As IF Times

link Oscars | Page 8 | Liveblog live blogging | Reuters.com.

And the winner is….THE UNIONS!  It’s not our imagination.  Only last month in another of the litany of self congratulatory love fests, the SAG awards show was notable for the frequent mention of the unions in the acceptance speeches.  In the Oscars presentation last night, the unions were thanked again by at least two winners.  Heck, Christian Bale couldn’t even remember his wife’s name, but some had the presence of mind to thank the unions.  Who knew they were so instrumental as artistic muses?

I can’t recall ever during the history of the Academy Awards when a political figure was featured during the ceremonies.  But this oversight has clearly been rectified as a large image of the current president, Kim Jong Il-like,  smiling benignly at the audience was on big screen display during one of the presentations.  Even Bill Clinton, the much loved darling of the Hollywood crowd didn’t receive that honor during his tenure.  

From earlier times when the Oscars represented artistic achievement, the show conveyed a certain dignity and audiences were entertained by the impressive and articulate acceptance speeches by the deserving winners.  During those earlier times, Hollywood was still able to create the aura of glitz and glamour and even though it was in the spirit of make believe, the public enjoyed it.      When Bob Hope, the best awards host of all time by a long shot was alive, it was all about the industry.  All humor and comments were directed at the entertainment crowd.   He would never stoop to commenting on the events of the world outside.  He knew this was all about a fantasy world and supporting the mystique.  TV sponsors of the event were likely involved in the beauty or fashion business such as Revlon, L’Oreal or Max Factor.   That was then.

Now, it’s the Academy Awards brought to you by, The AFL-CIO! Also by the TEAMSTERS!  With a special word from Dear Leader!  If you’re of the mesmerized masses, you may not even notice this, but for those who just tune in for simple entertainment they may be surprised and offended by the not so subtle partisan messages that have taken over.  My beef is that these political entities should at least take out and pay for legitimate sponsor roles so that people can get up and go to the bathroom or get a beer.  When the messages are weaved into the programming, it’s annoying at best and smacks of state propaganda at worst. 

The owners of the Academy awards are chagrined that their ratings decline year after year.  Well that may be because no one wants to watch political propaganda masquerading as entertainment.   (Interestingly, in real life, there are entertainment shows masquerading as political shows).   We don’t need to hear about the politics of the actors.  Let’s just go back to just it being about art.  Bugs Bunny used to say it best during his opening musical intro entitled, “This Is It”:
Overture, curtains, lights,
This is it, the night of nights
No more rehearsing and nursing a part
We know every part by heart
Overture, curtains, lights
This is it, you’ll hit the heights
And oh what heights we’ll hit
On with the show this is it

Tonight what heights we’ll hit
On with the show this is it

It’s about entertainment.  Even a cartoon rabbit can figure that out.

link Tiger Woods to Make Statement on Friday – WSJ.com.

Who cares? Ok, well that’s not true.  The real question is who really cares.  Most people clamor for their 15 minutes of fame: Tiger goes the other way and wants 15 minutes of obscurity.  The events that have come to light over the past few months surrounding Tiger’s life outside the links have more than fed people’s natural voyeuristic tendencies. People love success stories, but just as many love the crash and burn stories, if not more .  If this were not true, magazines such as The Enquirer, People and Us Weekly to name a few wouldn’t be in business.

Apart from Jen, Brad and Angelina’s permanent positions on the covers of those magazines, most stories have their limited shelf life and the paparazzi move on to the next big thing.  After the initial shock of seeing someone of Tiger’s stature being exposed for living  the kind of personal life most “celebrities” probably do, the  emerging sordid details are interesting only for those truly lacking their own lives.  Tiger’s your typical boy gets to be greatest golfer in the world, marries beautiful trophy wife, has 15 affairs story.  It happens all the time.  The fascinating uniqueness  in this case was the methodical yet reckless duplicity of his activities.  Is it really that gripping to hear what girl “a” said or what girl “b” did?  Only to their agents I suppose.

At this point, whether our hero is contrite and repentant is irrelevant.  His good guy star has already fallen irreparably and all there is for him now is to resume his golf career.  Despite the loss of Accenture as a sponsor, other corporations will line up to have him represent them.  Will Tiger care if he is tarnished in the eyes of his fans?  Likely not.  Golf is not naturally a team sport.  You strive by yourself to beat the competition, it is a selfish pursuit, but that’s the way it is.  Success in the game is somewhat ephemeral, so when the opportunity arises to distance yourself from others, you step on the gas, not let up to make a close match.  It is in Tiger’s nature to pursue wins on the course, the affection of fans is not a factor. 

Sadly, with all that’s happened, nothing that Tiger does or says from now on can be taken without some question of  honesty.  Whether through contrived speeches created for him by his management group desperate to reflate the franchise or interviews to media people, his words will always have the taint of insincerity.  You’d be wrong to think I blame this all on Tiger.  Certainly he had a role to play.  As culpable are his management team, his sponsors and the adoring media who extrapolated Tiger’s sporting achievements to real life heroism with the usual end game of commercial benefit.   Guilty as well are those in the public who bought into the fairy tale.  We all love our sports heros because we see them achieving things we aren’t capable of.  In the end…it’s only a game.