Lurch Goes to the Oscars

During the Academy Awards last night, host Jon Stewart berated everyone equally, including the liberals of Hollywood.

"A lot of people say Hollywood is too liberal... a pleasure dome... a moral black hole... a Sodom and Gomorrah... out of touch with mainstream America.

A little while later, actor George Clooney bounced up on stage to accept an award for Best Supporting Actor, and he took umbrage with Stewart's comments. As always, Ian of Expose the Left has the video, as Clooney expounds on the virtues of "out of touch" Hollywood:

"We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while, I think. It's probably a good thing. We were the ones who talked about AIDS when it was being whispered. We talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. ... This Academy, this group of people, gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theatres. I'm proud to be part of this academy, proud to be part of this community, proud to be out of touch!"

Now to be totally honest, maybe we should point out that Ms. McDaniel's Oscar was for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a plantation slave in the film Gone with the Wind. And perhaps we should ask why such a progressive academy should then wait until the year 2002 to award a black actor or actress the coveted title of Best Actor/Actress, when Halle Berry took home an Oscar for Monster's Ball. And on the issue of Hollywood and the Civil Rights movement, a reader at Captain's Quarters pointed out what Clooney seems to have forgotten:

Who in Hollywood "talked about Civil Rights," and marched with Dr. MLK Jr. in the South, stood in the crowd behind of Dr. King at the "I have a Dream speech" in 1963, like Cloony says, "when it wasn't popular"?

Charlton Heston.

Pretty sad when the liberals of Tinsel Town have to lean on their rejected right wing extremists to prove a point about how progressive they are.