GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

LiveBlogging the Oscars

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Hi folks…. I’m liveblogging the Oscars here. And Dan is liveblogging them over at PajamasMedia. Just a note as we start…. PatriotPartner is allowing me to watch against his better judgment as, in his words, “there are so much better things on TV tonight.” So he’s watching under a protest flag.

8:00 Eastern – The opening montage is great… especially in HDTV!

8:02 – Great “Brokeback” reference with Billy Crystal and Chris Rock in a tent during the opening sequence pointing out that no one wanted to host the Oscars and John Stewart’s dream sequence with Halle Berry and George Clooney in bed with him. Very good, and very John Stewart-esque!

8:07 – Great crack at liberal Hollywood by Stewart – “This is the one place you can see this many Hollywood stars without having to donate to the Democratic Party. It is about time you all voted for a winner.” Not many laughs. Except in this household!

8:10 – Stewart: “Bjork couldn’t make it because as she was trying on her dress, Dick Cheney shot it.” Very funny!

8:12 – Stewart just went on a riff about how middle America sees Hollywood as a sex-filled, glitzy, Sodom & Gomorrah. “I really have no joke here, just thought you all should know that’s what people think.”

8:15 – Great montage showing how, in Stewart’s view, “Brokeback” ruined the old masculine themed Westerns. Of course the montage showed very innuendo-laden clips from old movies. And Stewart is right, Charlton Heston WAS cut in his youth!

8:19 – Best Supporting Actor nomination is up. Nicole Kidman as presenter is pretty bad. She seems drunk. George Clooney wins for “Syriana”… so I’m sure he’ll give some Bush-hating remarks…. let’s see.

8:20 – Clooney: Admits Hollywood is out of touch, but says he’s proud because Hollywood is at the forefront of social change (civil rights movement, etc.) Of course he didn’t say anything about the closeted gays in the audience.

8:24 – Back after a commercial now. PatriotPartner thinks John Stewart was very smart NOT to mention President Bush in the opening. And man, Stewart’s observations about Hollywood being out of touch got under Clooney’s skin based on his reaction in his acceptance speech.

8:28 – Great riff by Ben Stiller who acted as though he was “headless” through technology, but alas was wearing a green suit (reference to green screen in filmmaking). He looks like a human lizard…. but very funny. “King Kong” wins for Visual Effects.

8:33 – We are eating dinner now, so excuse the break. Head over here to watch the fun at PJM (with Dan) until I’m done eating. And keep commenting until I get back too!

8:35 – A dinner interruption…. Dolly Parton looks fantastic. Thank God for the miracle of modern plastic surgery, eh? I love her!

8:48 – I’m back. I decided to count the gays winning Oscars tonight… kind of like a side-game. So far I count two, both in the short film category. I am not counting Clooney.

8:51 – Oh yeah, Russell Crowe looks terrible (rolling eyes) in a tuxedo.

We are coming up on 9:00PM Eastern… pausing now for station identification. 🙂

8:57 – Will Ferrell and Steve Carrel (two of the funniest guys of TV and film comedy these days, I think) are intro’ing the Makeup award. Both are horribly made-up with nasty makeup. Carrel looks like a drag queen in a suit. LOL.

8:59 – “Chronicles of Narnia” wins for best Makeup. We wonder if that was the bone thrown to the half-billion movie?

9:01 – One jab at the War in Iraq by Stewart. He said if “we tore down this large Oscar statue behind me, would democracy flourish in Hollywood?” Not funny, even the libs didn’t laugh. I wonder if he really means that Hollywood needs democracy? Hmmm.

9:03 – Morgan Freeman is giving out the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. PatriotPartner wonders why he is dressed down. I’m wondering how scary it is that I knew Morgan Freeman growing up on “The Electric Company.” Yikes.

9:04 – Rachel Weisz wins Best Supporting Actress for “The Constant Gardner.” Interesting to note this is the second big award “Brokeback” was passed up for. The first being Supporting Actor (Jake G.)

