Academy Politics Part II: Who Rigged Al Gore?
By Chad A. B. Wilson
Published March 1, 2007, 4:53 pm in Environmental Issues, Rhetoric.
The 2006 Oscars are gone now, but the memory remains. We had our seventh annual Oscars party this year, and it continues to be one of our most attended events. I wonder why that is. Perhaps it has something to do with what I discussed in Part I of this duo on Academy Politics: movies are important, and we get wound up about them. I know I do, and my friends seem to feel the same way. That's why we all get together to watch the Oscars.
Sometimes I wish it weren't on a Sunday evening so we could get together and have drinking games based on how many times the word "green" appeared in the broadcast. Or the word "political." Or how often people gushed about Al Gore.
Today, I want to discuss the politics of the Oscars, or more specifically, the politics of the broadcast of the Oscars.
It started out strong, and I would even say that the biggest jokes were either by or about Al Gore himself. Let me say first that I'm not an Al Gore fan. I was one of the rockers who protested against the whole Tipper Gore thing back in the 1980s. People still hate her, you know, even if she did play drums on a Hanson song. Wait, maybe that's partly WHY people still hate her. But anyway, I never liked Al Gore. He always seemed so still and unwilling to actually talk to people. But now he seems able to make a joke, and I actually like him after watching the Oscars on Sunday night. But the way people go on and on about him still irks me. But something about his Oscar-winning documentary really hit home with a lot of people. It's kind of like Bob Dole, who I voted for, by the way. Dole was so still whiling campaigning that I didn't want to like him. But then, the Saturday evening after the presidential election, in which he lost bigtime, he appeared on Saturday Night Live, and I remember thinking that he was hilarious. And then there was his joke about his wife being a Senator during the Robert Gates hearing. Here, he said someone called and asked if Senator Dole would be willing to be on the committee, and he said, sure, he would be honored. But no, they were looking for Elizabeth Dole. Even if it's true, it's still funny that he said it, and it makes me like him even more.
So the three biggest laughs were about Al Gore.
During Ellen Degeneres's opening monologue, she said something like this: We have Jennifer, the girl from American Idol. America didn't vote for her, and look where she is now, nominated for an Oscar. Then we have Al Gore; America DID vote for him, and now he's nominated for an Oscar, too.
I think that was the only time anything was hinted about Bush. I admit I missed large parts of the broadcast due to hosting and childcare duties, but it seemed a very non-political Oscars night.
Except Al Gore kept coming back. He and Leonardo DiCaprio came on to talk about the greening of the Oscars, and even that made me wonder. If we didn't already think that Gore was going to get the best documentary Oscar, this segment clinched it. Yep, the Oscars have gone green, and they even have a segment on their website about this, including ways that you, too, can do your part to go green. (Let's not worry about that new story about how Al Gore leaves his lights on and consumes more power than the average person. The "you also" fallacy is still a fallacy, after all.)
What was great about this skit is that Gore used it to pretend that he was going to run for President. There were some rumors floating around about that anyway, that the Oscars would be the beginning of his campaign, but it really doesn't make sense. I don't think we'll see a Gore presidential candidate again. But he pretended he was going to, and then the music cut him off, and I died laughing. I almost thought he was going to say it, and the music cutting him off was quite classic. Go Gore.
And then when he won, he pretended he was going to give a long speech, what with that "my fellow Americans" bit yet a second time.
But everything about the greening of the Oscars seems staged. Everyone kept praising Gore and talking about how "it wasn't a political issue." I probably heard that or some like sentiment about 10 times during the broadcast. And it irks me.
Not because the Oscars aren't the place for political statements. I expect from the award winners. If Michael Moore won an Oscar and didn't give some crazy political tirade, I would feel gypped. If George Clooney didn't get up there and say something veiled yet politically biting, I would feel like I missed something, or that America was truly devolving.
But to mix the political statements with the Oscars themselves just irks me. It's like three years ago when they honored Sidney Poitier with the lifetime achievement award. I thought it was great. He was the first and only black man to ever win best actor, after all. But wait, then Halle Berry wins best actress, the first ever, and then Denzel Washington wins best actor. That's no coincidence! These people planned this! And I can't stand that. That the Oscars "go green" on the same night that everyone fawns over Al Gore and his environmentalism is ridiculously impartial. If I weren't skeptical about who actually votes and who records the votes for the Academy Awards, this would send me over the top. There is no way that the Oscars chose that on the same night that Gore just happened to win.
So when it comes to the Academy, we can't expect too much. They're not impartial, and they don't even try. But that doesn't mean I won't keep coming back. That doesn't mean that I won't be there every February to watch beautiful people talk about their trite politics and watch people clap, oblivious to the fact that no one has a clue.
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