Oscar goes lame

This is not a political statement. This is a hedge, this is a feelgood thing, this is a fashion statement, nothing more.

Thursday in the "Business Day" section of the NYTimes we learned that "Hollywood's decision to roll up the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday will cost the fashion industry incalculable publicity."

But never fear, the actors themselves have now found a means to keep up the public's interest in costume.

Some stars have apparently chosen to make an antiwar statement through jewelry. Global Vision for Peace, a new group, said yesterday that 10 Oscar-night guests had agreed to wear a dove-shaped gold and diamond pin it had commissioned, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Adrien Brody, Pedro Almodóvar and Meryl Streep.

A spokesman for the group said on Tuesday that the actor Ben Affleck had tentatively agreed to wear one of the pins, but the final decision rested with the actor's stylist, who would decide which version of the pin — in white gold or 18 karat — would go best with his attire.

If we needed any more reassurance about the meaninglessness of this entire enterprise, we were told in February by one of its creators that the pins are not in protest of George W. Bush or the threat of war with Iraq.

But wait, "Business Day" has more "activist" news from the world of show business:

Yesterday there were other cancellations in keeping with Hollywood's desire not to be seen as indulging in frivolousness when American soldiers may be dying in battle. Vanity Fair magazine, which is host to an elaborate party after the Oscars every year, will bar all news media — including television camera crews, reporters and photographers — both inside the party and outside Morton's restaurant, the party site, a magazine spokeswoman, Beth Kseniak, said.
So, let's see we now have a pseudo-sophisticated celebrity photo and news magazine banning photographers and news reporters from its own very visual and news-y celebrity party, in the name of, uh, the American way?

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Published on March 21, 2003 1:19 AM.

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