9:10 – Dan (GayPatriotWest) has fallen silent over at the PajamasMedia liveblog. Someone call Dan and see if he’s okay. Meanwhile, the discussion at PJM has a decidedly “Corner @NRO ” feel to it.

9:11 – Ooooo, Lauren Bacall. Love her. And she looks great for being, what, 90?

9:18 – A very funny montage of “political ad”-like lobbying ads for Best Acrtress. “Reese” – paid for by Americans for Best Actress with Non-Threatening Names. LOL.

9:19 – Best Documentary Short nominess are being announced…. what is a “Bang-Bang Club”????

9:20 – Awesome! “March of the Penguins” wins for Best Documentary Feature!!! And they brought up stuffed penguins to help with their acceptance speeches. (Oh, they are French…. one demerit.)

9:26 – Dear God… this song from “Crash” is putting me to sleep. How depressing. I vote for Dolly’s song (free on iTunes!)

9:29 – The careerbuilder.com with the monkeys playing with laser pointers on the guy’s butt is on. Funny. 🙂

9:32 – Why is Democrat US Congressman Ed Markey (Mass.) at the Oscars? Did he get some campaign check earlier today from Clooney?

9:33 – PatriotPartner wants to remind everyone that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was right…. despite the historical revisionism going on this evening in the Kodak Theatre.

9:35 – What the hell is the award now? I’m losing interest. Make John Stewart tell more Hollywood-smearing jokes!!!

9:36 – Samuel L. Jackson is lauding Hollywood’s “vanguard” at changing America. Now the self-gratifying montage begins…. What is the positive social change message from “Thelma and Louise”, might I ask?

Um… most of these movies they are showing took place after society solved the problems shown. When will Hollywood tackle Islamic fascism I wonder?

9:41 – And now a shameless plug for Glades Homemade Candy. PatriotPartner and I are feasting on dark chocolate-covered pecans. Yum. 865-436-3238. John says it is the best dark chocolate ever.

9:45 – Original Score nominees are up. Unless John Williams is nominated, I don’t care.

9:48 – I honestly think Brokeback Mountain’s score was very good and I hope it wins…. waiting for Selma Hayek to announce. She looks like she’s choking her left boob with her dress strap….waiting…

And Gusatvo Santaolalla, the composer of the score of Brokeback wins! Very good music, download it if you can. Next year, gay Argentinian immigrants!

9:53 – Commercial break. Did they say Jake Gyllenhaal and Eric Bana will be presenting together after the break? Now there’s the movie I wanna see!

9:56 – Nope, Jake is alone on stage. Looking good in a tux, looked better in a cowboy hat.

Jake introduced a montage of “epics” noting that you have to see movies like Ten Commandments, Star Wars, etc., on the big screen.

I see a pattern tonight from the Academy… “Red State America… don’t abandon us, remember all the great times we gave you. Come back and give us your money!” I wonder if they will restort to a tribute to Ronald Reagan? Seems they are getting desperate to me.

10:00PM Eastern – Jessica Alba got to be the lucky one accompanying Eric Bana. Um, I didn’t know he was Australian. And, he looks better in a tux than Jake did. Especially with the Australian accent.

10:03 – I lost track of the gays winning.. but Lily Tomlin is now presenting.

Tomlin and Meryl Streep are leading off a tribute to director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H). We love Meryl’s dress, by the way. They are phenomenal together!!! Have they ever been in a movie together?

Godsford Park was very good. I was never a big M*A*S*H (the movie) fan. And isn’t Altman a borderline Commie? Yeah, NDT, he’s one of those people that was supposed to move out of the USA after Bush won … twice.

Two minutes into Altman’s speech….. no Bush bashing yet….

10:13 – Altman is concluding his remarks by thanking his family, and PatriotPartner notes that no one yet this evening (unlike the Country Music Awards, for example) has thanked God for their success and/or talents. Very telling.

10:16 – They just showed an American Express ad starring (and obviously directed by) M. Night Shyamalan. John says if we are ever in a restaurant where he’s eating, we are leaving the joint.

10:19 – I’m sure the song “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” will go over well in rural America…. We muted the sound.

