February 26, 2012, - 10:26 pm

Oscars: Contest Between Class/Glamor & Endless Racism Merchantry

By Debbie Schlussel

**** UPDATE: “The Artist” won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, so class won out, tonight. Also, thankfully, “former” illegal alien Demian Bichir lost. So sad, too bad. On the other hand, Nick Nolte was robbed in Best Supporting Actor in favor of Christopher Plummer in silly gay marriage propaganda movie, “Beginners.” ****

If you read my movie reviews on a regular basis, you know I loved “The Artist” (read my review), and it was my second pick for the Best Movies of 2011 (see the whole list).  I hated the hypocritical, racist, cartoonish/caricaturish, anti-White, “The Help” (read my review), the hypocritical liberal author of which ripped off her own Black maid to write it, but preaches to White American women about racism decades ago, when today the racism is against Whites and Asians in the form of affirmative action, minority set asides and other multiples of reverse racism–the new racism.  Tonight’s Oscars is a contest between “The Artist’s” classic glamor and style and the racism merchantry of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on display in “The Help.”  So far tonight, racists Jesse and Al are winning.  No surprise there.  We live in an age of Hollywood affirmative action and political correctness.


As a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, I voted for “The Artist” in almost every category.  I didn’t vote for “The Help,” not even once.  (My votes, which I cast in early December are all posted below.)  It’s the most overrated movie of 2011.    Yes, racism against Black maids happened in the ’60s.  But now, it’s the other way around.  When Hollywood does a movie about every White kid from Appalachia or just plain suburban Detroit who loses a chance at a job or admission to college because someone Black with less qualifications got affirmative action–or when Hollywood does a movie about every White male whose construction company misses out on government contracts because some guy who is 1/4th Black or “native American” or Latino got it instead, then we’ll have a movie that deserves an Oscar about racism, the racism that exists today.

“The Help” is about racism that mostly doesn’t exist anymore (especially to that degree)–except in the practice of its rich liberal author who ripped off her poor Black maid’s story (a modern-day story, which would be far more interesting on the silver screen).  And we’ve paid for that racism through the nose with every single race-based college admission, hire, promotion, minority set-aside, Justice Department lawsuit against a small business that doesn’t have the right percentage of minorities through no fault of its struggling owners, etc.  But that’s not the slice of life that the real 1%–the people of showbiz and Hollywood–know.  They don’t live like the rest of us.


The people who are members of “the Academy of Motion Pictures” don’t have to live in the real world in which their kids are passed over for less qualified minorities or in which they lose out on a film project because they didn’t have the fortuitous birth into minority status.  That’s why they love the dated, anachronistic, “The Help.”  If we had more of the glamour and class of “The Artist” at the movies and less shove-it-up-America’s-ass politics of race-baiting movies like “The Help,” we’d be better off.

But Billy Crystal and the Oscar folk are too busy making the important observations of our time:  jokes claiming the Republican choices on Super Tuesday are crack addicts (unlike Barack Obama, the only admitted illegal drug addict–and probably salesman–running for Prez).

As with his flat jokes, the Oscars isn’t about the best.  It’s about left-wing politics.  Period.

***

Here’s how I voted as a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society.  We could vote for up to five nominations in each category, with the first choice most weighted (five points) and so on.

BEST PICTURE:
Warrior (5 points)
The Artist (4)
Jane Eyre (3)
Another Earth (2)
Limitless (1)

DIRECTOR:
Michel Hazanavicus, The Artist (5 points)
Martin Scorsese, Hugo (4)
Peter Weir, The Way Back(3)
Cary Fukunaga, Jane Eyre (2)
Mike Cahill, Another Earth (1)

ACTOR:
Jean Dujardin, The Artist (5 points)
Asa Butterfield, Hugo (4)

ACTRESS:
Berenice Bejo, The Artist (5 points)
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn (4)
Mia Wasikowska, Jane Eyre (3)
Brit Marling, Another Earth (2)
Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy (1)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Nick Nolte, Warrior (5 points)
Jonah Hill, Moneyball (4)
Michael Fassbender, Jane Eyre (3)
William Mapother, Another Earth (2)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams, The Muppets (5 points)
Chloe Grace Moretz, Hugo (4)
Elle Fanning, Super 8 (3)

BREAKTHROUGH:
Brit Marling, Another Earth (5 points)

ENSEMBLE:
Hugo (5 points)
Our Idiot Brother (4)

SCREENPLAY:
The Artist (5 points)
Hugo (4)
Warrior (3 )
Another Earth (2)
Limitless (1)

DOCUMENTARY:
Candyman: The David Klein Story (5 points)
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (4)
Square Grouper (3)




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46 Responses

And unfortunately too many people don’t understand the agenda of these hucksters. They want complete control of society. Remember when Obama was elected some people, including some ‘conservatives’ thought that black victimology would end. Little did they know. Blacks and other victims want to overturn the government, establish socialism and obtain complete control and power.

