Why Watch the Oscars?

The Oscars are on tonight, and watching the event is tough sledding. I found the red carpet preamble nearly unbearable, with the fawning over fashion divas especially dreadful. The only actress who seemed at ease was, strangely, the incessantly photographed and remarkably untalented Jennifer Aniston.

Sometimes, I talk with friends who can't understand why some actors win Oscars and some don't. The word "fairness" or "merit" come into the conversation. Hollywood acknowledgement is rarely about either concept. Nikki Finke points out in her "Live-Snarking the Oscars" that "Envy and spite will determine the winners....just look for whomever is envied most by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and bet those names probably won't get called onstage tonight."

So why watch the Oscars? Why care? However, earlier this evening, I watched my blu-ray version of Chinatown. Sometimes, the right movies win Oscars for the right reasons.

Sometimes, they don't.

LA Times Report: Oscar Voters Are "Overwhelmingly White, Male"

In a story that at first seems like discovering gambling in the casino, the LA Times reported that an "overwhelming" number of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members are white and male.

What's genuinely shocking, in the event one cares at all about the subject, is just how overwhelming the whiteness and maleness is. Of the Academy's 5,675 voting members, 94% are Caucasian and 77% are male.

The Academy's membership list is not public information. The three LA Times reporters conducted hundreds of interviews to determine the qualifying Oscar voters' gender and race. The story confirms what women of all ethnicities, African-American, Latino, Asian performers, and behind-the-camera pros have long cited about Hollywood's segregated, clubby atmosphere.

The composition of the Academy's voters is definitely something to consider as the Oscar voting patterns emerge.