John points out that it is actually harder for those working for da pimp.

Look! A token white boy on stage!

10:22 – Queen Latifah is about to announce “Best Original Song”….. The Queen and PatriotPartner share the same hometown… some trivia for y’all.

The guys from 3-6 Mafia win for Best Song. There’s more metal in those guy’s mouths than Fort Knox.

Hey, despite being high and drunk they did thank Jesus. Otherwise I didn’t understand any other word they said.

10:27 – Jennifer Garner nearly took a spill on her way to the microphone to announce for Best Sound Editing.

10:30 – Looks like Gay #3 wins for sound editing for King Kong. Could be #4 too, but with a British accent it is always hard to tell.

10:31 – George Clooney is intro’ing a montage of those who died in the past year.

Not… recognizing… many… of …. these…. people.

We do miss Barbara Bel Geddes and Sandra Dee. Brock Peters was in one of the Star Trek movies and I think played a bad guy. Anne Bancroft died??!!!?? I thought Richard Pryor died a long time ago.

Andrew Leigh, liveblogging at PJM, wonders why there was no tribute to the passing of Theo Van Gogh.

Along those same lines, why isn’t any terrorist in a Hollywood movie an actual Middle Eastern guy?

10:37 – Will Smith is saying “hello” in different languages as a way to introduce Best Foreign Film. A guy named “Christian” directed “Joyeux Noel”… how odd.

We want to know why the Academy called it the “Palestinian Territories”? They are a parliamentarian-elected government with a Prime Minister and a rightist Isreali PM has withdrawn troops. Historic revision brainwashing again…

10:42 – A side note prior to Best Picture. I only saw Brokeback Mountain and Walk The Line. I think Brokeback was a better film of the two. But I wish I’d seen Crash and Capote.

10:44 – Hilary Swank is lookin’ hot. She actually looks like a woman tonight.

I almost forgot she is awarding “Best Actor.” I do think Heath Ledger gave a great performance. He definitely was better than Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash… in my opinion.

Philip Seymour Hoffman wins for Capote. Though I haven’t seen it, I’m not surprised given the reviews I’ve read and heard.

Again, Brokeback is getting shut out of the major awards. Maybe because it will get Best Director or Best Film? Not sure now after this one.

10:51 – Despite the Brokeback shutout so far…. I’m with Andrew Leigh at PJM on my wish for the night: ALAACMDW – As Long As A Clooney Movie Doesn’t Win. Yessir.

10:52 – John Travolta is announcing the Cinematography Award.

Dion Beebe wins for Memoirs of a Geisha. Another Brokeback slight, but another ALAACMDW!

Um… what will the mainstream media say if Brokeback only gets Best Score???

10:58 – Jamie Foxx announcing nominees for Best Actress…. Kiera Knightly looks a lot like Winona Ryder. She probably gets nasty looks in Rodeo Drive shops. Reese Witherspoon was very very good in Walk The Line. And she can sing!

Going for the Red State vote yet again tonight…. Reese wins! I’m very surprised.

She is giving one of the best speeches of the night… “I just want to do something that matters” — attributed to her grandmother. Ya gotta love Reese. The New Julia Roberts. And she’s married to him…. the bitch!

11:08 – Dustin Hoffman about to announce “Best Adapted Screenplay.” Brokeback’s best chance?? I was shocked, by the way to find out that Brokeback was only 28 pages.

Brokeback wins!

11:13 – Best Original Screenplay…. Crash wins… another Clooney snub. Hee hee.

11:19 – Tom Hanks.. the man who I think started the gay Hollywood craze with Philadelphia announces Best Director…

Ang Lee wins for Brokeback…. another smack at Clooney.

11:22 – Jack Nicholson rounds it out to announce Best Picture. Again, smart of Hollywood to play to Middle America. Everyone loves Jack.

And the winner is…

CRASH.

Hollywood seems only capable of lip service to the gay community?? Discuss among yourselves. Brokeback is shut out of the big awards except for Best Director and Adapted Screenplay.

But most importantly…. Clooney goes home empty. Maybe he can give Mrs. Garrett a call for some consoling.