There’s no other way to explain how the demonstrations and slogans get worse and worse even as they get more and more control. We need to wake up!

Little Al on February 26, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    What do you think of the lyrics to “Short People’ by Randy Neuman Little Al?

    Ron Wolf aka "Columbo" on February 27, 2012 at 11:03 pm

When I was a young man, the Oscars still meant something.

I no longer care about it and I don’t think any one else cares anymore.

Its less about movie-making and more about trendy leftist politics.

Its movies are about making a political statement. I wish the Academy would surprise us! It never does.

The Oscars are a wasted three to four hours of one’s life that one will never get back.

I haven’t missed the last the twenty years or so of the Oscars and I won’t regret missing this year’s show.

NormanF on February 26, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    See a few more films, like one a week (my standard), and you’ll change your mind. Guaranteed.

    Seek on February 27, 2012 at 12:42 pm

Oprah wins! I’m going to cry!

Barry Popik on February 26, 2012 at 11:00 pm

Debbie, I didn’t see that Iranian movie but the win seemed political. The winner’s speech was political and probably anti-regime but a bit too generic to really decipher. I think Oprah deserved an Oscar if only for acting like she dates Stedman. The camera flash to Gayle King was an obvious nod to reality. Also, I agree ‘The Artist’ deserves to win Best Picture although I didn’t see many of the nominees. Call me.

A1 on February 26, 2012 at 11:13 pm

Actually, “The Artist” and “Hugo” were the big winners tonight. The Help won only one Oscar, for best supporting Actress.

I do have to say that Midnight in Paris was a good film.

I am still pissed that the Academy Awards have never recognized me with an Oscar for the the category, “Best wisecracks about crappy movies.”

Jonathan E. Grant on February 26, 2012 at 11:55 pm

One can see why that industry is hurting. For the most part, it churns out poor to mediocre products at a very high cost. The only thing that saves the these dinosaurs is their stranglehold over production and distribution. If these monopolistic practices were not deeply entrenched, you would not see sequeals, prequels, the grandchildren of former stars pretending to act, or self-indulgent ideological fare. The studios and productions companies would be forced to adapt or die in a genuinely competitive environment. Instead, you get repetitive fomula scripts that parrot themes that have been around since 1969. How many more sadistic generals, corrupt businessmen,fornicating preachers, liberated single women, and alcoholic housewives loathing the patriarchy do I need to see? At least when these characters were brought up forty years ago, there was at least some corresponding reality. When a film tries to bring up the old dressed in new clothing, it really is just a sign of bovine conformity.

Worry on February 27, 2012 at 12:09 am

Lol everyone is laughing at you crazies on forums and the internet abroad. Keep looking stupid right wing ‘murikah.

shaboodles le pretentious hipster on February 27, 2012 at 1:00 am

    Actually, I laugh at you for such an unclever attempt at spam. There is no content, much less any criticism in your remarks. Instead, you treat us to what only a toddler or the senile would do, which is making a little mess. There is nothing else in what you have just said little boy. You probably need to be changed by your caregiver now, so do not feel that you must remain.

    Worry on February 27, 2012 at 1:17 am

Ce sont en effet des périodes misérables. Ce qui était par le passé disparaît, et il n’est pas remplacé par n’importe quoi bon.

Worry on February 27, 2012 at 6:01 am

    Votre opinion mettez moi tres fatigue, Quelle domage.

    Ron Wolf aka "Columbo" on February 27, 2012 at 10:04 pm

On a lighter note, Angelina Jolie seems to be going anorexic again. She is only thirty-six, but she looks like she is at least ten years older. I suspect that this fairly rapid onset of age is due more to lifestyle than any genetic propensity.

Worry on February 27, 2012 at 6:27 am

From the beginning, Hollywood has always pushed a political and social agenda of some kind. That’s just the way it is.

The problem is that people don’t realize it or even think about it.

I was always a big fan of the FLASH GORDON series. As kids, we always wondered why Dale Arden went from a dainty blond wuss who feinted all the time to a dashing, take-charge, brave and gutsy woman in the last serial. The dates of production tell us something. The last serial was produced in 1940 on the eve of America’s entry to WWII. Women were about to take charge of many roles previously occupied by men. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Dale Arden’s character was transformed accordingly. In retrospect, the transformation was hardly subtle.

This kind of subtle social and political message has been part of Hollywood for a LONG time. It’s just unfortunate that today, many of these messages are pushing corruption and immorality as opposed to the wholesome messages (even when controversial) Hollywood used to deliver.

