The Academy Awards have been losing a great deal of their luster in recent years.
Since 2018, when 36 million viewers watched the annual self- congratulation Hollywood movie love fest, about 13 million viewers have abandoned the show, according to reports of the agencies that measure viewership.
Why is this so?
People in general, and especially younger people, just don’t care a hoot about anyone except for themselves in modern America.
Like many Americans who tuned into the show, I had not seen many of the movies nor did I recognize the stars up for Academy Awards.
I hadn’t seen Parasite, the South Korean movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture and a host of other Oscars. I didn’t see Little Women. I did see the Joker.
The one actor I wanted to see win an Academy Award is Brad Pitt. That made my night but left me empty.
The best moment of the Academy Awards came when Steve Martin and Chris Rock – two great American comedians – made fun of all the actors by joking that none of them had any idea what the real world is about.
The actors and actresses present found it hard to laugh at such a joke. These big time stars find it hard to laugh at themselves.
Then they talked about the great progress the Academy has made honoring black actors.
“You know, 30 years ago, there wasn’t a single black actor honored with an Academy Award,” said Martin to Rock.
“Tonight we have one black actor up for an award,” replied Rock. “That’s real progress.”