11:29PM – The Academy Awards ends at least 30 minutes earlier than I can remember. We think John Stewart did a great job.

Final thought for the night… where were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

I’ll leave this posting up for additional comments and hopefully Dan will resolve his computer issues and comment or update later.

Good night and thank God (ALAACMDW) the Oscars are over with no trashing of our country, this nation’s President or its military heroes. Has Hollywood learned something?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Comments

  1. I’m not watching (at work), but if stewart pissed the hollywood libs off in his opening, he’ll go the way of David Lettermand and Chris Rock.

  4. Clooney can bite me about being at the forefront of civil rights, etc. Talk about an ego. The first black female to win best actress was Halle Berry 2(?) years ago. Hattie won for best supporting in 1939. We already had blacks in Congress by then. Jackie Robinson broke into baseball 8 years later… Hardly breakthrough…

  5. Come on PrivatePigg, we all know that the Academy Awards is the biggest circle jerk ever — hollywood all together stroking themselves, how great they are, how much they do for the little people . . .

  8. it goes down as pro bono time. i do need to get a few things out here in the open though . . . Sandra Bullock got robbed — her performance in Crash definitely deserved a nomination. If Reese Witherspoon doesn’t win best actress, I’ll be mad. If Felicity Huffman wins best actress, Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Heath Ledger win best actor and one of the multiple “gay” films wins best picture, I think the “Academy” decided that they wanted to out Oscar this year. In other words, the “Academy” will lose some credibility in my mind because it will have been a fix that all the gay stuff won.

  17. Passing over Jake G – Good, at least something is slightly honest about the Oscars tonight.

    (Worst movie cowboy ever. Even gay Montgomery Clift did it better.)

  18. Typical Lib movie themes…..American Goverment and American Companies…evil…..Islamic Terrorists…..misunderstood and if they blow stuff up…its our fault

  21. I think the little film about the straightness of the cowboy movies over the years is the shining comedic highlight of the evening. Glad to know how straight cowboy movies were before Brokeback Mountain came along. 🙂

  23. Um, GP, did you mean to say Senator Joe McCarthy or did I miss something? I followed your link to the NSA site and the Venona history, but I didn’t have enough time to read it right now and follow the liveblogging.

  25. GP,

    My wife loves this blog. She is watching it and the Oscars. I am painting. Anyhow, she gives me the crap Clooney spewed and I said, say what they want McCarthy was right. A few moments later she tells me you posted the same thing. Good for you. I am glad others stand up and say such things. Facts and the Truth, 2 things libs cannot stand. Kinda like Garlic and the Cross to vampires. hmmm, both bloodsuckers, interesting.

  26. Weren’t some people here and on other conservative sites very upset when Stewart was announced as host? I’m surprised people suddenly think he’s hilarious.

    I skipped this year’s awards. I’ve already heard enough jokes about gays over the years.

  27. No problem. For a second there, I thought there was some secret history to Eugene McCarthy as some kind of tough anti-communist Cold Warrior. But no, my original perceptions of him as a Henry Wallace Democrat remain intact.

  31. Nope, Henry Wallace. Good ol’ Harry Truman kicked both factions out of the Democratic party in ’48. It’s too bad that a little over 20 years later, the subversive commie faction insinuated itself back into the Democratic fold. Too bad they couldn’t have withered and died like the segregationist wing of the DNC. Maybe there would be a lot more Leibermans in the Democratic party today, and a lot fewer Deans.

    Sorry, I guess this isn’t a very Oscar-related post.

  33. I meant to say “Lieberman”. If I’m going to tout a guy as the last hope of a hopelessly out-of-date political party, I might as well spell his name right.

    And good point. Cynthia McKinney, Jim McDermott, Chairman Dean, Maxine Waters, and about seventy others remind me of Alger Hiss, just without the charm and love of country. You’d think a bunch of nihilists would eschew party politics, no?

  38. 37: Well, perhaps we should have some sort of naked wrestling match between liberal and conservative to see who’s better? George Clooney and Sean Hannity? Jack Abermoff (sp?)