There is NO Santa Claus on February 27, 2012 at 7:48 am

    Yeah, me too, loved the discordant music played when the clay people popped out from the walls (that deserved an Oscar). Also loved Ming the Merciless from the planet Iran, whoops I mean Mongo of course.
    Who played him? To me he was more fun than Bela Lugosi.

    Ron Wolf aka "Columbo" on February 27, 2012 at 10:46 pm

Glad to see you posted about the Oscars.
Was glad Meryl Streep won… I did something I don’t usually do–I vocally went “Yes!”. After her clip, I commented that she was good (better than the acting shown in the other clips), and I knew “The Help” was favored to win, so this was an exciting surprise. I was happy.

MH on February 27, 2012 at 9:47 am

Where is Skunky’s insightful comment? I don t care for the Oscars but obviously millions of people care about tbem our queen included and it is a great reward to an actor’s /director’s craft,but I don t have a dog in that fight…I wish there was an Oscar to best investigative reporter/columnist/blogger…our queen would win that one hands down.thanks is all I have to say about this.

Juan on February 27, 2012 at 10:09 am

Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
The GAY MOVIE WON AN OSCAR!!!
The BLACK MOVIE WON AN OSCAR!!!
OOOOOOOH the horror!! of the reverse racism!!
It’s END TIMES, I tells’ ya!!
“in silly gay marriage propaganda movie, “Beginners.” ****”
On Debbie, you’re hot homophobic at ALLLLlllllllll…. lol
Stupid Bigot.
I hated the hypocritical, racist, cartoonish/caricaturish, anti-White, “The Help”.Wow Debbie, racist much? LOL!! of COURSE you and your followers are…..OF COURSE!

Right is always Wrong on February 27, 2012 at 11:40 am

    You did not read Debbie’s earlier column about this movie; if you had, you would not have sounded so stupid, although I suspect that is your natural condition.

    The fact is, the liberal woman who wrote this book promised her black maid a share in the profits, and then did not deliver. Also, while this movie was based on a true story, the stories of racism were exaggerated or made up, as was the story of the black woman baking her own feces into a pie. Now that is typical of liberal racism.

    Jonathan E. Grant on February 27, 2012 at 12:53 pm

      To Jonathan Grant and Juan, this Right (Left) is always Wrong anti-DS troll is a retarded loser and dumbass, this thing only comes over here to do his little rant and stand on top of his soap-box and attack all of us who comments here, makes personal attacks and ad homieimn attacks against Debbie like the doofus he/she/it really is.

      Juan and JEG, as I’ve explained on friday on another thread, this Right (Left) is always Wrong lout is the type of people I grew up with and went to school with. This troll is the type’s who always cutted class, had pathetic attendance, horrible grades, always interupted the teacher whenever there teaching a subjet, always cheated off of the other students in the classroom during a test, didn’t graduate on time and got held back, etc. And this troll didn’t read the entire article, and if he/she/it read it, this troll wouldn’t do “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” demagouged DS’s personality and libel her by calling her a racist for no goddamn reason.

      Also to Right (Left) is always Wrong, if DS is a such a racist in you’re perverted mindset, how come I, a person of color (I’m a black male FYI) comments here all the time, supports Ms. Schlussel’s work, etc. Care to explain that to me? And also dumbass, alot of people comment here, regardless what race, ethnicity, religion they are, and you’re the one who’s the real racist Right (Left) is always Wrong, now comeback here and call me a “Uncle Tom”, if you call me that, you’ve proved my point that you’re the one who’s the legit racist here! Either stick to the damn topic(s), make some friggin sense or STFU and get lost for good!

      “A nation is defined by its borders, language & culture!”

      Sean R. on February 27, 2012 at 3:07 pm

        Hey Sean R. thanks for the info,I just hate when some one says lies about any one and specially a fine woman like Debbie,I could never be a racist bc I am a mix of 5 races and love them all….I do detest lies and liars and this character right is wrong comes around now and then,I do detest its little mind. thanks for the 411.

        Juan on February 28, 2012 at 1:25 am

    @Right is wrong…I am racist,I never said I wasn t,I hate militant radical gays,and I hate you too & in return I am hated as well,so what??? what s the big deal?? I will not harm you or any one else,why do I have to love you,stupid little “it”

    Juan on February 27, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    @Right is wrong,I was talking about me,not DS….DS is a fine woman too busy to spend her time hating,by your postings I can tell you hate some people too,so I don t see any point to my replies to your idiotic comment,I do hate you tho..

