Topic category: Other/General
Maybe Hollywood Really Is “In Touch”
As one of the many millions of people who did not watch this year’s Academy Awards, I was quite surprised to learn, the next day, that one of Hollywood’s resident leftist-actor-philosophers George Clooney made the comment: "We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood. I think that's probably a good thing.” Admitting that Hollywood is “out of touch”? How could that be, I pondered? But then, in Clooney’s undaunted spirit of self-and-industry-aggrandizement, he continued with: "This academy, this group of people, gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters!"
WOW! Clooney’s comment made it sound as if Hollywood had single-handedly been the cause (if not the impetus) of the entire civil rights movement in the country. I had no idea that an Oscar was the essential turning point and pivotal parameter that began the struggle for human rights. I’m impressed! Thanks, George. But, how long was it before a 2nd Oscar was awarded to a black actor? I guess one was enough for 50 years or so. Nevertheless, George told us (speaking for the entertainment industry) that the Hollywood Industrial Complex really is in touch with the plight of black actors.
Actor Clooney also said: "We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered.” Excellent. Hollywood actually talked about AIDS. It sounds as if Hollywood got the ball rolling. Good show! But, did he bother to tell us that current US President George W. Bush (whose name is spoken in Hollywood with either extreme disdain or in very hushed tones) has arranged for more money to be given and has set up more programs to stop AIDS, worldwide, than any other POTUS in history? Heck, no! That would have defeated the purpose of the Clooney statement.
And what about those lovely anti-US films nominated for academy awards, this year? There was Syriana, about the horrid US greedily gobbling up oil and ‘destroying the world’ while sympathetic terrorists are ‘forced’ to fight the ‘evil America’. George even won the best-supporting actor for this one. The, there was the best foreign film nomination for “Paradise Now”, which glorifies 2 suicide bombers who plan to bomb Tel Aviv. The film had already won a Golden Globe. Oddly, considering Hollywood’s penchant for all that is anti-American, it didn’t win an Oscar. Now, that was a shock! But as Clooney had already implied with his previous statements, in-country anti-Americanism is the ‘wave of the future’. Can a new Jim Jones and mass American suicides be far behind?
To top off Hollywood’s night of self-promotion and “life-is-better-when-we-hate-ourselves” message, a film telling us virtually everyone in California is racist, “Crash” won for best picture. Crash beat out a film offering about 2 gay sheepherders. What a magnificent selection Hollywood provided, this year! And ending the night on a decidedly down note, the “best original song” went to “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”. My question, in regards to the song title, is “Shouldn’t it be?”
So, contrary to what Clooney said, leftist Hollywood is in touch. It’s in touch with giving black actors an Oscar every once in awhile (while conservatives believe in a meritocracy), in touch with talking about diseases (while conservatives are actually working to end them), in touch with racism (while conservatives work to get rid of it by looking at a person’s character and abilities to contribute rather than the color of his or her skin) and, most definitely, it is concerned about the hard life of pimps. I doubt conservatives will even want to address that one.
My conclusion is that Hollywood actually is “in touch”! But, it is in touch only with itself.
Sher Zieve
Biography - Sher Zieve
Sher Zieve is a long-time syndicated columnist who generally writes columns of a politically Conservative and Constitutional nature. She also interviews notable people with an interesting and/or newsworthy story to tell. These include politicians, writers, activists and others in the news. Her work has been and continues to be carried by both national and international publications. Sher appears regularly on national talk shows.