Opinion

Political correctness at 2020 Oscars exposes Hollywood’s hypocrisy

And you thought Hollywood was the sacred land of John Wayne. Marilyn Monroe. Humphrey Bogart.

Nah, that’s not it at all. “We have gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, Tataviam and the Chumash,” Taika Waititi said solemnly at the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday. Somewhere in the audience, an old guy named Irv muttered, “Never heard of them. Are they with William Morris?” If the Oscars are indeed held on an ancient Indian burial ground, I guess that would explain a lot of horrific moments over the years.

The Academy keeps surprising us, doesn’t it? Keeps finding new stuff to be ashamed of, embarrassed about and regretful of. They won’t be revoking the 600 Oscars they gave Harvey Weinstein while every single person in town was talking about his depredations, you understand. But they’re very worried about — I’m not making this up — species-ism. You see, humankind has just been discriminating in favor of humans too much, and it needs to stop. Everybody off the planet! We should all go live on Planet Joker, maybe?





“We’re talking,” said Joaquin Phoenix as he accepted his Best Actor award for “Joker,” “about the fight against the belief, one nation, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity. I think that we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world and many of us, what we’re guilty of is an egocentric worldview, the belief that we’re the center of the universe.”

Should someone else be in charge, then? That seemed to be Phoenix’s batty suggestion in his just-got-home-from-first-semester-at-Bard consciousness-raising monologue. You can’t call him a humanitarian because he suggested humanity was messing up “the natural world” while scolding us for drinking milk: “We steal [a cow’s] baby even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable and then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal,” he said. Well, that’s because we rule this planet. There may not be one race that’s better than another, but there certainly is “one species” that’s superior. Cows would be putting our milk on their cereal if they could figure out how.





As a movie about class warfare built to warm the heart of Bernie Sanders won the top award (though “Parasite” is ultimately pretty rude to the underclass), the stars wore their political correctness on their sleeves. And, um, capes. Natalie Portman wore a cape upon which were written the names of women who weren’t nominated for an Oscar for Best Director — Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”), Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), etc. You know you’re grading on a curve when you suggest that that rotten Mister Rogers movie deserved a Best Director nomination.

“Booksmart” star Kaitlyn Dever made, according to the Hollywood Reporter, “a sustainable fashion statement at the Oscars in a custom-made ethical gown by Louis Vuitton, featuring eco-responsible silk satin that was embroidered with Swarovski crystals and beads.” Whatever that is. Phoenix has been wearing the same tuxedo all Oscar season, because no sacrifice is beyond this man. The last role he played before the Joker was Jesus, and he is a method actor. Maybe he thinks he’s here to save us all.





One clunky joke after another proved that PC is the enemy of comedy. Josh Gad mentioned his movie “‘Frozen 2,’ or as climate change deniers call it, ‘Not Frozen 2.’” Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt threw away his cool factor with the sub-Jimmy Kimmel line, “They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.” At least Pitt is a big name, unlike the parade of semi-obscure introducers evidently hired to add diversity (Mindy Kaling, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Zazie Beetz). Where’s the star wattage?

If the girl-power trio of Brie Larson, Sigourney Weaver and Gal Gadot and the girl-comedy duo of Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph were meant to rub America’s noses in the fact that the Academy membership didn’t nominate any women for Best Director, it came off as a bunch of extremely rich, overprivileged people whining about nothing. Gadot said, waspishly, “The loser gets to answer questions from journalists about how it feels to be a woman in Hollywood.”





Huh? In a show largely built around the notion that women are discriminated against in Hollywood, now we’re being told that no one is allowed to ask about it?

“All women are superheroes!” Weaver proclaimed. All women? Really? Prove it, Oscar. Next year you can invite Sarah Palin, Ivanka Trump and Roseanne Barr to present Best Picture.





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