    Juan on February 27, 2012 at 1:50 pm

I haven’t watched the oscars since the last time Billy Crystal was the host. Don’t get me wrong there are some good actors/actresses in Hollywood. Gary Sinese and Angie Harmon to name a few. But for the most part it has nothing but leftwing morons who think they know better than I do about whats going on in this country and the world. To have these dopes try to tell me that odumbo the big eared clown is the next best thing since sliced bread and deserves 4 more years just turns me off.
I can take solice in the fact that the mancrush twins George(looney)Clooney and Brad Pitt came up empty handed. Especially that vapid twit Clooney( who seems to have a new mancrush for obummer.)Just like his buddy Tom Hanks. Too bad Meryl Streep won. How many osars does this unattractive cow have now? My eyes are still bleeding from that movie she starred in with the equally annoying Alec Balwin. Talk about torture. Newsflash to Hollyweird. Stop it with the churnig out of these dull, lackluster, leftwing crappy movies and maybe just maybe we bitter clingers to our guns and religion will give a damn. Until then you all can take a nice long walk off a short pier. Oh and don’t worry Juan. I’m sure that Skunky will be along any minute to give her take on this too long Hollyweird lovefest.

ken b on February 27, 2012 at 11:46 am

Leftist bull. Multi-culturalism stressed as they purposely give Oscars to a Iranian movie, a Pakistan movie AND an Irish movie where it is stated as fact “that all people have to do to have peace is talk with the other side. Same as Obama’s theory that sure worked after some groveling and apologizing to the Muslim world last week.

Only one bashing joke of Republicans “super Tuesday”.

bill on February 27, 2012 at 11:53 am

Also a nice joke about the occupy movent.

That crowd is the upper part of the 1% preaching their hypocritical ideas to the other 99%.

SAME MONEYGRABBERS INSISTS OBAMA SPENDS TAXPAYERS MONEY TO CHASE DOWN AND JAIL ANYONE WHO WATCHES ONE OF THEIR MOVIES ON THE INTERNET. NO MATTER HOW POOR THEY ARE.

WHEN FOXNEWS REPORTER CONFRONTED AND CALLED SOCIALIST MICHAEL MOORE ONE OF THE 1%, THE FAT POS WENT BESERK.

bill on February 27, 2012 at 12:02 pm

Little Al said that “Blacks and other victims want to overturn the government, establish socialism and obtain complete control and power.”

Wow. I didn’t know that we Black folks were doing that! And all because of some movie called “The Help”? Here I am trying to make ends meet, take care of my family, get my kids a decent education, take care of an elderly parent, trying to avoid a layoff, trying to get out of credit card debt (my own fault!), and deal with all of the current economic turbulence. In addition to that, I didn’t know that other Black folks and I were trying to overturn the government, establish socialism, and that we’re getting more and more control ( I wish someone would tell my bill collectors and the IRS that I’m getting more and more control….maybe then they’d leave me alone!) Little Al, thanks for letting me know what I as a Black person is supposed to be doing….I’ll put this on my ever expanding “to do” list!

Little Al, as my grandmother used to say, the only thing Black people in the United States are running are their mouths! We “control” absolutely nothing. If you believe the “hidden hands” that control this country’s social, economic, and educational policy are Black, I have some swampland to sell to you in Florida! But believe what you want to believe to justify your hatred of Black folks.

D. O'Nay on February 27, 2012 at 12:04 pm

    D. O’Nay I think you may have to look at the percentage of Black Americans who vote Democrat. THAT is where the problem is.

    They are being zoomed and don’t know it. It makes me cringe because if most would actually *see* the truth, they would be so angry at being used and thought less of. That ain’t right!

    They seem to be blind to the soft bigotry of low expectations. That’s why individualism is so important!

    Skunky on February 27, 2012 at 12:49 pm

My first thought on these vapid Oscars (and Norman is correct, they USED to mean something….then they took a turn to mediocrity) was to feel absolute pity for Stacy Keibler. Sure, being George Clooney’s pin-cushion has it’s perks but like Cinderella at Midnight, they all go away (and Clueless Looney is NO Prince Charming). She must have to keep some Klonopin in her teeny but stylish purse because the anxiety caused by someone who says he will never marry the women he “dates” has to be hard-core. You never know when he’ll get bored and drop you. Yet, it’s amusing to see each “brand new girl” try and think SHE’LL be the one to *change* him. He should provide all his female receptacles with laminated “serenity prayer” cards.

I loved what DS said about “The Help” too. Absolutely spot-on!
To see peeps fall all over themselves over this POS movie is an exercise in watching morons with less dignity than Jennifer Aniston.

That Nick Nolte must be a talent! He’s never done anything for me but I did really like “Affliction” (or maybe it was Coburn…he was awesome in those “Flint” films!). That may be the only Nolte film I have seen but he must be a true *actor* because people do like his work. Of course I am like many and always see that CrAzY NOT mug shot photo (in my mind) that everyone actually thinks was a mug shot.

