February 27, 2006

I love Hollywood. It’s so full of itself. No wonder Hollywood and Washington are so closely related in many ways.

The 79th Academy Awards were blessedly short on politics. Yes, it was hosted by Ellen Degeneres, who stuck to comedy and not sexual orientation. Yes, singer Melissa Etheridge introduced her “wife” and sang the title song from Al Gore’s rant “An Inconvenient Truth.” This year the environment was Hollywood’s cause of choice. And, yes, Al Gore looked like he had been consuming too many calories while asking us to consume fewer hydrocarbons. But mostly it was about the movies.

Four hours is too long, but the outfits are always fun to watch and this year they were relatively modest…for Hollywood. I was glad to see Helen Mirren win for her fabulous role as “The Queen.” It’s nice to see a middle-aged actress triumph when she’s surrounded by a bunch of plastic surgery trophies.

Now it’s back to reality – the war and terrorism and all that jazz. But for one night, those who watched this lengthy spectacular got a little relief from reality.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.