I enjoyed The Lying Detective very much but checked Twitter a couple of times, and it was obvious that my expectations for the award show had been more or less accurate- a lot of the celebrities using their minutes in the spotlight to bash Donald Trump. It's like he's living in their heads, or something. Now, I would be the last one to deny anyone- even celebrities- the right to express their political opinions, but for Pete's sake, can't they turn it off for a while?
The Americans have a very long election campaign, unlike we (us?) Canadians; here the campaigns last three months and even that is pushing it for most of us. During our last election, they tacked an extra week onto the campaign and by the end we were sick of the whole thing. Of course, we are not directly involved with the American election, but the fact is, most of the media we consume comes from the States, plus they're next door so we're spectators, involuntarily or not. I generally find it quite interesting, but only to a point. I don't want politics force-fed to me every time I sit down to watch T.V. or a movie, because it gets old really, really quickly. And I think that most people feel the same way.
I'm going to close with a scene from another Academy Award show, featuring remarks by Network writer Paddy Chayefsky after Vanessa Redgrave had gone on a political rant (against Israel, of course; Hollywood is nothing if not drearily predictable). Mr. Chayefsky countered her remarks with a few words of good sense: