Last week, critics debated whether the 75th Academy Awards should be captivating our nation’s attention less than a week after the president began a war. But the Oscars, having continued to make and break stars through major (and minor) U.S. conflicts, have only been rescheduled on two occasions: after the assassination of Martin Luther King and the botched attempt on President Reagan.
Unwilling to reschedule on account of the war, the Academy merely decided to ‘tone down’ the ceremony this year. The red carpet was pulled up, the grandstands were empty rather than packed with thousands of screaming fans, the paparazzi were subdued and Joan and Melissa Rivers were nowhere in sight.
Even though we didn’t listen to the mother and daughter of high fashion criticize Christopher Walken’s scary hair or watch J-Lo sashay down the red carpet with Ben on her arm and a couple million dollars worth of pink Harry Winston’s sparkling on her finger, it was still the Oscars. The red carpet, screaming fans and popping flashbulbs may have been absent, but it remained Hollywood’s most important, self-involved, over-the-top night of the year.
On Sunday night, the show went on, albeit a little subdued. Sure a few stars protested the war and refused the complementary gift baskets, but no one misses Eminem and Paul Newman when Steve Martin is flirting with Halle Berry, promoting his new movie and flirting with Halle Berry. Some of the stars dressed a bit more reserved, but the diamonds still shimmered around Queen Latifah’s neck, the sunglasses on Jack Nicholson were still weird and the black number on Nicole Kidman was still amazing. On Oscar night, it seemed the only ‘shock and awe’ this country worried about was the shock at seeing the emaciated, 70-pound, Armani-clad waif that used to be Renée Zellweger and the awe at watching an extremely pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones flawlessly belting out that Chicago number. And our only life-and-death concerns were whether Chicago would be the first musical in 30 years to win best picture and whether J-Lo’s butt was really as big as everyone says.
For the most part, the actors were successful in keeping the attention on themselves, not the war. Polite applause followed Chris Cooper’s very subtle wish for world peace in his acceptance speech. More people, I’m sure, cringed at Meryl Streep’s embarrassing struggle with the teleprompter than noticed the dove ‘peace’ pin on her dress. Everyone laughed as Steve Martin lightened the mood by cracking jokes about the war and, of course, Halle Berry. The war forgotten, I watched Chicago steal the show, waited for Bono to take the stage and called my mom when I didn’t know who the hell Mickey Rooney was and why, if Steve Martin liked him so much, did he have such lousy seats?
While the political commentary was kept at a minimum and the cameras mostly aimed at the stars, their diamonds and Halle Berry’s chest, the one political outburst of the evening made it very clear not only should actors stick to makeup and stage directions and stay out of politics but also, at times, protesting the war in Iraq is inappropriate and out of place. After accepting his Oscar, Michael Moore, the director of Bowling for Columbine and long-lost twin of the Unabomber, openly chastised President Bush. Moore ranted at the camera, ‘We live in a time where we have a man who’s sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it’s the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush.’
Although protesters have rallied across the country this week against the president and the war in Iraq, and Moore’s outburst was not the first of its kind, there is a time and a place for protesting, and at times (i.e. when you are receiving an Academy Award) it is inappropriate. If Michael Moore wanted to make a statement, he should have joined the crowds cluttering the streets of New York or the 1,000 students at Harvard University who walked out of class, traded their books for bongo drums and held a sit-in in the middle of Harvard Square traffic. He could have marched for peace from Government Center to Copley Plaza or put a candle in his window.
While protesting is a constitutional right, at times, it is unacceptable. With thousands of men and women fighting on the other side of the world, broadcasting your personal misgivings about the U.S. president at one of the most watched events around the globe is no way to show support for our troops. Like the protesters assailing Chicopee Air Force Base this weekend, statements like Moore’s are counterproductive and un-American. Regardless of whether President Bush is a slightly retarded cattle farmer from Texas or a brilliant military strategist, the fact remains that this country is at war now, and our attention should be focused on supporting the American troops and getting them home as soon as possible.