The sum total of events that I thought were political at all:
1) Ellen's off-hand one-liner about Gore getting more votes, which is mild compared to the digs pointed at presidents of both parties in the past.
2) The Algore/Leo spiel about the Oscars being "Green," which is less about partisan politics than about the academy patting itself on the back.
What annoyed me about that is not the political content (really, the only thing political was having Al Gore on the stage to announce it) but the fact that it was so non-specific. A press release on the Web gives a little more detail: "Among the practices included in this effort were the purchase of energy credits to offset carbon emissions from the telecast and pre-show production units and the Governors Ball, the incorporation of environmentally sound features into the green room design, the promotion of recycling and waste reduction practices, and the use of recycled materials in paper products."
Personally, the main environmental measure I'd like to see is the recycling of the red carpet itself -- they basically rip it up and throw it away. Surely there could be plenty of volunteers to cut it up into neat 2" squares that could be nicely packaged with a certificate of authenticity and sold to raise money for some worthy cause.
3) The award wins for "An Inconvenient Truth" and for the song from it. The documentary feature category is the only one where likelihood of a win tracks closely to box office success; Academy members tend to vote for the one and only film in the category they've heard of. And if it hadn't been Gore's movie, it would have been Jesus Camp.
I thought there was an unusually weak song field this year. The "Dreamgirls" songs were nowhere near the quality of the classic Motown songs they strove to emulate (I'm talking about the writing; the performances were dead solid), and they split the votes three ways. They should have gotten Holland-Dosier-Holland, or some of the real Motown songwriters, on board.
Even Randy Newman, whom I usually like a lot, had a pretty weak entry this time out. I think that a really strong song could have beaten the Ethridge song, which was a solid but unremarkable folk-rock anthem, but since none of the other songs was compelling, folks voted their politics.
That's it. Other than that, I didn't hear any political comments from anyone outside the documentary and song categories, and even they were mild.
It was a pretty mild year as politics go, but you didn't hear anyone supporting the troops or saying "God Bless America" either. In fact, I think Jennifer Hudson and Forrest Whittaker were the only ones who thanked God at all! That film montage about how there's no such thing as an American because we're all so different. That was stupid. A weak nod to "diversity". It did gall me to see Gwyneth Paltrow up there like she loves us after so recently trashing America to the British press. Do they think we forget this stuff? And that "the Oscars have gone green" crap from Algore when the streets are full of limos and the theater is full of diamonds. Unbelievable hypocrisy. "Energy Credit" is the most ridiculous concept ever.