ray" for another example of this phenomenon).

A more deserving Honorary Oscar recipient than Robert Altman would be hard to imagine, and Hollywood did right by him for sure. Dame Judy is way the hell overdue, but with her consistent quality and volume of output, she's going to get one someday. I also want to give a thumbs up for Jon Stewart's hosting job. Best jokes? The line about Cheney shooting Bjork (a reference to her penchant for swan dresses) and the "Martin Scorcese, zero Oscars, Three 6 Mafia, one Oscar" line - one which he would have had to make up on the fly. I've heard several favorable comparisons of Stewart's maiden voyage to the Johnny Carson hosted Oscars today, and I have to agree.

I love movies, but I hate the movie BS. It is difficult to separate the industry and the actors from the performances and the stories. It is the very thing about films, that they get under your skin and inside your head that hooks me, and it is always jarring to see the veil of illusion lifted to reveal the seething, teeming, tabloid reality that squirms beneath.