Just show me the dresses, dang it.

Awards ceremonies like the Golden Globes are usually too self-congratulatory, too long, with too many commercials for me to watch, but I love checking out morning-after photo galleries of the fancy gowns worn by the rich and famously Botoxed.

I look forward to the brief escape from D.C.’s political powder keg into Tinseltown but was disappointed this year just like so many years before. Meryl Streep, who used her acceptance speech for the Cecile B. DeMille Award to chastise President-elect Donald Trump, might as well have dumped D.C. swamp water all over the stage.

It’s not that Streep’s message was all that disputable. I didn’t support Trump and agree that his mocking of a disabled reporter and continued hostilities toward the press are, in a word, deplorable. What was groan-worthy is that Streep’s speech was a dud of a movie that’s been on repeat for years. We’ve heard it all from Hollywood before.

Streep’s speech wasn’t brave; it was boring. She told her audience exactly what it wanted to hear and has been hearing, for years. The criticism for Republicans is always apparent. Just swap out the names. George Bush, Mitt Romney, Donald Trump. It’s basically a mad libs game.

People moan about the “status quo” in Washington, but look at Hollywood. For a culture that says it values individuality and uniqueness, there isn’t much to be found on the political front. No wonder the GOP voting base was so excited when a real Republican celebrity — Trump — finally burst onto the scene.

HBO host Bill Maher got it right when he said he “cried wolf” too many times about the GOP. Republicans eventually became numb to those harsh words, which was basically a survival mechanism.

Besides, who is asking celebrities for their political opinions anyway?

Celebrities aren’t famous for their political opinions. They’re famous for their ability to entertain. Most people don’t go to the doctor to get advice on car repair. They don’t watch awards shows for political insights either. But celebrities keep dishing out advice hardly anyone wants.

Even worse, Hollywood is always saying the same thing. Just try to find a pro-life actress who would stand on a stage and talk about reducing the number of abortions in America. She won’t be locking arms with female celebrities at the Women’s March happening in Washington, D.C., the day after the inauguration either. The march removed a pro-life group as a partner yesterday.

Celebrities are almost inseparable from the Democrats and their liberal causes. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. The central West Wing cast has been in the tank for the Clintons since I was in junior high.

One would think that taping progressive celebrity PSAs is a requirement to get a SAG card. They are so cliche I’m surprised the nerdy girl doesn’t take off her black frame glasses, smear on some lipstick, and get the quarterback to fall in love with her at the end. They always go like this: Famous people wear casual clothes and say something short, repetitive, and bossy directly into the camera against a neutral background. Some motivational music plays in the background. And boom, it’s a standard-issue piece of celebrity activism.

We Republicans get it. The Democrats have Kerry Washington, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Beyoncé, Jay Z, George Clooney, Katy Perry ... the list goes on. Trump has Scott Baio and some walking beards from Duck Dynasty. Democrats are cool. Republicans aren’t. Whatever. But Streep should know her audience, which exists far outside the room of people who applauded her remarks.

In her speech, Streep said she and her colleagues have only “one job,” which is to “enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like.” Well, that appears to be paid work only because off-duty celebs don’t ever seem to break the same stale, liberal character.

Except …Trump. Yeah, that’s right. Trump.

At his core, Trump is a media figure. A TV and Twitter personality at that, which was a large part of his early appeal.

Republican voters were enthralled with the idea that finally their party had a celebrity of their own — one who made headlines, had style, and didn’t give a whit the kind of politically correct culture that is so tiresomely pedantic that it even polices Tina Fey jokes. Woo-hoo!

He became the human form of a GOP gold rush, right down to his brassy hair and skin.

There’s a popular theory that holds a good amount of truth, voiced by people such as Meghan McCain and more recently by actress Zoe Saldana, who doesn’t support Trump, by the way, that Hollywood’s derision of Trump helped get him elected. Voters began to see Trump as a victim of unfair treatment by powerful media institutions and rallied behind him in solidarity.

“We got cocky and became arrogant, and we also became bullies," Saldana said.

Trump became more than a candidate to his supporters; he became a cause. A crusade against all those people who have been lecturing Republicans and their voters for far too long.

The pull of Trump’s rare Republican eminence was so strong that many of his supporters eagerly excused obvious character flaws — a cultish form of celebrity worship if there ever was one. Trump’s status as a famous Republican gave him an undeniable edge.

Think about it. Would Trump’s gilded escalator descent to announce his presidential bid ever become news had he not been a household name?

Maybe Hollywood is to blame for that. Had the crème de la crème not been singing from the same vanilla song sheet for decades, maybe Trump wouldn’t have been such a standout.

Now the Oscars are coming up in just over a month, with several more awards shows happening before then. There will be more celebrity speeches.

Please bring on the fashion, but not the politics. Hollywood’s dress choices are much more diverse and interesting than their political ones.

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