I don’t think I ever saw a Meryl Streep film! Oh wait, “A Cry In The Dark” of course. Maybe “The Deer Hunter” too. She sure can do an accent. She had the Aussie one down pat and hardly ANYONE can master that accent! I heard her on “Fresh Air” and the interview was enjoyable but I guess I was surprised how affected she was. Maybe I should not have expected humility. People sure do love her and more actresses would have huge talent if more where like she! She brings it so I guess it’s not bragging when one can deliver.

Skunky on February 27, 2012 at 12:45 pm

Once again, I’m reading this entry and agreeing, strongly, with all the stuff. “The Help” critique is DEAD ON. Absolutely true. Sad as hell there’s still enough self loathing in the stupid lib white community to where they not only kiss up to the oprahs out there, but they flock to movies like that one. Taylor Perry has become a ICON in that culture, instead of somebody like an Allen West. It’s a problem. They churn out propaganda faster than the nazis ever could.

samurai on February 27, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    samurai:

    Actually, white liberals despise Tyler Perry. (He isn’t that popular with black liberals either.) Perry made “For Colored Girls” as an attempt to win them over, but wound up only creating more problems for himself.

    In any event, Perry’s movies promote character, hard work, personal responsibility and Christianity among the black underclass, middle class and upper class. With the exception of “For Colored Girls”, they include little, if any talk or “institutional racism” or other anti-white themes, and instead depict the bad things that happen to its black characters as being the result of bad personal choices.

    Perry may be a closeted homosexual (IMHO), but his movies, despite their broad nature and questionable quality (especially the writing … the acting is generally held back by the writing and directing) are actually conservative. Not right wing movement conservatism, but old-fashioned traditional values stuff. His personal politics aside (he is a Democrat) the reason for the antipathy that conservatives have for the guy escapes me, especially since he is a “self-made man” and very much a capitalist success story, and his success did not come as a result of stoking racial tensions between blacks and whites.

    Gerald on February 27, 2012 at 3:56 pm

How progressive of Hollywood to give a best supporting actress award to an overweight black woman for playing the role of a maid in the Deep South. How bold and daring! What a watershed moment and imagine all the barriers that it will break and everything … oh wait … that actress wasn’t Hattie McDaniel? And the movie wasn’t “Gone With The Wind”? And it isn’t 1939? Never mind …

Incidentally, I wonder if the story of a upper class woman who didn’t get into the University of Texas because of affirmative action, sued over it, but is now graduating from LSU would make for interesting filmmaking. The same is true about Barbara Grutter, who didn’t get into Michigan Law School. If I recall, she went to business school instead and was a manager for some Silicon Valley firm by her mid-20s. An Asian fellow who sued over getting rejected by Harvard over affirmative action and wrote an “explosive”, widely circulated (in the Wall Street Journal and conservative blogs that is) op-ed? Dude was accepted to – and graduated from – Cornell. Ditto with the folks who lose job opportunities to affirmative action: they quickly get other high-paying jobs. Including one at the vast majority of workplaces that do not have affirmative action programs. Yep. That is right, the vast majority of workplaces do not have affirmative action hiring policies, and neither do the overwhelming majority of colleges. Only a tiny percentage do, which is why finding a legitimate affirmative action victim (a group which does include those Connecticut firemen, and even then only because the workplace in that case decided to freeze all promotions and not promote anybody!) is a quest akin to finding blood in a turnip or teeth in hen. Meanwhile, it was rather easy to find black males with MBAs and STEM degrees from reputable schools who – unlike Ms. Grutter – had been unemployed for months, a situation which according to the conservative crowd should NEVER happen because of all the affirmative action blacks taking jobs from whites: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html

Why is this the case? Because the unemployment rate for black males with college degrees is twice that for white males with college degrees: 8.4% versus 4.4%! As a matter of fact, the unemployment rate for black males with college degrees is higher than it is for white males with high school diplomas! That is not something that you are going to hear on “conservative” talk radio, read on “conservative” blogs, see on Fox News or hear the GOP presidential candidates address, but it is true, and the folks who buy movie tickets know that it is true. That’s why “The Help” did outstanding business ($170 million on a $25 million budget despite a small marketing campaign and no major stars), “The Blind Side” ($255 million from a $29 million budget with pretty much no one in it but Sandra Bullock) did also. Which is why a movie about an affirmative action “victim” who almost immediately just gets another job, promotion, contract etc. or goes to another very good school would do about the same business as “Atlas Shrugged” (less than $5 million on a $20 million budget) and “The Undefeated” ($116,000, bad for even a documentary).