  43. 41: not sure how best actress translates to best picture. By the way, didn’t the guy playing the gay author win? Maybe that should bode well for Brokeback?

  46. So far the Academies selections are trending middle of the road. Capote is in a class all of its own and it wasn’t a very political movie, as a matter of fact it didn’t depict Capote in a positive light. the Academy is going go for the same worned out lib themse of old, racism, corporations are evil …etc

  48. Ya know, that Diana Ossana is one classy dame. McMurtry is great too. Who’s that tramp sitting next to Jake?? Where’s that little friend of his he usually hangs out with these days???

  52. No, that’s the idea – the Dems don’t know what to do with their Abramoff contributions – they can turn them over to Hollywood! that will be a HUGE subsidy!

  54. I think the hollywood left told the mouthpieces to stop the bush bashing. G clooney made an interesting comment about how hollywood should shut up and dont piss off the red states in the 2006 mid year election year so the Dims can win back Congress !
    Its very calculated to not piss off the red state base !

  59. Sorry, “martyr’s”.

    I guess I want to ask: did they do anything for van Gogh in 2005?

    and gee, have they ever honored a filmmaker after a period of time before?

  60. Ah well…..no best picture, but a good ride for a truly special film. Yeah, no one really cares about the other awards it won and about other academy awards besides best picture. Still…a good film that has created some good discussion, opened doors, made people think about they’re attitudes towards those of us want be with people of our own sex. Still a good filck and my favorite film.

  62. broom stick, broomstick

    – some people see Morgan and think Miss Daisy, Seven, Million Dollar Baby, Shawshank. for me, it will be the b/w 13 inch sitting on the dishwasher watching The Electric Company

    Glad to see another who remembers Morgan from back in the day

  63. What the hell is your anti-George Clooney kick anyway?

    Clooney goes home empty? I’m sorry, but didn’t he pick up an award for best supporting actor? Guess that must have been some doctored Michael Moore footage I was watching. Sheesh.

  64. Correct me if i am wrong, but did you not say that Brokeback was not that great a movie.

    I’ve got no opn. either way since I don’t give a d*mn about the awards. people go to work everyday and they don’t get annual televised award shows.

    plus HDLBP

  66. 61: Oh yeah…I guess that’s why films like Narnia, Kong, Batman, Star Wars got all those major nominations they received. Hollywood was just quaking in its boots to make those so-called red states happy.

  67. The reason “Paradise Now” was announced as being from the “Palestinian territories” was that there was a dispute as to how its national origin should be described. At the nominations announcement it was referred to as being from “Palestine.” Supporters of Israel generally would have preferred that the Academy refer to it as being from the “Palestinian Authority” (although there were apparently no formal protests from Israeli or Jewish groups to that effect). “Palestinian territories” was intended as a compromise. See here for more.

  70. I did say I didn’t think Brokeback was GREAT. I didn’t say I didn’t like it and I didn’t say it wasn’t good. It just wasn’t the greatest movie ever, despite what The Advocate tells me to think.

  72. 70: You really get on this kick about all these media outlets that “tell you what to think”, yet I notice that anyone who doesn’t agree with moron-in-chief Bush are labeled moonbats, terrorists, traitors, etc.

  73. By the way, did you notice the look on Nicholoson’s face when he read Crash for best picture? He actually looked pretty that it wasn’t the other film…

  74. I have to admit, I really thought Brokeback would win for purely political reasons.

    Then again, I expected a lot more Bush-bashing as well, more like previous years. The Academy went in a different direction this time.

  76. Crash is an excellent film. Brokeback had more emptional appeal for me (I clearly remember the 60’s, I “came out” in 1958). Ledger’s performance demanded a great deal; Hoffman’s Capote captured the essence.

    In sum, not a bad year for our team.

  77. Face it Kev, for the amount of hype that was given to BBM, in the end it was Ang Lee who got the Oscar, the movie was pretty much shut out from three of the four categories that people care about , Best actor actress and Best movie.

  78. 77: And? It’s a great movie for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

    Are you gay/lesbian? Is there a reason you seem so invested in touting its “failure”?

