A Grumpy Old Fart's Take on the Oscars

As for all the Oscar talk...

You know most of those dresses those girls wear don't even belong to them, they get loaned a dress and the jewelry for the the night and never wear it again. Not really any point to that comment, but I see no need to have a point when making comments.

I don't like the red carpet. All I can ever think about if I'm seeing someone on the red carpet is how many starving children could be fed for a year if you took all the money spent on those dresses and jewelry and added it all up and sent it to hungry kids. Honestly, I bet you're talking about a million kids or more, per year, that could eat if those women could lower themselves to wearing a hundred dollar dress and some jewelry from their no doubt bountiful drawers.

Not to be a complete spoil sport, but I've also got to say it makes me truly sick to listen to those people talk about great actors and performances like they've cured cancer and saved the world because they're good at their jobs. This year they actually brought out five past award winners to personally praise each individual person who was honored. I guess it's not enough that they get a free outfit and jewelry for the night, free food and drinks, a fifteen thousand dollar swag back, national recognition and a gold statue. Let's not stop there. Let's also make sure they each get a sixty second praise session, with a closeup of their face feigning humility, whether they won anything or not. Honestly, I truly wish someone some day would get up there when they win an award, and say hey thanks for the tropy, but let's be honest, I already got a giant paycheck for the work so I don't really need an award for it, so this whole ceremony is pretty much useless crap.

It just amazes me how SERIOUSLY they all take it. There are people who will drive to a soup kitchen tomorrow morning and feed homeless people all day, there are doctors working in third world countries to take care of people who no one else will take care of, I could go on all day talking about people who do things like that for no money, and never receive any recognition or awards for it. Do rich and famous movie stars really need awards so much more than everyone else? Especially, do they need them more than people who actually deserve awards and don't get them?

I wonder, if we were to round up all the red cross volunteers in the world, dress them up in a hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry and designer clothing, roll out a big red carpet and drench them with praise and awards, would people care as much about them? Would Barbara Wawa interview them after the show and try to get them to cry? Would people stand around the water cooler and argue over who deserves Best Supporting Kidney Donor this year?

These people are already rich and famous and they already get too damned much praise and recognition for the work they do. Which, let's be honest, they only get to do because they were lucky enough to be born as beautiful as they are. Go back seventy five years, times five nominees per year, and try to find me a woman nominated for Best Actress who doesn't just happen to be drop dead gorgeous. Does that strike anyone else as odd? Considering most people are normal looking, why is it written in stone that a leading lady HAS to be jaw-droppingly beautiful?

I know its a diversion and its fun and I like to watch the shows too and I'm no different than anyone else is. But let's be honest, the show is about beauty worship, wealth worship, rewarding narcicism and promoting a vapid, brain-dead consumer culture.

On a lighter note, I thought Hugh Jackman was great. I'm glad they didn't hire a comedian for once, I'd frankly rather see a host who can sing and dance than another shlub like Jon Stewart or whoever did it last year.

Also, I think Mickey Rourke was robbed.