Bits and pieces of the past week

Just some random things floating around my head recently:

-The situation surrounding Constance McMillen and her school district’s controversial decision of canceling her senior prom in Jackson, Mississippi is absurd. It’s plain and simple retaliation against the teen, and it’s been very effective. ‘Thanks for ruining my senior year,’ is the type of comments she’s now getting as she’s returned to school, after the school district, rather than reverse an archaic rule that a prom date must be of the opposite sex, decided to cancel the event. She’s now been made a pariah, thrust into a hostile environment, because the school district decided to play hard ball and rather than step into the 21st century, stay in the 1950s.

-On the flip side of the gay movement, the first gays were legally married in DC this week. The cover of the Washington Post featured one of the happy couples smooching. As a result, about a dozen of subscribers ended up calling and canceling their subscription out of disgust. Maybe as a gay man I should start doing that to every mainstream paper that shows a straight couple on the cover kissing. I mean, it makes logical sense, right? Maybe it really still is the 1950’s in some people’s minds.

-Sean Hayes finally comes out of the closet to himself and to the surprise of no one I know, and gets pissed because the Advocate chastised him for not being honest sooner. You know what Sean, why don’t you and Just Jack go back into your own little world. I mean, you played an out and proud (and often over the top and childish) gay man on Will & Grace, for which you won an Emmy. But seeing that you haven’t had a career since W&G ended, I can see why you felt coming out now makes sense. ‘I’m still here, and guess what? Im gay!’ Please, I knew that 10 years ago when I saw pics of you and your ex-boyfriend Steve (an acquaintance of mine). You weren’t fooling anyone then. I just don’t understand why you had to deny it like it was something to be ashamed of. Get over yourself.

– The Oscars have come and gone for another year, and just a few (okay, 10) notes on the whole show:
1. First of all, what happened to “And the Oscar goes to…”? What was with “and the winner is” bullshit?
2. The whole Farrah and Bea Arthur exclusion from the In Memoriam… come on folks, they were best known for their television star power. Now if this were the Primetime Emmys and they were cut for Brittany Murphy, then I’d understand. But It wasn’t an intentional snub. Although I just do not understand why Michael Jackson managed to make the cut. The man was many things- musician, music video pioneer, dancer, father, freak, you get the idea- but I forget the part when he was a film star. And This Is It and The Wiz do NOT count.
3. Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. It was her Julia Roberts moment. Suck it up folks, it was inevitable. And she looked flawless. And didn’t you love her final thank you to her lover Meryl? Classic.

4. Yay to the Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow for their big wins. Come on, Avatar was good, but it wasn’t Best Picture.
5. The crazy bitch who hijacked the Best Documentary Short speech… umm, you don’t like giving up control, do you? Even when you were removed from the project, and were told by the publicist that only the director was supposed to speak, you had to scurry up there and butt in and open your loud, crazy mouth. Freak.

6. Thank you Academy for none of the best original song performances, but what was up with that interpreted dance bit for original score? Worst. Idea. Ever.
7. Kathy Ireland on the Red Carpet. Train wreck. Seriously, did you see that freaky pose?
8. I think I was the only person to dig the horror film homage, especially since they started off with Jaws. But some of the choices of clips for horror film, like Edward Scissorhands? Um, really?
9. Sarah Jessica Parker is not looking very good these days. Bad dress, caked on make-up, scraggily hair. One can chalk it up to the new twins, but as my partner Rick put it, ‘Where are her gays? They should be fired for letting her go out like that.’ And on that same note, every time someone walked out looking not so hot, Rick would pipe up, ‘ooh, she has bad gays, dressing her in that.’ Made for great couch commentary.
10. Although it doesn’t have anything to do with the Oscars… at least this year. Wall Street 2 just got moved to a September release. Looks like Ollie Stone is gunning for some Oscar loving next year.

– I’m a week late on this, but Kathy Griffin on Law & Order: SVU, was…and I’m a huge fan of hers too…kind of a let down. She just did not look or feel natural at all during the entire episode. It was as if her character was written in as the annoying foil for the episode. I was bummed.

-What was that tragic thing that Emilio sent down the runway last week on Project Runway? And how the hell did he not get sent home for that?

– Mariah Carey and Mo’Nique in Precious were both FIERCE. AMAZING.

– Corey Haim, dead at 38 of a drug overdose. Sad.

– Rod Blagovich on The Celebrity Apprentice. Sadder.

– Buzz Aldrin on Dancing With The Stars. Huh?

-Spring weather is finally arriving. Pretty damn exciting.

Okay, now discuss.

The curious case of the Oscar nominees

It’s that time of year again. Oscar watch 2009 has begun, with the kick off being last week’s announcement of the nominees. ABC has a whole site dedicated to the Oscars which you can check out here.

All the brouha has been over the whole snubbing of ‘The Dark Knight’ with the exception of the nearly guaranteed (and wholey deserving) nomination of Heath Ledger, as well as the snubs of  ‘Revolutionary Road’,  Bruce Springsteen’s big original song shut out, and the push for the feelgood underdog of the year, ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Interesting points, for sure. But here’s my questions:

-How, when the critical and popular reviews for the film has been so fair to meh, did friggin’ ‘Benjamin Button’ get 13 nominations? I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard reviews everywhere from “pretty good” to “I was asleep by hour two.” Not overwhelming encouragement to make me run out and see it.

-Why not just eliminate the best original song category all together? I mean, really, when was the last time there was a song tied to a film that not only was completely original and made for the film, and wasn’t featured in the solely in the closing credits in in some obscure part of the film? And when was the last time you remebered a really good, mainstream even hummable Oscar worthy original track? You know what the first one’s that come to my mind? 9 to 5 and (I’ve Had) the Time of my Life. Oh yeah,  and Shaft. And how old are they? To be fair, and on the complete opposite track, I love the fact that M.I.A. is nominated this year for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ for her track, O Saya. Keeping it real, and hey, does Randy Newman or Bruce really need another nomination? But as I look through a list of past nominees and winners, I can only shake my head at most of the choices from the past decade and say, really?

-Is it just me, or is the real Best Pic of the year and the slowly growing front runner for the Oscar gold is ‘Milk’? Beautiful, powerful film. Very timely and parallel to what is currently going on in the world today (enigmatic leader, breaking bounderies, Prop 8). Sean Penn is really likeable for the first time since ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ and Josh Brolin is brilliant and took great creepy lessons from his ‘No Country…’ costar for a fantastic performance. It’s absolutely amazing, and if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it now. It blows Benjamin’s buttons off and away.

In the meantime, go out and see as many of the Oscar nominated pictures and performances as you can before the big night. It’s winter and it’s cold out, spend some time indoors at the local multiplex and check them out. And tell me if ‘Benjamin Button’ is really all that and a bag of chips. I need some convincing.