  79. Well, I guess “Brokeback” did pretty well for itself this evening. Maybe not as good as I had previously hoped it would. But Ang Lee won Best Director, which I believe he rightfully deserved. I, personally, had never seen “Crash” so I cannot honestly say it did or did not deserve the Best Picture nod it received. My parents and just about every single person I’ve spoken with have all claimed that film was excrutiatingly bad. But my spouse and I will probably still rent the DVD, at some point, and give it a look for ourselves.

  80. I am a Lesbian and I saw BBM and thought it was a good movie, but never thought it was the best movie of the eyear as it was being spinned by the both the gay and MS media.

  81. 80: Do you guys ever listen to what people say and not the ever-evil “MSM”? Perhaps it would be better if we eliminate the press altogether, would that make you all happy?

  83. GP – you do bring up an interesting point. I like the L Word, but it is not great. At the end of the day it is a series about relationship the only difference the main characters are either lesbian or bi. it is well written but not earth shattering. Does the fact that the main characters are either lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, or non-white warrant an award.

    My honest answer no. That Hollywood has elected to move from its comfort zone is not in my mind sufficient reason to give a movie an award.

  84. Does the fact that the main characters are either lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, or non-white warrant an award.

    No, but it doesn’t warrant a snub either. I think in the future, people are going to look at this year’s awards and think, “They gave Best Picture to Crash instead of Brokeback? What were those people thinking?”

  85. 82: Funny, the segment of the population who only watch Fox news do what you suggest on a daily basis.

    PS – I watch Fox along with other news outlets…like to keep it fair and balanced!

  86. 84: The awards are what they are and nothing will change that, but I agree with you. I suspect people will, for various reasons, remember Brokeback long after Crash. I’m still amused by Jack Nicholson’s stunned response when he read the name. Seemed he was thinking Brokeback was going to win.

  87. Did anyone else notice Reese Witherspoon’s repeated “real woman” comments. Once I get. I lost count after four. Was the reference Felicity Huffman’s T/G performance? It did not make sense outside that context.

    If anyone thought BBM would win best picture from Hollywood’s Jewish cabal, that was not going to happen. BBM was not only an Indie, but was independently produced, directed by an Asian, and dealt fairly positive with homosexuality. Bad for the studio system. Clooney was going to be rewarded, come what may. Folks, it’s economics. (Note: Spielberg’s “Munich” was heavily nominated, won nothing.)

    More bizarre: I can’t recall a film that won best screenplay and best director that did not also win best picture. True, “Crash” got best original screenplay. Maybe it isn’t as uncommon as I think, but I can’t think of an exception. On the other hand, I don’t recall a year when the awards were so widely distributed. I actually like that.

    Best Song was abominable.

    I’m glad “Constant Gardiner” received some recognition. “Crash” is a very good film, but it deals with racism (yes, again). But it’s not like we have been deprived of race-themed movies. “Crash” really is good, but BBM, Capote, and Transamerica are novel. Like many, I routed for BBM, only because it was a “breakthrough” from the Hollywood “gay” stereotype.

    Among those I know who saw both films, both straight and gay, all agreed BBM was a better film, but a “masterpiece?” Sorry. And the cinematography loss was a surprise. Don’t understand that one.

    This certainly has been a year for firsts. Three films that dealt positively with GLBT themes. A breakthrough. That’s award enough for me.

  88. I was disappointed but not surprised that “Brokeback Mountain” didn’t do as well as many expected. Ever since the Golden Globes, Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote” was the odds-on favorite to win Best Actor. Although Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe, I thought his winning the British version of the Academy Award might boost his chances for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. I never imagined that George Clooney would beat out Matt Dillon (“Crash”) or Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”) who won the Screen Actors Guild award.

    There were several hints that BBM was in “trouble” as Best Picture. Numerous articles in the entertainment media reported that a lot of male voters in the Academy hadn’t seen “Brokeback Mountain” and didn’t plan to. (Did a little latent homophobia trump Hollywood’s “liberalism”?) Also, BBM didn’t receive a nomination for best film editing and had it won the Best Picture Oscar it would have been the first film in 25 years to do so without also winnng for editing. (“Crash” won the editing award.)

