From Deseret News archives:
Oscar in spotlight, but stage growing crowded
No irony is intended.
Yet getting people to, in fact, care and to watch (the show begins at 6:30 tonight on ABC, Ch. 4) has been the Academy's mission and struggle during the past several years, as competing awards shows have been stealing the Oscars' thunder while the Academy Awards red carpet has become just one albeit an especially fabulous one in an ever-growing line of celebrity fashion shows. The Academy attempted to re-establish the show's dominance in 2004 by moving it from March to February, but the issues haven't done a fade-out.
Yes, Oscar hoopla lives on, but now images of nominees such as Helen Mirren and Jennifer Hudson are competing with wall-to-wall TV and Web coverage of bald, breaking-down Britney Spears and the increasingly tawdry soap opera surrounding dead bombshell Anna Nicole Smith.
"Right now they're a blip in the shadow of Anna Nicole and Britney and astronauts trying to kidnap other astronauts in diapers," said E! Online entertainment columnist Bruce Bibby, who writes under the name Ted Casablanca. "You can barely tell they're going on."
Yet to the greater public, the Academy Awards are a towering, glitzy cultural event, with the dresses, jewels, snubs and Cinderella stories at least as important as the notion of Hollywood celebrating its own artistry. So in an age when a model's death attracts far more interest than ex-President Gerald Ford's, it's fair to ask:
How culturally relevant are the Oscars?
"It's the prom night for the film industry," Mirren, the best actress front-runner for "The Queen," said at Thursday night's Miramax party. "It's become a global phenomenon.... It's the culmination of (the Academy's) efforts to draw attention to film and film as an industry and as a profession.
"But what it means culturally, society is spinning out of control, and now there are so many side issues related to it: the parties, the marketing, the gifts all kinds of things. I couldn't define that in one go."
Comments
- Obama pressed into role as healer 8:14 a.m.
- FBI reassessing past look at Hasan 8:14 a.m.
- Oil below $79 as Ida weakens 8:12 a.m.
- Stocks open lower 8:11 a.m.
- Bill Clinton meets with Senate Dems 8:10 a.m.
- Bomb kills 24 in Pakistan 8:09 a.m.
- D.C. sniper to be executed today 8:08 a.m.
- Korean navies exchange fire 8:06 a.m.
- Abdul-Jabbar has leukemia 8:05 a.m.
- Soccer MVPs know how to win 1:56 a.m.
- TCU showdown has big implications
- Seniors helped BYU regroup
- Bystanders framed for child porn
- Soccer MVPs know how to win
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP
- Lambert surprisingly tops news
- Hope for single moms
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses
- Utah Jazz Extra: Whose hot/not
- Attorney given report on Taser death
- House passes health care bill
231 - TCU showdown has big implications
183 - Lobo suspended
182 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
154 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
118 - Thousands protest health bill
115 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
97 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89
Why do so many people live so close to refineries in Utah and elsewhere?
When is the last time a Jazz player attempted 8 threes? It must have been a...
Schools are not daycare people!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enough said.
The winning Mayor should bike from one city to the other.
When will Matheson ever learn? He should cast his lot with health insurance...
Or you can pick up a refurbed "pet rock" Tracfone like mine for ten bucks and...
This is stupid, if the legislature felt pressured by a statement like, "I...
Are we really better off now than in the era of cronkite? If so, and this is...
Dreams can be achieved without going to BOA. This group of students have...
Once again Orin Hatch talks out of turn. I think it is time to muzzle him.
Not a priority in Utah.



You can be the first to comment on this story.