The Punxsutawney Phil show has gone Hollywood.

The bright lights of fame, not to mention the movie "Groundhog Day," have turned the annual event into a stage for the local hams who control the proceedings. It's become a travesty.

Now, we are all familiar with groundhog lore. If a groundhog emerges from his burrow on Feb. 2 and sees his shadow, we have six more seeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, we have an early spring.

The people in charge of Groundhog Day at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., have taken this simple scenario and turned it into a theater of the absurd. Here is what transpired on this past Saturday morning as the TV cameras rolled.

After a big buildup, one of a group of men wearing stovepipe hats reached into a compartment of this fake burrow/lectern and pulled out a groggy groundhog alleged to be Phil.

He then held up the groundhog for photographers before placing it on top of the lectern.

At this point, another guy in a stovepipe hat bent over so he was face to face with Phil and extended two scrolls.

Now I don't know who this guy was, nor do I know Phil, but based on looks alone, I'd wagger that Phil had IQ points on him.

Anyway, the guy facing Phil had some type of mental telepathy conversation with Phil, during which Phil supposedly told the guy which scroll to pick. When read out loud, the chosen scroll stated:

"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be!"

To be clear, on this basis alone, six more weeks of winter was declared despite the fact that there was - no hole. No groundhog emerging from a hole. No seeing, or not seeing, of a shadow. In short, no tradition.

This is unacceptable.

We need a new official site and a new official groundhog.

At this point in winter, predicting the arrival of spring is too important a duty to be left to a bunch of scene-stealing hacks in funny hats in a place called Gobbler's Knob.

Impeach Punxsutawney Phil.

Contact Jim Shea at shea@courant.com.