    I still think BBM was the best picture of the five nominated and will wonder for a long time if it lost because of hypocrisy among Hollywood “liberals”. At least it will be remembered as the film that put a gay love story in the megaplexes.

    I hate to get off topic here but since you brought him up, Bruce, I guess Senator Joseph McCarthy is fair game. I don’t want to show any disrepect for GayPartner (and at least one of those commenting) but has he read much history about the McCarthy Era?

    Most, if not all, of McCarthy’s claims were exaggerated. He threw out numbers of Commies in this or that government department as if he’d grabbed numbers out of thin air as he ranted. He couldn’t prove his claims but there was so much Red Scare hysteria that his allegations were enough to ruin careers and lives.

    McCarthy and “McCarthyism” actually probably hampered efforts to root out communists. I’ve often wondered if Richard Nixon’s success against Alger Hiss would have tainted his reputation so much if it hadn’t been for the stench from what McCarthy later tried.

    Joe McCarthy was more interested in his own popularity on the speaking circuit than he was in fighting communism. President Dwight Eisenhower should have knocked the air out of him right off the bat instead of waiting so long to take his gloves off.

    That Wisconsin senator brought shame to the Republican Party and I, for one, am glad he finally destroyed himself.

  89. As far as I have been able to tell, BBM was a bit too much over-hyped, although I haven’t seen the movie (it’s not yet out on DVD). We saw Crash, and, although we both thought it was an interesting movie, I’d have trouble believing that it was the best movie of 2005. On the other hand, it was far more complex than merely another “race relations” movie out of “Lost Angeles.” I’m not usually a big fan of biopics, and I’m not a fan of country/western music at all, but I did believe that Walk The Line was the best picture I’d seen from last year.

    Regarding Jack Allen’s “President Dwight Eisenhower should have knocked the air out of him (McCarthy) right off the bat instead of waiting so long to take his gloves off,” I disagree. Eisenhower let McCarthy have just enough rope to hang himself on. Eisenhower was probably a reasonably good politician (one doesn’t get to be General of the Army if he isn’t) and it is likely that he knew that if he attacked McCarthy directly, given the Communist scare, he (Eisenhower) would probably lose. On the other hand, if he (Eisenhower) let McCarthy babble on, eventually McCarthy would hang himself. And McCarthy did.

    Unfortunately, during his administration, Eisenhower unleashed other forces, including those that were skeptical of anything coming out of the US gov’t relating to anti-communism–or, more specifically–anti-USSR-ism. It was a calculated risk, however.

    Eisenhower failed, though, when he got the US embroiled in Vietnam.

  91. Apparently BBM did better in red state America than it did with the Academy! Hollywood is either too cowardly to so openly embrace a gay film or secretly is as homophobic as blue state America thinks red state America is.

  92. –

    Then again, I expected a lot more Bush-bashing as well, more like previous years. The Academy went in a different direction this time. –

    I’m glad they weren’t political, but their choices for awards were very timid. Crash is just a TV-movie of the week, at best. Witherspoon was miscast in her role and she won because she’s Reese Witherspoon. Hoffman was adequate but not much else. Clooney didn’t deserve to win – I hate when they give someone an award as a consolation prize.

    Crash won because they don’t want to acknowledge any film that shows gays as anything beyond murderers, psychopaths, bad jokes, or AIDS victims.

    The irony is that some people on other sites are claiming that BBM is less popular than Crash and Crash is the real financial success, but BBM actually made more money at the box office than Crash. Crash will be forgotten within a year.

  94. I wonder what ‘Proud to be out of touch’ uber-leftist George Clooney does with his $15 M per pic asking price? Does he do what he advocates everybody else do and pay 70-80% of it to the government in taxes, or does he do what most Hollywood lefties do and use it to buy a megamansion in Malibu and another one in Aspen so he can be comfortable while he pontificates about social inequalities?

