Who Killed the Oscars?

In the 1990s, there was a failed experiment in the Arizona desert called Biosphere 2. The idea was to create a self-sustaining orb where pretend astronauts of the future could live without contact with the real world for at least a year. They would grow their food, slaughter their own animals, and breathe their own air. If they were successful, they might be able to plop the orb on Mars to ensure the future of humanity after climate change destroyed the planet.

It turned out to be a disaster. They ran out of food. They ran out of oxygen and almost suffocated. They starved. There was tribal warfare, and eventually, Steve Bannon (yes, the same one) was brought in to fire the scientists and salvage the project for investors.

I often think of Biosphere 2 when I think of what happened to the Oscars. They, we, built a self-sustaining bubble cut off from real life. At first, we celebrated the artificiality of this construct with names like “Hollywood” or “Tinseltown.” But as the Oscars approach their 97th year, with the threat of ending their long reign on network television for the luxury of streaming, it seems clear that our artificial dream factory is now suffering the same fate as Biosphere 2, minus the intervention of Steve Bannon.

I don’t think she was previously in any need of introspection about politics. Both her ethnic group and her industry were comfortably Democrat. She mentioned international travel to film festivals, and even as a small-time blogger, she was floated by an affluent current. As she illustrated with the biosphere image, the Hollywood she started out in had been a self-contained bubble at the top of the cultural pile for decades.

It’s amazing that Trump’s 360-degree view and fearless truth-telling have been turning the ship around. It’s taking a long time, but the culture is shifting at the same time that technological leaps and bounds are making old Hollywood less relevant. Her fundamental opportunity, gathering up crumbs under Hollywood’s lavish table so to speak, was a wonderful way to be able to raise her child (I didn’t sense there was any father in the picture, either — another reason why she wouldn’t question the BigGov model). I did it myself as a self-employed contractor for large corporations while raising mine, and grateful the big execs were “sloppy eaters”, to force the simile — lots of crumbs to gather. Better me than the dogs.

Only in mid-life, like her, did I have the time and circumstances to study our political system and come away recognizing the escalating corruption since WW2 (actually since Wilson). I’m just glad she finally arrived at it, helped by 1) Trump’s articulation of all they things we were not supposed to know or say; and 2) Joebama’s in-your-face destruction of all decent people hold dear.

When cancellation came for her, she couldn’t ignore the marxist underpinnings of it any more.

Hope she lands on her feet. She could be the Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger of the trash celebrity scene.

the culture is shifting at the same time that technological leaps and bounds are making old Hollywood less relevant

"Hollywood" has always had multiple subcultures and the film industry has always been much more diverse than Hollywood.

Most of the people in the industry have never lived the life of the rich and famous. The great majority are just scraping by, or at least earning a decent income in one of the skilled crafts or as an in-demand journeyman actor. A lot of them are normies, and many of the actors who dazzle on the red carpet are actually working real jobs to pay the bills between acting gigs.

What is collapsing is the Big Studio model, and it is going to take the traditional "movie star" thing down with it. The celebrity press has always given outsized attention to a handful of big names, and the ultra-wealthy and the scandals have always drawn obsessive media attention. The public has been fed an illusion. Most people actually know this, but it's a dazzling illusion and people have been willing to suspend disbelief and go along with the fantasy.

That has been collapsing for some time as production has been diversifying away from Hollywood for decades. New production hubs are developing elsewhere, and there is no reason today that an actor, writer or director needs to put up with California nonsense, costs and taxes when zoom calls and audition tapes can do most of the job that used to require in-person presence.

Good riddance to all of that; it's where the worst of the abuses were found and where the sickos were able to blend in. (Not that anywhere is entirely safe.) The problem now, IMHO, is that the streaming dominance threatens to destroy a viable theatrical movie outlet, which along with festivals is always where independent studios were able to find and grow an audience. The streaming giants want to turn everything into tv, with six tech giants (now bent on consolidation, with three big players being the future often talked about) playing gatekeeper. We need an ecosystem that allows the successor studios room to grow.

Good riddance to all of that... The problem now, IMHO, is that the streaming dominance threatens to destroy a viable theatrical movie outlet, which along with festivals is always where independent studios were able to find and grow an audience.

They may have to form their own "chitlin' circuit." If the content is clean, many churches now have large screens, even in the sanctuary, enabling the congregants to follow readings or lyrics without having to hold a hymnal or bulletin. Than there are high school, college and community center auditoriums for the edgy stuff.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.