And by the way … as Jonathan Grant (no liberal on race issues) pointed out: “The Help” only actually won 1 award. Maybe Berenice Bejo, Jessica Chastain, Melissa McCarthy and Janet McTeer were robbed … who knows. But I have no problem with predicting that those women will have much more success finding good roles than Octavia Spencer, who appears to have mostly gotten by with “sassy black nurse” and “sassy black clerk” and “sassy black housewife” small parts until now, ever since breaking into Hollywood in “A Time To Kill” by playing … a nurse. So good to know that she can now add “sassy black maid” to her list of typecasting.

Gerald on February 27, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Gerald, your post reminded me of the an article on TDB that portrayed Viola Davis as a “victim” because she wants better roles for black women and how Charlize Theron was patronizing to her because she was like “No way, you rock and are beautiful”.

    Charlize’s comment was taken with much umbrage because people thought pretty white girl (who is *actually* AFRICAN) was dismissing older, black women’s pain. Hardly. Charlize may be many things but she is not racist.

    Viola Davis’ problem is a problem of ALL women in Hollywood of age (except Meryl Streep…who amusedly admitted that herself in the Fresh Air interview!)…that they are offered CRAP (or nothing) after a certain age. And all under the kind, loving and Liberal auspices of HOLLYWOOD who *cares* about people!

    I think Davis is talented and I loved “Doubt” (I just remembered MS was in that too!) and now she has money and credibility and a strong fan base why doesn’t SHE write a script of create a production company? I know I would like to see INTELLIGENT movies and scripts and I would go to those movies. She complains instead of takes the bull by the horns and a dumb blonde is innnnnnnnnnnsenstive because she is not deferring to the strong, black women. Puh-leeze!

    Indie and foreign film makers create un-Hollywood stuff everyday. For once I would love some diversity and see people who can’t get regular Hollywood jobs start CREATING their own product of quality! Why do the only black-centric movies have to be about rap, Tyler Perry or Eddie Murphy. I think we are all hungering for good films!

    Skunky on February 27, 2012 at 1:41 pm

      @Skunky:

      The article on “The Daily Beast” was total nonsense. I didn’t even read it because I didn’t want to waste my time. (P.S. Theron may be African, but black Americans are not. The whole “African American” thing was adopted in response to the election of Ronald Reagan. Seriously. Before then, American blacks downplayed the issue of African lineage.)

      Anyway, I still recall the words of Jamie Foxx (I know, not a favorite of this blog!) … it is actually harder to be a white actor in Hollywood than a black actor because there are far more white actors than black ones! So, rather than joining “there are no good parts for blacks in Hollywood” nonsense in general (because the worst parts for blacks in Hollywood are often in black movies, and no, not just the Tyler Perry or hip-hop druggie violence movies either!) my comment was only in the context of Ms. Schlussel overdoing the affirmative action thing … if it was as she and many other conservatives claim, there is NO WAY that the unemployment rate for black college grads would be higher than it is for white high school grads with no college (and ESPECIALLY it being DOUBLE for black males versus white males when the number of black males that graduate college is so small … blacks earn college degrees at a much smaller percentage than whites, and even there 2/3rds of black college degrees are earned by females).

      When Jonathan Grant (who has “the Confederacy wasn’t all that bad, and neither was Jim Crow” tendencies) of all people has to chime in and remind Ms. Schlussel that “The Help” won as many Academy Awards as “The Muppets”, then that is a sure sign that she was going overboard!

      Gerald on February 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

        Yes Gerald, I agree with you on “African American”. I hate the term and NEVER use it. I think it’s fun to use African on peeps like Theron, Teresa Heinz-Kerry and tennis stars Amanda Coetzer and the famous Black family from Zimbabwe as it is accurate but the opposite of what one would expect. I learned much from Keith Richburg’s awesome book “Out of America”. (Hollywood, you should read that book. It changed my way of thinking and is quite incredible. One of my top 10 tomes!)

        I don’t think DS was going overboard because her beef (quite rightly, I believe) is the MOVIE ITSELF. I am glad Hollywood mentioned Shelby Steele’s great book because anytime I think of “The Help” I think of his book. This movie is odious for all the reasons DS said. The idiot, hypocrite writer acts above it but look what she did? Who want’s to take 1960’s race lessons from her when she is a cold, friggen’ thief who thinks so little of her muse that she doesn’t even give her the time of day? Also, all good Americans regret all racist crap from the 60’s and before. We don’t need a movie from a tight hypocrite to drag us back to a time many of us were not alive.

        I’ll watch the long ago cancelled but great TV show “I’ll Fly Away” if I want a taste of the horrible treatment of black household staff in the 60’s. I’ve had my fill of hypocrite limousine Liberals who have worse character than me telling me what to do and believe!

