Oscar night is no longer about movie stars feting each other in front of an awed audience. It's about viewers deconstructing celebrity — abetted by a cottage industry of stylists, dermatologists, surgeons and trainers who reveal the fakery behind even the most seemingly natural beauties: celebrity with a dehumanized face. And TV commentators fawn and probe on pre-Oscar shows and red-carpet interviews with little to no curiosity about filmmaking or news events but insatiable appetite for details about clothes and personal grooming. (There is something delicious and embarrassingly decadent about the national obsession with the Oscars — an entire country caught eating raw cookie dough while reading "in Touch.")No, no, what would really be embarrassing would be if we were the "awed audience" they'd like us to be. We're doing exactly what we should be doing, eating the cookie dough of truth.
March 6, 2006
"Oscar night is no longer about movie stars feting each other in front of an awed audience. It's about viewers deconstructing celebrity...."
Alessandra Stanley on the Oscars show:
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21 comments:
Plus, as we all know, the deconstruction isn't limited to clothes.
I think "attention must be paid" may someday rank with "question authority" in the annals of annoying mantras.
Is it ok if I go with the Haagen Dazs of Great Justice instead?
How's about the S'mores of S'martAssery?
"Cookie dough? You can't handle the cookie dough!," sez ol' Jack...
Very Colbertian!
I took one look (this morning on the news recaps) at that massive jeweled thing Keira Knightly was wearing around her neck and simply said, "How ugly."
I loved Reese Whitherspoon's declaration about her dress that "it's a 55 Chanel... and own it!" - isn't she the one that ended up with the loaned 2 year old "vintage" dress at the Golden Globes or People's Choice awards? I wonder how many will catch that?
"...the national obsession with the Oscars."
Huh? I thought ratings slide further down into niche territory every year.
We're doing exactly what we should be doing, eating the cookie dough of truth.
That sounds EXACTLY like something The Tick would say!
Like a great blue salmon of Justice, the mighty Tick courses upstream to the very spawning ground of evil.
Post-Oscars Kaffeeklatsch
I actually apologise to Hollywood in this post.
Quick, someone check my temperature (with a non-rectal thermometre this time).
P.S.: Cookie dough of truth! Oh verrry droll, Professor Viejacasa.
Cheers,
Victoria
Like a great blue salmon of Justice, the mighty Tick courses upstream to the very spawning ground of evil.
What the hell? That sounds nothing as sublime as "cookie dough of truth"!
Rather, it has a Superheroes preamble ring to it:
"Faster than a speeding bullet! Able to leap tall buildings in a single Manolo Blahnik mule leap, avoiding to chip acrylic nails in a single bound! It's SuperAlthouse!"
What, we all read Crumb right?
Cheers,
Victoria
Yeah, Victoria, I get it already. I'm too pore and too stoopid to understand anyone as well financed and intelligent as yourself.
Whatever.
Yeah, Victoria, I get it already. I'm too pore and too stoopid to understand anyone as well financed and intelligent as yourself.
Whatever.
Oooooh, I think I've heard of this syndrome.
It's callled having a chocolate-chip on your shoulder.
Icepick, you're so sexy when you're underprivileged.
Cheers,
Victoria
No, Victoira, I'm just tired of your Tory I'm-superior-to-you-plebian-scum attitude. If you want to play comment cop, do it at your own blog. Christ, you're more tiresome than Quxxo.
No, Victoira, I'm just tired of your Tory I'm-superior-to-you-plebian-scum attitude. If you want to play comment cop, do it at your own blog. Christ, you're more tiresome than Quxxo.
You're still sexy, Icepick.
Come on, give the little rich girl some cooties!
*smuack!*
Cheers,
Victoria
Right on sister!
"S'mores of S'martAssery?"
LOL
Victoria's the comment cop?
Dang, Icepick gets all chocolate-chippy-on-the-shoulder, and I never even got frisked. Dang.
It's hard not to fall into the trap of being a "comment cop" when you spend a lot of time at a certain blog. I have been guilty of it myself. In one of her comments, Victoria implied that regular commenters can come to feel a sense of ownership, or at least protectiveness, towards the comments section. It's definitely true, even though you know it's not your blog.
Not sure what my point is...
Hmmm. Dibs on being the Comments Fire Chief .
Me, I'll be Comments Usher, guiding people to a nice seat with my flashlight of commenty goodness, shushing the ill-mannered, and throwing out those who attempt to communune in the dark with our sweet Ann!
Dang, Icepick gets all chocolate-chippy-on-the-shoulder, and I never even got frisked. Dang.
Let that be a lesson to you, Pogo!
Girls pay more attention to the disaffected, jealous, volcanic rage guys, than the sweet, caring, and placid types.
Although, of course, I'm high-maintenance.
P.S.: It's not quite what I said, Knoxgirl, but I suppose the spirit of what you say is the truer point.
Let me just say, as perhaps some of you may have noticed, it helps if you are not the hold-a-grudge type on these forums.
Grudges are just too boring for words, and bad for your complexion.
Cheers,
Victoria
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