Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Hollywood: Elite "Golf" Club

I peruse Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's column: He consistently has unique observations on the culture. Today, he dissects the worship of Actors, particularly in light of the Academy Awards.

In our time, however, the incredible has happened. The court jester has become the king. Those who play the heroes have become the culture's actual heroes. Those who direct fantasy movies are directing the direction of our youth. And with entertainers as the principal people we look up to, so much of our society has become silly and trivial.

This is exactly what was going through my mind as I watched the narcissism of the Academy Awards. In America today, there exists not a single mainstream televised awards ceremony for anything other than movies, television, acting and music. Even when brave soldiers are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry, it is not broadcast on television.

When the president awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to our leading thinkers, writers and civil servants, it is watched by 10 people on C-SPAN. But the awards for best actor and best actress are followed closely by hundreds of millions who take such nonsense quite seriously. That's a major change for a country whose only actor to become an historical figure, prior to the age of Hollywood, was John Wilkes Booth.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beleg here:

In a kind of morbid way, one has to admire the guts of a JW Booth. He was wrong, but willing to take the consequences. Try to imagine Jamie Foxx or Cate Blanchett making any kind of sacrifice for what they 'believe' (assuming they or we could ever figure out what that might be, short of 25 rooms w/hot tub).

I was personally quite pleased to see the Oscars roll off the table and simply plop on the ground. I didn't watch and still don't know most of what happened. I did see that egregious Selma Hayek comment referred to. But then, viva La Raza is easy in a gown paid for by Latina peasant ticket sales, eh?

Ugh.

Cheers!