        Skunky on February 27, 2012 at 8:49 pm

First: give Christopher Plummer a bit of a break, eh? Him, along with Max von Sydow, have endured changes in culture, attitudes and morals. Plus, after all the trouble he went through in his long and storied career, a bit of compensation isn’t to bad. So cut the geezer some slack.

Next: I understand Norman’s idealistic take on the Oscars, but there are some constants that should never be overlooked.

Politics aside, the Oscars are about a few things that matter to the artists, writers, producers, directors and moguls: money; recognition; power; networking. A film with a golden statue attached to its reputation stands to make make more bank in syndication (tv, video, web). A player with golden hardware can be assured of better employment because of the rep attached to it. A studio full of precious paperweights and doorstops can be a beacon of aspiring directors and writers willing to sell their projects and make their own dreams come true.

I always see award shows as an excuse to see players kiss each other’s butts and nothing more, and after many years, I can at least understand why this is such a case.

When you go beyond the glamour and glitz and artifices of any event, it’s just another convention, another dinner party, another opportunity to make a deal or two – anyone who assumes that people like Spielberg, Clooney, Nolte, Streep, Plummer, et al, dress up just to sit pretty have never worked in the arts industry, let alone banking or defence.

Today, as it was yesterday, as it will be in the days to come, it’s business as usual in Tinseltown, regardless of who won or lost.

BTW – it was great to see someone win one for the Great White North.

The Reverend Jacques on February 27, 2012 at 3:05 pm

Thank you Right is Wrong for proving racism is alive and well be crying bigot! I also find your use of caps like a 4th grader quite amusing. The more you talk the more you prove yourself a nudnik. I knew we were headed for trouble when I saw Rock interviewed. I’m glad Streep won, she’s a class act. It’s a shame Crystal had to turn it into a political forum for the Left but what made me puke was when the Iranian who directed Separation won and the tears started to flow & they all wanted to sing Kumbaya. If I remember correctly Iran wants to wipe out Israel. I had a doctor a while back in Phoenix. I asked where she was from & she told me Persia. I guess she thought I didn’t know world history. I wonder why she was embarassed? I saw the following editorial the other day and it applies here for those that want to educate themselves about Progressives & the “victim” mentality they love so much. You know who I love? DS & Skunky!!!

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2012/02/26/progressives_and_the_politics_of_victimhood

Hollywood on February 27, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    @Hollywood:

    I think that my comment did a better job of proving that racism is alive and well.

    “the unemployment rate for black males with college degrees is twice that for white males with college degrees”

    “the unemployment rate for black males with college degrees is higher than it is for white males with high school diplomas”

    (The same is also true for black females versus white females.)

    But … somehow I don’t think that my point was the same one that you were aiming at. Oh well. At least when the Supreme Court ends affirmative action in a few months, caterwauling claims like the ones made here will cease, and conservatives will have to start dealing with stuff like the statistics that I just cited. Other than, of course, blaming the Obama economy for it. (Never mind that this same gap existed during the Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Nixon etc. eras …)

    Gerald on February 27, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    “A Separation,” by various accounts (I confess not to have seen it), had nothing to do with opposing Israel or America. Just because a movie is made by an Iranian with an Iranian cast, that doesn’t mean it endorses the regime. Hint: James Bowman, the hard-to-please film critic for The American Spectator, thought it was a truly great film. And he’s always accusing filmmakers of anti-Americanism.

    Seek on February 27, 2012 at 5:08 pm

@ Gerald

“Whites submit to just about any humiliation if that is what it takes to demonstrate that they are untainted – what Dr. Steele calls ‘disassociation from racism at any cost’ – and he emphasizes ‘the classic liberal mistake of trying to pass off mere dissociation from racism as selfless virtue and real human empathy.’ Liberals preen themselves on their compassion, but, as Dr. Steele writes, ‘in the age of white guilt, whites support all manner of silly racial policies without seeing that their true motivation is simply to show themselves innocent of racism.’ Blind to his real motives the liberal genuinely believes he is ‘a better man than the world has seen before.’

One of the best recognized ways to demonstrate guiltlessness is to practice racial preferences, to join the scramble to lure indifferently qualified blacks onto college campuses. ‘And what is enough minorities?’ asks Dr. Steele. ‘Enough is just enough to clearly dissociate the institution from America’s old racist patterns. Without preferences it would be utterly impossible to admit enough minorities for a convincing dissociation. Dissociation requires evidence of a proactive effort, a self-conscious and highly visible display of minority recruitment.’

Dr. Steele writes about pampered black college students: ‘Global racism allows these students to feel aggrieved by racism even as they live on campuses notorious for almost totalitarian regimes of political correctness – and to feel more aggrieved than black students did forty years ago, before the civil rights victories. This is because their feeling of racial aggrievement is calibrated to the degree of white guilt on university campuses and not to actual racism.’