  95. Well now, V…

    Clooney may be a world-class delusional hypocrite, he sure as shit ain’t stupid! 🙂

    Hell, if I were him, I’d invest the $15 mil in gold, sell off my Oscar swag basket, put THAT $800,000 in my money market account, and live off of that until Soderbergh called me with his next idea for a project. Rinse, then repeat.

    Eric in Hollywood

  96. Vera longs for the quiet dignified ceremonies that were held in the old (but stately) Blossom Room in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Fatty Arbuckle was such a stitch and Charlie Chaplin was such a bitch!) when Vera was just an ingénue.

    Sadly, the tasteless and talent less (“tough to be a pimp”?!?) have overtaken Hollywood.

    C.B Demille would be appalled!

  97. #87 Academy Awards for 2000…

    Traffic won for Director, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Supporting Actor.

    Gladiator won for Picture, Actor, Costume Design, Sound and Visual Effects.

  99. Enjoyed the Oscars.
    Watched it especially for Jon Stewart, the fashions and of course the HD content.
    Thought Jon Stewart was on too tight a leash, the fashions were too, too safe (with the exception of Ben Stiller’s green unitard which I could have lived a full life without seeing) but the picture quality (coming from this tech geekess) was superb.

  101. 95: It just gets under your skin like a chigger doesn’t it? Bet you’d be happy to live in a world tht brooks no dissent, wouldn’t you? You just can’t stand the fact that this guy is good looking, popular, rich and uses his career as a place to express his constitutionally protected point of view.

    Another thing, I’ve noticed here (and other posts) is how people are obsessed with how rich people (esp liberals) dispose of their money, with absolutely no clue or proof of how they actually do so. Based on conservative viewpoints, it’s really nobody’s business, now is it? When the guy bought the Brokeback shirts for $101,000, a couple of peole were quick to jump on how the guy wasted his money, yet the funds went to a childrens charity. Pretty good waste of money I would say (not to mention a good tax deduction, don’t you think?)

  102. #104 — Actually, Extermination Boy, I really couldn’t give a crap how other people spend their money, nor would I presume to tell them how to do so. Socialists like George Clooney, on the other hand, do presume to tell other people how they ought to be happy to have the state redistribute their income in the name of social inequality. Therefore, it’s fair to ask whether they walk the walk or just talk the talk.

  104. #104

    Most folks don’t mind (what you call) dissent as long as it’s HONEST. Look that word up in your Funk & Wagnall’s.

    Further, as I recollect, the guy that bought the shirts spent more than he had. Sure it went to charity, but at the end of the day, what else did he have besides debt, his 15 minutes and a few rags?

  105. raj, #89, you make a good point on Eisenhower’s strategy in dealing with McCarthy, and I won’t argue with it. I got active in the Republican Party during Einsenhower’s second term, while I was in high school. A lot of Republican officials I worked with in Washington in those days were still talking about McCarthy. Many felt as you do, that it was better for Eisenhower to let McCarthy self-destruct, as he eventuall did. Many others, including a lot of people I greatly respected, felt that Eisenhower’s decision to let McCarthy run wild until be became so absurd he self-destructed gave rise to the fear of “McCarthyism” that hampered and restrained legitimate and rationale anti-communist efforts.

  106. Another thing, I’ve noticed here (and other posts) is how people are obsessed with how rich people (esp liberals) dispose of their money, with absolutely no clue or proof of how they actually do so. Based on conservative viewpoints, it’s really nobody’s business, now is it? When the guy bought the Brokeback shirts for $101,000, a couple of peole were quick to jump on how the guy wasted his money, yet the funds went to a childrens charity. Pretty good waste of money I would say (not to mention a good tax deduction, don’t you think?)

    Another Billy Madison moment.

    Those are some bad drugs you’re on, there. Check into rehab.

  107. Godsford Park was very good. I was never a big M*A*S*H (the movie) fan. And isn’t Altman a borderline Commie? Yeah, NDT, he’s one of those people that was supposed to move out of the USA after Bush won … twice.

    Damn it! If these people would just honor their promises, this would be a much better country!