Mill Creek Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

OK, I’ll admit it right off the starting mark. I can’t stand the over-blown, over-exposed, over-anticipated ceremony marking the annual pilgrimage of the world’s greatest “stars” to Hollywood.

What do they do there? They give themselves awards. And for what?

An actor, by definition, reads words written by someone else. What is so noteworthy or difficult about that? I learned to read when I was 3 years old. And no one has given me an award for reading out loud.

But here is what I truly despise about the Academy Awards. While actors can usually gracefully pretend to become someone else, then read lines attributed to them, they seem to think that the rest of the world is waiting with bated breath to hear them “expound on subjects they know nothing about.”

What makes any “A-list Celebrity” an expert on topics they have absolutely no academic background in? For example, does George Clooney really know anything about global warming? In fact, read the article in The Daily Mail about his non-ecologically friendly coffee capsules. The hypocrisy of supposedly being a friend of the environment while at the same time being criticized for creating a less friendly coffee capsule simply does not add up. In addition, George flies around the world in a private jet, has large estates in Italy, the U.K., Mexico and Los Angeles. Why doesn’t George and his entourage fly on commercial jets?

Also, why don’t Hollywood celebrities take in some refugees? They certainly have space in their cavernous homes? Oh, I know, they just want to talk about how concerned they are about the problem, but why not actually do something about it?

One of my favorite writers, Larry David (co-creator of the “Seinfeld” TV series), does a great send-up on the subject with a little vignette of Kramer being a seat filler at yet another awards ceremony.

What are the other outrages of the Academy Awards? Well, let’s start with the pre-ceremony called: “On The Red Carpet.” Here all the celebrities get to alight from their limousines and walk along a very large red carpet where breathless reporters get to ogle them. If the woman is wearing a gown designed just for this occasion, they will report on it ad nauseum. Who was the designer, what other famous personalities wore gowns designed by this same person, and most importantly, how much the gown cost. I’ve seen them report on gowns costing over $100,000.

What is ecologically friendly about that? They wear the gown once, then it goes in their closet never to be seen again. Hey, instead of spending all that money on a dress, why not donate the money to “feed the homeless” or “Haitian Relief ?” For a $50 donation, you can feed one Haitian child for a year. So $100,000 would feed 2,000 children for a year.

Next, the “chit-chat” on the red carpet. As so many celebrities are left of center politically, most of them could not let the opportunity pass to savage the president of the United States. Now whether you like Trump or don’t, let’s at least respect the office.

My last comment is about the awards themselves. I’ve seen “Parasite,” “Marriage Story,” and “Judy”. All three were terribly depressing movies. After watching each of them, I was happy the film was over. I also watched “Ford vs. Ferrari.” Now that, to me, was the picture of the year. An upbeat story about how Ford Motor Company developed a car specifically to win the 24 hours of LeMans.