From “To the Edge of the Precipice”, a review by Thomas Jackson of a new book by Shelby Steele, White Guilt: How Black and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era.
Nice try Gerald, but your comments don’t fly with me!

Hollywood on February 27, 2012 at 5:05 pm

Debbie:
You know me, I did not see “The Help” though a good friend when it counts we do “get it on” about race, and religion at times because he’s black and I am Jew which as you know makes me and you a convenient target for a number of African-Americans. (a term that that by the way irks me as I grew up with Black Power, the Panthers and of course the muical “Hair).While working in the often ultra anti-white urban schools from Harlem, to Detroit, to the most corrupt glass ceiling racist district I have ever seen (not Waterford, where I was not called back because I did not lead the shop class in the morinig prayer to Jesus) it was Pontiac. With an administration that dragged the entire city into the state it is in today (google”Ron Wolf Pontiac Michigan) for one example of what they would call “Satan’s Spawn).
I admit I heard even members of my own family without flinching still use the term “girl” referring for any “maid,” “day worker,” or more PC “household engineer” over fifty (not in front of her TG)
I later learned that Jewish women including my mother who was helpless with advanced Alzheimers were and sadly still are treated horribly and retaliated against by more than a few black CNA’s (not really nurses) in understaffed nursing homes, some even Jewish owned (absentee of course). Some hired Phillipino CNA’s but that only worked for a little while as ant-semitism and prejudice is so contagious. Hey, this is America, love it or leave it.
By the way a film like “The Help” is just as relevant to discovering your forgotten roots for young blacks, as “Fiddler on the Roof” was relevant for eastern europeon Jews like myself. You could also use the overused term “educational”.
I doubt any movie about the good old days of Islam will ever be made being they are forever mired in Jew hatred with complete instructions in their “Quran” and “Haddith”. I doubt Farakhan, Jackson and Sharpton have noticed that Mulims still enslave, ostrasize and murder their darker skinned brothers from Egypt, to Pakistan, to the Sudan.
Do all whites really need to see “The Help” no of course not, no more than we need to see “Birth of a Nation” or Al Jolson singing “Swanee”.I do recommend that it would be good to see for young African-Americans today to see how “colored” or “negros” (the polite terms back then)were treated or at best patronized. Even better in the company of a grandmother, or grandfather who lived it.
Your own history is just, or even more relevant as anyone elses.

Ron Wolf aka "Calumbo" on February 27, 2012 at 9:50 pm

Forgot something, I did wonder why a white wrote this, but you have to realize that there are no black producers who have the cajones to produce something like this.
Possibly a young Spike Lee could have, but even he needed “white” approval to do what was once considered breakthrough. Shame he is already a has been.
You are right in how patronizing Hollywood is. Redtails was a prime example of making schlock out of history. Lucas has bucks otherwise he is another has been.

Ron Wolf aka "Columbo" on February 27, 2012 at 10:31 pm

Bottom line, Hollyweird is really just an incubation center for vile, evil, typical left-wing lunatic fringe wing-nut limosene liberal, sanctimonious, blowhard extremists who hate traditional American values!!! Bottom line, all these America-hating left-wing lunatic radical extremists can all just go F@#K THEMSELVES and go STRAIGHT TO HELL!!! Period!!!!! They will try to spend millions and millions of dollars in donations to try to get Barry Hussein Nobama reelected. All decent, rational, logical people everywhere must RISE UP AND DEFEAT their vile plans!!! WE MUST DEFEAT NOBAMA!!!!!!

Dave on February 28, 2012 at 2:24 am

The SF Bay liberal white idiots in my ceramics workshop spent the entire night last night whining about The Help being robbed. According to them it’s the best movie ever made. And… nudge nudge wink wink… they all know that those nasty southerners are still behaving that way. All of this to reassure themselves that they are not racist.

One woman repeated a joke she’d heard from a black comedian: deep inside all Republicans want to lock Obama in a room and scream “N***a, n***a” at him. This woman actually screamed those words out loud… but that’s ok ’cause she’s an enlightened white liberal.

Anneke on February 28, 2012 at 4:44 pm

[“I hated the hypocritical, racist, cartoonish/caricaturish, anti-White, “The Help” (read my review), the hypocritical liberal author of which ripped off her own Black maid to write it, but preaches to White American women about racism decades ago, when today the racism is against Whites and Asians in the form of affirmative action, minority set asides and other multiples of reverse racism–the new racism.”]

You lost me here, hon. I found “THE HELP” pretentious, but you took it too far.

Rosie on February 29, 2012 at 3:22 pm

By the way, Hollywood is about as liberal as Pat Robertson. Give me a break.

Rosie on February 29, 2012 at 3:24 pm

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