My husband and I are part of a monthly film group that always watches the Academy Awards together. When we congregated yesterday, we filled in our ballots for every category and put a couple of dollars in the kitty. I never win this sort of thing, and last night was no exception. But it was fun anyway.
Dinner was delicious. According to new data, 30% of cardiovascular disease can be prevented in high risk people if they eat a Mediterranean diet. So we all cooked in olive oil and enjoyed lots of vegetables and fruit, red wine and nuts.
Being of a certain age, we find that our film preferences are changing. Instead of the action movies, we like the ones with character development and themes we can relate to – like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet. Although outside our experience as yet, we can still easily identify with the complicated content and emotions.
We don’t seem to be so naive anymore either. Last night no one assessed their lives against the backdrop of the glamorous participants. We have all stood in grocery checkout lines and skimmed the tabloids. We know that, no matter how well put together the celebrities were, none of their lives are perfect.
We sat around, processing the production and evaluating the commentary. Master of ceremonies, Seth MacFarlane, made us uncomfortable with his politically incorrect sarcasm about race, sexism and domestic violence. Maybe we’re getting ‘long in the tooth,’ but we turned down the volume when the music was too loud and discussed other ways the money spent on the extravaganza could have been put to better use.
Perhaps, with the media’s influence and technology’s grip on society, this kind of big screen voyeurism is the new intimacy. Don’t get me wrong. We were entertained by our peek into Hollywood life. The Oscars are a tradition we can count on year after year. And who doesn’t like a little celebrity obsession, escape from reality, time with friends and, in the end, delight for the winner of our $28.00 jackpot!
